Research Catalog
Insignificant things : amulets and the art of survival in the early Black Atlantic
- Title
- Insignificant things : amulets and the art of survival in the early Black Atlantic / Matthew Francis Rarey.
- Author
- Rarey, Matthew Francis
- Publication
- Durham : Duke University Press, 2023.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schomburg Center to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | Sc E 23-1081 | Schomburg Center - Research & Reference |
Details
- Description
- xiii, 288 pages : illustrations, maps; 23 cm.
- Summary
- "In Insignificant Things Matthew Francis Rarey traces the history of the African-associated amulets that enslaved and other marginalized people carried as tools of survival in the Black Atlantic world from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Often considered visually benign by white Europeans, these amulet pouches, commonly known as "mandingas," were used across Africa, Brazil, and Portugal and contained myriad objects, from herbs and Islamic prayers to shells and coins. Drawing on Arabic-language narratives from the West African Sahel, the archives of the Portuguese Inquisition, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European travel and merchant accounts of the West African Coast, and early nineteenth-century Brazilian police records, Rarey shows how mandingas functioned as portable archives of their makers' experiences of enslavement, displacement, and diaspora. He presents them as examples of the visual culture of enslavement and critical to conceptualizing Black Atlantic art history. Ultimately, Rarey looks to the archives of transatlantic slavery, which were meant to erase Black life, for objects like the mandingas that were created to protect it"--
- Series Statement
- The visual arts of Africa and its diasporas
- Subject
- Amulets > Africa > History
- Art objects, African > History
- Ceremonial objects > Africa > History > Sources
- Black people > Material culture > Atlantic Ocean Region
- Material culture > Africa > History > Sources
- Material culture > Atlantic Ocean Region > History > Sources
- African diaspora
- Amulets
- Art objects, African
- Ceremonial objects
- Black people
- Material culture
- Africa
- Atlantic Ocean Region
- Genre/Form
- History.
- Sources.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- Introduction: Significance, survival, and silence -- Labels -- Contents -- Markings -- Revolts.
- Call Number
- Sc E 23-1081
- ISBN
- 9781478019855
- 1478019859
- 9781478017158
- 1478017155
- 9781478024422 (canceled/invalid)
- LCCN
- 2022043193
- OCLC
- 1341328769
- Author
- Rarey, Matthew Francis, author.
- Title
- Insignificant things : amulets and the art of survival in the early Black Atlantic / Matthew Francis Rarey.
- Publisher
- Durham : Duke University Press, 2023.
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Series
- The visual arts of Africa and its diasporas
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Research Call Number
- Sc E 23-1081