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Sarah Brett-Smith
Associate Professor
Art of West Africa
Ph.D., Yale University, 1982
Biographical Information:
Professor Brett-Smith is currently writing a
book on Bamana mud cloth or
bògòlanfini. This monograph is designed
to balance her previous work on the production of ritual
sculpture by Bamana men with an in-depth investigation of
female art-making. The book will discuss the history of the
mud cloth tradition, the technique of manufacture, the
symbolism of the designs on the cloth, and the important
role of mud cloth at critical moments -- excision, marriage,
childbirth and death -- in women's lives. Her recent
publications include: The Making of Bamana Sculpture:
Creativity and Gender, Cambridge University Press, 1994
-- winner of the Arnold J. Rubin Award for the most
outstanding book on African Art, 1993, awarded by the
Arts Council of the African Studies Association, and winner
of Honorable Mention for the 1995 Victor Turner Prize,
awarded by the Society for Humanistic Anthropology, The
Artfulness of M'Fa Jigi: An Interview with Nyamaton
Diarra (University of Wisconsin Press, 1996), and "The
Mouth of the Komo," RES: Anthropology and
Aesthetics, 31 (1997): 71.
Recent Publications:
Books
The Making of Bamana Sculpture: Creativity and
Gender. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1994. Won the Arnold J. Rubin award for the most outstanding
book on African Art, 1993-1995, awarded by the Arts Council
of the African Studies Association. Honorable Mention for
the 1995 Victor Turner Prize awarded by the Society for
Humanistic Anthropology.
The Artfulness of M’Fa Jigi: An Interview with
Nyamaton Diarra. Madison: University of Wisconsin,
1996
Articles
"Symbolic Blood: Cloths for Excised Women," RES:
Anthropology and Aesthetics 3 (1982b), 15-31.
1983 "The Poisonous Child," Res: Anthropology and
Aesthetics, Vol. 6, pp. 47-64.
1987 "Bamanakan ka Gelen" or "The Voice of the Bamana is
Hard," Art Tribal, published by the Musee
Barbier-Mueller, Geneva, Vol. 2 (1987), pp. 3-15.
1997 "The Mouth of the Komo, " Res: Anthropology and
Aesthetics, vol. 3 1, pp.71.
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