Mid-term Assessment (MTA) where the student is tested under invigilated

conditions on the skills and knowledge covered up to the MTA week. The MTA

is a 2-hour assessment. Questions on MTAs combine definitions, short

answers in one or two paragraphs and essay type questions.

Part Questions Notes

A

10 points

1 and 2 Students answer ONE essay question The questions typically deal with a broad topic dealt with in

the course

B

10 points

3, 4 and 5 Students answer TWO questions only (short answers) Each question tests a certain block/theme/topic

C

10 points

6 Students answer 5 short definitions out of 7 Each definition is dealt with in the course

•The cultural encounter between Europe and Benin from 15th till 20th century. •A powerful West African kingdom near Niger river; Nigeria now, known for a unique tradition of sculpture.

•Relation based on commercial transactions and exchange of goods like ivory carvings via Portuguese traders. Sea voyages of discovery by people like Columbus and Da Gama facilitated the exploration of the west coast of Africa, nicknamed the ‘Gold Coast’. Still, Copper with its alloys bronze and brass was more valued in Benin as rare and of aesthetic quality.

•This cultural encounter impacted art : ivory carvings were produced for export to Europe. Still, the Portuguese mainly aimed at the ‘gold trade’ as the acquisition of slaves to be resold to pay for gold.

• This brass head of queen Idia dates from the early 16th century. It can be described as ‘shocking’ as a ‘sophisticated’ masterpiece at such early era. It is also ’skilled’ as the process of casting brass is very technical. The decorative pointed headdress reflects a royal image of the queen mother, both advisor and sometimes a warrior. The four scarification marks or scars above eyebrows distinguish her from men as used to have only three. Coral beads hang from the bottom of the headdress and appear in the necklace the completely covers the neck as an attribute of royalty. Moreover, the head is idealized in shape in a series of elegant concave and convex curves. Still, her eyes are slightly downcast- a reflection of female inferiority at the time.

• Queen Idia, mother of Oba Esigie, king of Benin from the late fifteenth to the early sixteenth century, played a key role in her son's military campaigns against the Igala people, which may have been over control of the Niger waterway. Benin finally won these wars and made the Igala king a vassal of the Oba. A brass head representing Queen Idia was made to be placed in her altar following her death. It is said that Oba Esigie instituted the title of Queen Mother and established the tradition of casting heads of this type in honour of her military and ritual powers. Such heads were placed in altars in the palace and in the Queen Mother's residence.

• The brass head of the Oba , dating from the 16th century, has also regular features, youthful appearance and smoothly curving forms. It is also decked with royal coral beads . On the other hand, the head outward gaze conveys great authority, appropriate for a ruler. It also has a hole at the top of the head , to be filled with carved ivory tusks, a material associated with the royalty as well.

• An Ife head , dating from the 12th and 14th centuries, is different in the red pigments and holes in the beard as probably real hair was attached to make the head more life-like. It is also open at the neck and the top , which shows extensive scarification.

• Such examples prove the fashioning of heads of important rules in both Ife and Benin.

•History recorded in art. Benin was famous for brass sculpture. Work in ivory was basically for export like spoons, salt cellars and hunting horns. In sculpture, they used to have curved heads for royalties. They also had ivory masks.

• Portuguese style affected Benin art as visible in statues of soldiers who served as mercenaries there. Leopards were also symbolic of the royal dynasty there.

• Thus, brass, coral and ivory were associated with the Oba. Wood was used by other subjects. When the Portuguese came, metal casters and ivory workers were grouped in guilds within the royal compound of Benin city. Royal monopoly over art and raw materials was strong. In Western Europe, royal art was for propaganda to show off Kings’ power and excellence. Benin art was equal in skill and quality. The relation was after all based n mutual respect in that golden era of Benin.

• Brass sculpture in Benin is exclusively a Royal art. Ivory carvings were produced for export to Europe. European explorers did not regard Benin as culturally, politically or racially inferior. The Portuguese were in West Africa not as conquerors, but as traders.

• West Africa was also a major supplier of gold to Europe. Big states and regional powers competed to control the trade which brought enormous wealth and power to them. This trade was a powerful channel for crafts, skills, new ideas and consumer goods, as well as for the spread of Islam. Major cities flourished as places of international trade attracting merchants, artisans, Muslim scholars and clerics from various horizons.

James Welsh as well as Guine reported on Benini art at the time:

•Spoons were produced specifically for the European market. • Other carved figures also carry European style swords. •Third form of Ivory export was carved hunting horns or Oliphant. •Salt cellar, Oliphant and spoons if from the Sierra Leone or Benin are recorded in aristocratic collection. • The eyes of an ivory mask of the queen mother in the British museum are outlined using copper wire and with many of the brass heads, two iron bars were formerly set into the forehead. The head rest is decorated with the tiny heads of Portuguese. The fact that the eyes, nose and mouth are solid. The mask is smaller than an average human face. Ife bronze mask have eyes slid – meant to be worn.

