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This course examines visual culture in Africa from an explicitly historical perspective--from the prehistoric rock art of southern Africa, dating to as early as 25,000 BCE, to the royal arts of West African states at the end of the nineteenth century. Employing the analytical and interpretive methods of art history and archeology, artifacts of a number of African societies will be examined as expressions of the social, political, religious, and economic lives of the peoples who produced and used these historical "documents." The course also will consider how these artifacts were used to shape the histories of these societies. Finally, we will review the evolution of art historical and archeological thinking over the last one hundred years with regard to the effect it has had on perceptions of Africa's past. (Silverman)

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