Publication details
Antropologické a archeologické zájmy Moravského zemského muzea v Africe (1873–1987)
| Title in English | The Moravian Museum and its Anthropological and Archaeological Interests in Africa (1873–1987) |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| Citation | |
| Description | The collective professional monograph Native Africa: Anthropologic Imagination is dedicated to the cultural and historic heritage of Africa with emphasis on scientific and research activities of the Moravian Museum and the Anthropos Pavilion in Brno. The book comprises six relatively independent parts in which the authors map and interpret, from different perspectives, various dimensions of the African native society and culture. In the first study Anthropological and Archaeological Interests of the Moravian Museum in Africa (1873–1987) Petr Kostrhun presents research activities of the Moravian Museum from the perspective of its interest in exotic collections of travellers and donators who have visited various parts of Africa or traded with African artefacts. In the second study African Cradle of Humankind Václav Soukup describes the “Dark Continent” as a centre of anthropogenesis and a place where the anatomically modern man originated. Special attention is paid to how anthropologic research of the current African hunter-gatherer society may be used when reconstructing the way how our ancestors lived. Therefore, he focused his research on the description and analysis of the !Kung society of huntersgatherers. Also the third study The Tuaregs: Nomads of the Desert from a Traditional to a Modern Way of Life deals with native people of contemporary Africa. Barbora Půtová presents in it the originally nomadic- pastoral ethnic group of Tuaregs. She analyses and interprets, from the anthropologic point of view, the Tuaregs’ adaptive strategies, especially their ability to make use of territorial mobility and migration strategies after the fall of colonialism in Africa in the second half of the 20th century. In the fourth study Sahara: Communication Passage between the Mediterranean and West Africa Jana Jiroušková describes history of the Sahara from the perspective of trade routes that served as important communication ways between the Mediterranean and regions in the Gulf of Guinea. Sahara was a place through which precious commodities as well as information about distant exotic lands flowed. In the fifth study Rock Art in the Central Sahara: Discoveries, Chronology, Typology Barbora Půtová discusses first discoveries and research of rock art in the Central Sahara – Libya, Algeria, Chad, Niger and Mali. She also analyses art styles and defines the development stages of rock art in the Central Sahara. In the sixth study Stone Artefacts from the African Continent in the Anthropos Institute Zdeňka Nerudová describes and analyses stone artefacts, chopped and cut, from the collections of the Anthropos Institute which consist of findings and other materials from the Sub-Saharan Africa obtained during research expeditions or collected by the anthropologists and archaeologists Karel Absolon and Jan Jelínek. The monograph does not aspire to present comprehensive and exhaustive information about the researched topic. It rather aims to present the heritage of traditional African culture using selected examples. Last but not least, it tries to draw attention to the significance of research activities of the Moravian Museum, whose collections are evidence that Czech archaeologists and anthropologists have contributed to Africa being recognized as an important centre of human culture. |