•In 1879, Benin was conquered by Britain. In 1885, British protectorate was declared over the coast of Niger and Benin was included through an official treaty. •1892 – Captain Henry Gallwey, the new vice consul for the Benin river section of the protectorate visited Benin and signed a treaty with Oba, bringing Benin under British protection. The Treaty proved to be a disappointment to the British – Trade continued to be under the tight control of the Oba’s. •1896 – Frustrated British called for armed intervention•1897 – James Phillips, the consul general of the protectorate set off for Benin with a lightly armed party. At less than a day’s march in the Benin city, Phillips and his party were killed. The British response were swift – Naval force was rapidly assembled and advanced on the Benin city on Feb, 10. The town was captured – Oba and many of his chiefs escaped. The town was destroyed by fire. The Oba surrendered. But the Oba failed to cooperate with them. So he was deported to Calabar on the coast. •1899 – Trial and execution of Benin chiefs, the country was under the firm control of the British.•This conquest was orally recorded. These oral narratives were mostly relating to the royal house and often supported by songs, proverbs or visual artefacts to stimulate memory. Written historical documents or travelers' reports like that of Gallwey should be carefully read to judge their accuracy and reliability. Benin was an oral society and there are no accounts written at the time by the people of Benin. Nor is this simply a story of two sides. The British expeditions used large numbers of African carriers, and most of the soldiers involved in the conquest of Benin were also African. The written accounts all come from a small and quite atypical group of witnesses. Oral tradition does not preserve the sources in an independent form. Instead, it provides a continually developing interpretation which helps explain past events.

• Immediately after the British invaders secured the city, looting began. It was an exercise that was carried out by all members of the expedition. Monuments and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted. There was evidence of previous human sacrifice found by the British, a tradition they construed as "barbaric,"[with Reuters and the Illustrated London News reporting that the town 'reeked of human blood.‘ Homes, religious buildings and palaces were deliberately torched. On the third day, the blaze grew out of control and engulfed part of the city. Most of the plunder was retained by the expedition with some 2500 (official figures) religious artefacts, Benin visual history, mnemonics and artworks being sent to England.

• The British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty to defray the costs of the Expedition. The expected revenue from the expedition was discussed already before Phillips set out on his ill-fated journey to the city of Benin in 1896. In a letter to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign Secretary, Phillips requested approval to invade Benin and depose the Oba, adding the following footnote: "I would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King's house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool."

• In late 1897 the art was auctioned in Paris, France, to raise funds to pay for the expedition. Most of the Benin bronzes went first to purchasers in Germany, but a sizeable group is now back in London at the British Museum.

• The King of Benin was eventually captured by the British consul-general Moor, deposed and sent to live out his days in Calabar. He died in 1914. Moor committed suicide in Barnes, Middlesex in 1909.

•For centuries, European relation with Benin was based on slave trade. When it was suppressed, European traders started looking for other riches and inland resources. After all, Benin remained unresponsive to British civilization as appeared in the prevalence of human sacrifice- misinterpreted by the British as the symbol of the Christian Crucifixion.

•The change in the relationship between Europe and the kingdom of west Africa impacted art. Artefacts were confiscated by the British troops to settle in museums and in the hands of private collectors as well as historians and scholars in America and Europe.

•The dispersement of the Benin art to museums around the world catalysed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe.

• The craftsmanship of Benin sparked off a series of articles, wondering at the secret of such a unique art as produced by savage Negroes.

• The European interest in Africa started by 1880s and 1890s. The encounter with natives there vividly exposed the gap between reality and the stereotypical views about their witchcraft and cannibalism. War booties provided more insights into the artistic life of Negroes.

• The scientific interest in the history of human race at the time , along with imperial expansion overseas, led to over focus on the classification of races to justify hierarchies and excuse imperial supremacy. The British created the illusion of bringing enlightenment to the black continent- a holy mission they had to accomplish to help such backward regions.

• The British Museum became a forum for the exhibition of antiquities from around the globe. This corresponded with the study of anthropology and ethnography to trace man’s progress from savagery towards civilization.

• Many debates revolved around the origin of the Benin bronze and the secret of its art: while some scholars tried to relate it to other civilizations, other scholars argued for its pure African origin and even equated its mastery with that of the Italian Renaissance. The ultimate conclusion reached by many was that such art works are relics , remaining from the period of Benin’s contact with Europe that was followed by deterioration. Africa was considered, after all, incapable of progress without the intervention of white and western, Christian culture.

• Because of the interest across Europe in the history of humankind, Benin art works were soon subjected to more sophisticated analysis, and were used to inform debates about race and culture. German and British ethnographers and art historians were anxious to acquire the finest pieces that could afford valuable insight into the ‘artistic life of the Negro.

