Sculpture: Bamana or Bambara - Part 1 - African cultures - Data castellano and english - Links

Posted by Ricardo Marcenaro | Posted in | Posted on 11:53






Bambara maternity




Back




Detail mother




Baby



Bambara lands





http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambara

Bambara o Bamana es un grupo étnico habitante del oeste de África, principalmente en Malí pero también en Guinea, Burkina Faso y Senegal.


Organización social

Los bambara pertenecen a diferentes clanes patrilineales. Cada clan se define por un patronímico, un antepasado, una divisa y una prohibición.

La unidad residencial, productiva y política es la familia extensa du, de carácter patriarcal y patrilocal: el hombre mayor dutigi vive con sus esposas, los hijos y las esposas de e hijos de estos.

Cada familia extensa utiliza un espacio físico único llamado "concesión", que puede ser parte de una aldea con otras familias. Cada hombre adulto y cada mujer casada con sus hijos pequeños, tiene una habitación separada. Los hombres jóvenes solteros tienen una habitación colectiva y otra las muchachas solteras. El dutigi se reúne con los otros hombres mayores fa en un consejo que gobierna la familia y en el que no participan ni los hombres jóvenes ni ninguna mujer. La mujer tiene sin embargo relativa autonomía personal.

La sociedad bambara es jerárquica, tanto en la organización familiar segmentada según la edad y el género, como en esfera la pública, donde predomina un sistema de castas que distingue, por ejemplo a los griot (narradores), herreros, zapateros y eventualmente a nobles vasallos y siervos.


Economía

Su economía depende principalmente de la agricultura y consideran la tierra de propiedad de la comunidad. El proceso de producción, de tipo doméstico obedece a las normas de distribución de las tierras, a la división del trabajo y del tiempo de trabajo de cada persona según la edad y el sexo. En cuanto a la división social del trabajo, el hombre y la mujer se se dedican ambos a los trabajos agrícolas, pero las tareas domésticas son realizadas únicamente por las mujeres.

El conjunto de la fuerza de trabajo y los recursos a disposición de la familia extensa se movilizan para el cultivo del forobaforo (campo cultivado en común). Desde el punto de vista de la organización del trabajo, entre los bambara se dedica gran parte de la semana, en general cuatro o cinco días, al trabajo colectivo. El resto del tiempo se reserva al descanso y al trabajo en los cultivos de cada hogar e individuo. Los productos de los cultivos familiares sirven para alimentar a la familia extensa, para pagar los gastos de primer matrimonio de cada hombre, para comprar equipos colectivos y para solucionar otros problemas de la comunidad. Esta economía agrícola poco mecanizada, requiere numerosos brazos y trabajo de las mujeres y niños es pues muy importante.


Lengua

Artículo principal: Idioma bambara

La lengua bambara es miembro del grupo mandé de la familia nígero-congoleña, siendo la principal lengua de la República de Malí, donde es hablada por unos 2 millones de personas. Hay una similitud muy grande entre esta lengua y la malinke y dyula lo que ha hecho que algunos las agrupen en una sola lengua llamada mandingo.






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambara_people

The Bambara (Bamana in their own language, or sometimes Banmana) are a Mande people living in west Africa, primarily in Mali but also in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal.[1][2]  They are considered to be amongst the largest Mande ethnic groups, and are the dominant Mande group in Mali, with 80% of the population speaking the Bambara language, regardless of ethnicity.


History

The Bamana originated as a section of the Mandinka people, the founders of the Mali Empire in the 13th Century. Both a part of the Mandé ethnic group, whose earliest known history can be traced back to sites near Tichitt (now subsumbed by the Sahara in southern Mauritania), where urban centers began as early as 1500 BC. By 250 BC a Mande subgroup, the Bozo, founded the city of Djenne. Between 300 AD and 1100 AD the Soninke Mande dominated the Western Sudan, leading the Ghana Empire. When the Mandé Songhai Empire dissolved after 1600 AD, many Mandé speaking groups along the upper Niger river bassin turned inward. The Bamana appeared in this milieu with the rise of the Bamana Empire in the 1740s.

While there is little consensus among modern historians and ethnologists as to the origins or meaning of the ethno-linguistic term, references to Bambara can be found from the early 18th century.[3] In addition to its general use as a reference to an ethno-linguistic group, Bambara was also been used to identify captive Africans who originated in the interior of Africa perhaps from the upper Senegal-Niger region and transported to the Americas via ports on the Senegambian coast. As early as 1730 at the slave-trading post of Gorée, the term Bambara referred simply to slaves who were already in the service of the local elites or French.[4]

Growing from farming communities in Ouassoulou, between Sikasso and Côte d'Ivoire, Bamana age co-fraternities (called Tons) began to develop a state structure which became the Bambara Empire. In stark contrast to their Muslim neighbors, the Bamana state practised and formalised traditional polytheistic religion, though Muslim communities remained locally powerful, if excluded from the central state at Ségou.

