Magazines - Tribal Art Summer 2011

By Arthur P. Bourgeois, professor of art history at Governors State University and author on the Yaka and Suku peoples.

Introduction
Introduction
Male imagery and masculine ideologies among the Yaka people of the central Democratic Republic of the Congo have strong connections to that culture’s particular social setting. They are not simply mental projections or psychic fantasies but rather adaptations to stresses in the social environment. As in many other cultures, Yaka masculinity entails dedication, generosity, and personal sacrifice in order to maintain family life and/or communal status, often requiring assertion, strength, or even aggression (Gilmore: 220–231). In the following, I will interre- late Yaka social structure, carved imagery, narrative, and proverbs in an exploration of Yaka masculinity and its visual exaltation