• On the one hand they had been taken from people who were demonised as barbarous and bloodthirsty –the epitome of the ‘primitive’–and as such, justification for the civilising mission of empire. Yet on the other hand the bronzes themselves were extolled as comparable in technical mastery to the sculpture of the Italian Renaissance, that cornerstone of western civilisation itself 1886 –

A question needed an urgent answer: How a society such as Benin which was perceived as savage and brutal, had managed to create such sophisticated works of art ?

• Justus Brinckmann – founder of Hamburg Museum of art and craft – “evidence of contact between Benin and most civilized people of ancient Egypt”

• Augustus Pitt Rivers – They could only have been made as a result of European influence, probably as a consequence of contact with the Portuguese in the C 16.

• Henry Ling Roth - There was considerable difference between the crude castings of the average native African and beautiful results from Benin. But the technique for their production predated the arrival of the Portuguese. Bronzes were of African origin alone.; the skilled craftsman of Benin produced work equal to that of the Italian Renaissance of the C 15 and C 16.

•Still, different perspectives on Africa came into being in the late 19s and early 20s centuries. Edward Wilmot Blyden was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician primarily in Liberia. He also taught for five years in Sierra Leone, and his writings were influential in both countries. He is now known as the founder of West African nationalism and a camaign for black history writing. As a writer, Blyden is regarded widely as the "father of Pan-Africanism". His major work, Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (1887), promoted the idea that practising Islam was more unifying and fulfilling for Africans than Christianity. He argues that the latter was introduced later, mostly by European colonizers who destroyed African art to mould in a European framework.

"Let us do away with the sentiment of Race. Let us do away with out African personality and be lost, if possible, in another Race.' This is as wise or as philosophical as to say, let us do away with gravitation, with heat and cold and sunshine and rain. Of course, the Race in which these persons would be absorbed is the dominant race, before which, in cringing self-surrender and ignoble self-suppression they lie in prostrate admiration."

• African art highly impacted modern artists and early pioneers like Picasso . The sophistication of Benin bronze was very inspiring for Western artists, regardless of issues of race or culture . Still , the term ‘fine art’ was only reserved to them .

• In western tradition, sculpture took two forms: carvings in wood and stone, and casts in materials like bronze. The latter was already known to China and Egypt and develop later during the Renaissance.

• Benin bronze was constantly classified under’ primitive art’ , despite the sophistication of its manufacture, due to the dominance of the ideology of imperialism.

• The last third of the 2oth century witnessed an eclipse of primitivism and an acknowledgment of Benin’s impact on artistic modernism. The display of Benin plaques in the British Museum led to a substantial revision of prior bias against the African race.

• There are two contemporary displays of Benin bronzes there now as a reflection of a reciprocal, post-colonial culture.

•African art had an profound impact on modern art. Avant-garde artists Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and the sculptor Constantin Brancusi . Later artists working in the 1920’s and 30s continued to mine African art for a range of formal experiments and expressive effects. • ‘Primitive’ had been a partial synonym for ‘barbaric’. The concept of art was largely reserved for the European, Christian tradition. ‘Fine art’ was identified in the European post –Renaissance tradition with, above all, painting and sculpture.

•Picasso incorporated the ceremonial masks of the Dogon tribe into his groundbreaking cubist work, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907-09). As Picasso addressed geometry and form, Henri Matisse drew upon African art to unite bold color and ceremonial patterns with results that spearheaded the Fauve masterpiece, The Green Stripe (1912). Matisse's treatise, Notes of a Painter, described how his arbitrary use of bold color stirred the emotions and related to the ritualistic origins of African art.

•Cubism is an early -20th-century avant-garde art movement pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. A primary influence that led to Cubism was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of Paul Cézanne, which were displayed in a retrospective at the 1907 Salon d'Automne. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.

• Liberalism claims that all people should be equally treated. Difference-blind liberalism is a set of ideas about official treatment of different groups of people. In the post-colonial era, it emerged as a dominant trend in multicultural societies to resolve the tension between dominant and minorities cultures.

• It is mainly a historical tradition that emerged in the 17th century as a reaction to the concept of discrimination due to natural hierarchy among human beings. People like John Locke called for tolerance of religious diversity . Focus should be on the universal features of humanity, regardless of religious, cultural, gender or ethnic differences as private matters.

• There is a strong debate around cultural exemption of members of minority cultures from laws or policies that may be at odds with their beliefs and traditions.

• Discrimination is un/just when: - based on considerations irrelevant to the situation. - based on considerations that are not a matter of choice.

• Choice is irrelevant when it comes to religion or race as a matter of chance , but determined.

• Autonomy simply means self-rule or freedom of choice. According to difference-blind liberalism, people should treated equally, regardless of their cultural identity. Still, cultural exemptions defendants argue that the government should not interfere in people’s choices, nor restrict their freedom.