The Bamana became the dominant cultural community in western Mali. The Bambara language, mutually intelligible with the Manding and Diola languages, has become the principal interethnic language in Mali and the an official language of the state alongside French.


Culture

Religion

Although most Bamana today adhere to Islam, many still practise the traditional rituals, especially in honoring ancestors. This form of syncretic Islam remains rare, even allowing for conversions that in many cases happened in the mid to late 19th century. This recent history, though, contributes to the richness and fame (in the West) of Bamana ritual arts.


Social structure

Bamana share many aspects of broader Mandé social structure. Society is patrilineal and patriarchal, though virtually no women wear a veil. Mandé culture is known for its strong fraternal orders and sororities (Ton) and the history of the Bambara Empire strengthened and preserved these orders. The first state was born as a refashioning of hunting and youth Tons into a warrior caste. As conquests of their neighbors were successful, the state created the Jonton (Jon = slave/kjell-slave), or slave warrior caste, replenished by warriors captured in battle. While slaves were excluded from inheritance, the Jonton leaders forged a strong corporate identity. Their raids fed the Segu economy with goods and slaves for trade, and bonded agricultural laborers who were resettled by the state.


Caste

See also: Caste system in Africa

Traditionally, Mandé society is hierarchal or caste-based, with nobility and vassals. Bamana political order created a small free nobility, set in the midst of endogamous caste and ethnic variation. Both castes and ethnic groups performed vocational roles in the Bamana state, and this differentiation increased with time. For instance, the Maraka merchants developed towns focused first on desert side trade, and latter on large scale agricultural production using slaves captured by the state. The Jula specialised in long distance trade, as did Fula communities within the state, who added this to cattle herding. The Bozo ethnicity were largely created out of war captives, and turned by the state to fishing and ferrying communities.

In addition to this, the Bamana maintained internal castes, like other Mandé peoples, with Griot historian/praise-singers, priests, metalworkers, and other specialist vocations remaining endogamous and living in designated areas. Formerly, like most other African societies, they also held slaves ("Jonw"/"Jong(o)"), often war prisoners from lands surrounding their territory. With time, and the collapse of the Bamana state these caste differences have eroded, though vocations have strong family and ethnic correlations.


The Ton

The Bamana have continued in many places their tradition of caste and age group inauguration societies, known as Ton. While this is common to most Mandé societies, the Ton tradition is especially strong in Bamana history. Tons can be by sex (initiation rites for young men and women), age (with the earlier young men's Soli Ton living separately from the community and providing farm labor prior to taking wives), or vocation (the farming Chi Wara Ton or the hunters Donzo Ton). While these societies continue as ways of socialising and passing on traditions, their power and importance faded in the 20th century.


Bambara art

The Bamana people adapted many artistic traditions. Artworks were created both for religious use and to define cultural and religious difference. Bamana artistic traditions include pottery, sculpture, weaving, iron figures, and masks. While the tourist and art market is the main destination of modern Bamana artworks, most artistic traditions had been part of sacred vocations, created as a display of religious beliefs and used in ritual.

Bamana forms of art include the n’tomo mask and the Tyi Warra. The n’tomo mask was used by dancers at male initiation ceremonies. The Tyi Warra (or ciwara) headdress was used at harvest time by young men chosen from the farmers association. Other Bamana statues include fertility statues, meant to be kept with the wife at all times to ensure fertility, and statues created for vocational groups such as hunters and farmers, often used as offering places by other groups after prosperous farming seasons or successful hunting parties.

Each special creative trait a person obtained was seen as a different way to please higher spirits. Powers throughout the Bamana art making world were used to please the ancestral spirits and show beauty in what they believed in.
 
 
 
 
 
Clic Bambara lenguaje:
 
También ver:
In English see:







Ricardo Marcenaro
Sculptures – Esculturas
http://ricardomarcenaro.ning.com/

Ricardo M Marcenaro - Facebook

Blogs in operation of The Solitary Dog:

Solitary Dog Sculptor:
http://byricardomarcenaro.blogspot.com

Solitary Dog Sculptor I:
http://byricardomarcenaroi.blogspot.com

Para:
comunicarse conmigo,
enviar materiales para publicar,
propuestas comerciales:
marcenaroescultor@gmail.com

For:
contact me,
submit materials for publication,
commercial proposals:
marcenaroescultor@gmail.com

Diario La Nación
Argentina
Cuenta Comentarista en el Foro:
Capiscum

My blogs are an open house to all cultures, religions and countries. Be a follower if you like it, with this action you are building a new culture of tolerance, open mind and heart for peace, love and human respect.

Thanks :)

Mis blogs son una casa abierta a todas las culturas, religiones y países. Se un seguidor si quieres, con esta acción usted está construyendo una nueva cultura de la tolerancia, la mente y el corazón abiertos para la paz, el amor y el respeto humano.

Gracias :)





Sculpture:                  
Bamana or Bambara
Part 1
African cultures




 

Comments (0)

Publicar un comentario

Suscribirse a: Enviar comentarios (Atom)