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THOUGHTS ON WHO MADE THE JENNÉ TERRA-COTTAS: GENDER, CRAFT SPECIALIZATION, AND MANDE ART HISTORY Barbara E. Frank BothyearsthetheNokagotitleTerra-copresentedandpremisettas?"aprovocativeBernsofthissubsequentlyarticleconferenceoweareviseddebtpapertoandMariaentitledpublishedBerns"WhowhotheMadesome yearsagopresentedaprovocativeconferencepaperentitled"WhoMade theNokTerra-cottas?"Bernssubsequentlyrevisedandpublishedthe paperinaseminalarticle(1993)thatexploredgenderbiasesintheliteratureon Africanceramictraditions.HerfocuswasprimarilynorthernNigeriaandthe BenueValleyregion,butherargumentshavemuchbroaderapplication.She notedthatarthistoriansandarchaeologistsseemtopresumethatthemakersofthe ancientNokfigurativeceramicsweremale,despitetheoverwhelmingpresenceof womenastheprimaiyartistsworkingwithclayinthisregion.1Eveninthose instanceswhereitisacknowledgedthatwomendofigurativework,inthe literaturetheircreationsaregenerallycalled"potteryfigurines"asopposedtothe "terra-cottasculptures"presumablyproducedbymaleartists.2 Theissueofauthorshipissimilarlyavoidedindiscussionsofthewell-known terra-cottatraditionsoftheUpperNigerandInlandNigerDeltaregions.These ceramicsculpturesprovidetheearliestevidenceofasculpturalarthistoryforthe region.Todate,mostscholarshiphasfocusedonspeculationsabouttheuseofthese figuresandthesignificanceoftheirdistinctivegesturesandunusualiconography. Becausemaleblacksmithsareacknowledgedasthesculptorsparexcellance throughouttheMandeworld,thereisanunderlyingassumptionthatthemakersof theJennéterra-cottaswerealsomen.Andyet,asintheUpperBenue,itiswomenoftenthewivesofblacksmiths -whodominatethecraftofpotteryproduction throughouttheregion.Theyaretheoneswiththesophisticatedknowledgeofclay bodies,aswellastheformingandfiringtechnologiessoessentialtothesuccessof theirtrade.Thismakesitatleastpossiblethattheymayhavehadahandinthe makingofthesesculptures.Furthermore,thenotionthatthesewomenhavethe exclusiverightandtheuniquespiritualpowertoworkwithnyama-ladenclayisso firmlyembeddedincontemporaryMandeideology,thatitmustbeofsometime depth.Thequestionishowmuchcanweinferfromtherecentsociallandscapeabout thedistantpast?Howfarbackinhistory/prehistorycanweprojectorpresumethese distinctiveculturalpatterns? ThispaperbrieflyexaminesgenderbiaseswithinthecurrentstateofMandeart historywithregardtotheseterra-cottatraditions,andthenexplorestheissueofartist identityforcluestotheemergenceofgender-specificcraftspecializationinthe Mandeworld.Iconcludewithanassessmentofprospectsforarevisedandmore inclusiveMandearthistory. MandeStudies4(2002)pp.121-132 122 BARBARA E. FRANK At this point in time, the phrase 'Mande art' gen primarily of sculpture- specifically Bamana masks an iron. Until recently, most of our attention has focus contexts of the production and presentation of t ethnographic present.3 Only in the last decade or so h with setting these objects into an historical framework archaeologists and others.4 However, women as creativ absent from this emerging picture of the art history of The terra-cotta sculptures of the Inland Niger Delt archaeological culture of Jenné-jeno provide an instr corpus of several hundred figures of various sizes, in and single figures in seated or kneeling poses, warrior on horseback, figures covered with raised spots apparen with snakes coiling around their necks and bodies, an are among the earliest and best known of the artisti Grunne 1980, 1982, 1987; S. and R. Mcintosh 1982;R et. al. 1993). Thermoluminescence testing on many of range of dates between the eleventh and fifteenth cent many of these figures have entered the internation provenance, let alone the valuable information that mig been recovered during controlled archaeological inves 1986).5 For the handful of figures that have been docum to note the variety of contexts in which they were dis with several ceramic pots within a deliberately collap figures was found eroding out of the surface of th foundations, another pair was discovered within a n associated with iron workers (see below), and a sixth fi pit (S. andR. Mcintosh 1982, S. Mcintosh 1995, andR is intriguing about this range of contexts is that it sugges served a variety of functions, none of which appear archaeological or ethnographic record as exclusively Efforts to place the larger corpus of Jenné sculp historical context using stylistic analyses have been v the large male and female figures produced for the southern Bamana, Kate Ezra (1984, 1986) called atten features some of these statues share with some of th Bamana and Jenné sculptural traditions include suc lozenge-shaped ornaments (possibly amulets) around th of knife and sheath on the upper left arm, and the pre on the chest. Perhaps more important, these iconographie feature figurative terra-cottas that have been called "Bankon Bamako where the first of the corpus came to light Bankoni pieces appear to be slightly later in date than the possibility that they may provide a temporal and s WHO MADE THE JENNE TERRA COTTAS 123 Bamana sculpture traditions. The significance of these finds is that their provenance is contiguous with that of the Jo and Gwan figures, thus making possible the notion of an historical sequence of sculpture within the southern Bamana region. There is another sculptural tradition that appears to have strong stylistic and iconographie ties to the Jenné terra-cottas, and by extension, the Bamana traditions. Bernard de Grunne (1991) has identified this corpus with Soninke communities wh settled in the Dogon area following their migration from the Inland Niger Delta between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries AD. The carbon-14 dates he provides (1320-1650 AD), if accurate, would make them contemporary with the Bamana sculptures and the terra-cotta traditions. Although they are carved of wood, these sculptures do appear to have more in common stylistically with the Jenné terracottas than with Dogon traditions with which they have generally been identified. De Grunne suggests that the artists who sculpted these pieces must have been more than casually familiar with the artists who created the Jenné figurative ceramics, and that they may have first sculpted in clay and then shifted to wood as a medium more plentiful...
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