• Still, members of cultural minorities should not be treated differently. Moreover, some policies have different impacts on people. This ‘unique impact ‘ argument can accept the fact that some laws with heavier impact on some cultural groups should, after all, be enacted for the benefit of the majority. From the other hand, philosophers like Margalit and Raz insist on preserving the cultural identity of minorities via the exemption policy. For them, liberalism should allow minorities to have their own choices. The opponents , meanwhile, argue that some exemptions lead to a different conclusion and impose more restrictions on personal and cultural autonomy.

Arab Open University Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA)

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE STUDIES A230A/B TMA COVER FORM (2012/2013)

Branch: Program: Course Title: Course Code: Student Name: Student ID: Section Number:: Tutor Name:

Mark Allocated

to TMA STUDENT MARK

20%

for content : a max of 20 marks

marks deducted for lang. & communication errors: a maximum of 6 marks

Earned Mark

Notes on plagiarism:

A. According to the Arab Open University By-laws, “the following acts represent cases of cheating and plagiarism: Verbatim copying of printed material and submitting them as part of TMAs without proper academic acknowledgement and documentation. Verbatim copying of material from the Internet, including tables and graphics. Copying other students’ notes or reports. Using paid or unpaid material prepared for the student by individuals or firms.

B. Penalties for plagiarism ranges from failure in the TMA to expulsion from the university.

Declaration: I hereby declare that the submitted TMA is my own work and I have not copied any other person’s work or plagiarized in any other form as specified above. Student Signature:

TMA feedback: (PT3)

• Definition of cultural encounter (pg.V)

• Discussion of minorities’ issue (p.103)

• Life style/ Discrimination

• Debate over cultural exemption/ autonomy. (slides/ pp.115-117)

• Personal opinion

Harvard referencing/ 1200 words min.

The transmission of medical knowledge

•Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the father of western medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields , thus establishing medicine as a profession.

• Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition and gods. He separated the discipline of medicine from religion, believing and arguing that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the gods but rather the product of environmental factors, diet, and living habits.

• Between the 5th century and the 3rd century BC, a number of practitioners or healers developed theories about the human body, devised later by Hippocrates. The Greeks believed that the human body is made up of fluids or humors, mainly blood, yellow pile, black pile and phlegm. This humoral theory was based on reason and observation, not anatomy like today. Lack of balance between these elements can cause disorder, due to wrong food or over-work, etc. Practitioners should diagnose and heal this imbalance.

• Surgery was known to be dangerous then. It relied on complicated tools and practiced as a last solution. People like Galen travelled to train in Alex and turkey and incorporated valuable ideas in references.

Greek Medicine and the Islamic World

•From the 17th century, the growing Islamic culture was centered in Bagdad . The conquests narrowed the gap between Islamic scholars and the Hellenistic world. People like Hunayn ibn Ishaq translated many medical manuscripts .

•The process of translation was mainly dominated by Syrian-speaking Christians as familiar with the Greek language. To bridge the gap between the two languages, Transliteration was an attempt to produce new terms in Arabic for diseases. Reference to Greek gods was deleted and reliance was focused on translation of in medicine.

•The movement was funded by the new educated elite,. It fed the intellectual debates then and was easy due to access to libraries. It was also motivated by yearning for digesting Greek medical knowledge as part of prestigious learning.

•In the Arab world, ‘folk medicine’ was pre-dominant and remedies were mostly taken from plants and animals products. Bloodletting and magic were also in action . Translation aimed to digest new practices.

•Islamic practitioners added new ideas , observations and treatments. Islamic pharmacists also developed chemical techniques to purify and combine drugs. Al Razi was the first one to diagnose small pox. In his turn, Ibn Sina produced his ‘Canon of Medicine’ ; a compiled text in five books . Such texts were circulated in other countries

• In the 11th century, medical ideas were translated from Arabic and Greek into Latin and spread across Europe. This centered in regions like Spain and Italy by Muslim and Jewish scholars familiar with the three languages. European translators also coined new terms for diseases and deleted any references to Islamic terminology. Some terms were confusing and some errors occurred. Printing facilitated the distribution of such sources across Europe.

• The translation started in Southern Italy by the monk Constantine Africanus. It was resumed later by Gerard of Cremona. European universities started teaching these texts . In Chaucer’s famous Prologue, there is a hint about such a scholarly activity. A more sophisticated , rational form of humoral medicine was introduced. Anatomy was highlighted as a basis for surgical practices.

• Starting from the end of the 14th century, European practitioners started to favor Greek texts as part of the humanistic movement to save civilization by reviving the classical past. Muslim scholars were deemed ‘unreliable;’ and confusing in their translations.

• The predominance of humoral medicine began to decline at the end of the 18th century. Medicine became a science with its own rules and tactics.

GLOSSARY