1991/01/01 by Karel Arnaut, Arnaut, Karel
Social Sciences · #African history and culture studies
paper · doi:10.5287/ora-jnqkkenbr
openalex publication_date 1991/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
THIS essay offers an historical analysis of how the defmition of Africa as another culture is interconnected with the selection and characterization of an African object. Since relatively intense contacts between Africa and Europe were established (c.l600), European natives started defining Africa as an other culture. From the outset, this undertaking of cultural definition was based on the selection of a characteristic artefact. For more than three centuries (c.1600-1900), the fetish was taken to be the cultural object that summarized the cultural identity of Africa. The turn of the century brought about a major change in this cultural discrimination. Then, the intelligentsia of the main European capitals decided to attribute a (primitive) art object to Africa. Traditionally, this dimarche-from fetish to art object-has been seen as an important step towards a deeper appreciation of