Ruth B. Phillips is a Canadian art historian and curator who specializes in North American aboriginal art. She is an author of numerous books and articles on the subjects of Indigenous studies, anthropology/archaeology, political science, international studies, public policy, Canadian studies, and cultural studies. She received her doctorate in African art history in 1979 from the University of London at the School of Oriental and African Studies. [1] Her dissertation was about masquerade performance by Mende women in Sierra Leone. [2] She became a professor at Carleton University in 1979. [1] Ruth Phillips became a Director of University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver in 1997, where she, with three First Nations partner communities, and museum staff created a successful expansion and renewal plan for a $41 million grant to the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the British Columbia Knowledge Foundation, and the University of British Columbia. [1]
In 2005, Phillips, Heidi Bohaker, First Nations partners, and many other scholars co-founded the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts & Cultures (GRASAC). [3] Phillips organized many grants, and supervised the team of GRASAC research assistants in her time as the director. [3] Phillips holds the Canada Research Chair in Modern Culture at Carleton University. [4]
Franz Uri Boas was a German-born American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical particularism and cultural relativism.
Sir Milton Augustus Strieby Margai was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor and politician who served as the country's head of government from 1954 until his death in 1964. He was titled chief minister from 1954 to 1960, and then prime minister from 1961 onwards. Margai studied medicine in England, and upon returning to homeland became a prominent public health campaigner. He entered politics as the founder and inaugural leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party. Margai oversaw Sierra Leone's transition to independence, which occurred in 1961. He died in office aged 68, and was succeeded as prime minister by his brother Albert. Margai enjoyed the support of Sierra Leoneans across classes, who respected his moderate style, friendly demeanor, and political savvy.
The Mende are one of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone; their neighbours, the Temne people, have roughly the same population. Mende people account for slightly more than 30% of the total population. The Mende are predominantly found in the Southern Province and the Eastern Province, while the Temne are found primarily in the Northern Province and the Western Area, including the capital city of Freetown. Some of the major cities with significant Mende populations include Bo, Kenema, Kailahun, and Moyamba.
The Gullah are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and culture have preserved a significant influence of Africanisms as a result of their historical geographic isolation and the community's relation to their shared history and identity.
Sande, also known as zadεgi, bundu, bundo and bondo, is a women's initiation society in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. The Sande society initiates girls into adulthood by rituals including female genital mutilation. It is said by its supporters to confer fertility, to instill notions of morality and proper sexual comportment, and to maintain an interest in the well-being of its members throughout their lives.
Robert Charles Davidson, OC, OBC, is a Canadian artist of Haida heritage. Davidson's Haida name is G̲uud San Glans, which means "Eagle of the Dawn". He is a leading figure in the renaissance of Haida art and culture. He lives in White Rock, British Columbia.
Frank Gouldsmith Speck was an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples among the Eastern Woodland Native Americans of the United States and First Nations peoples of eastern boreal Canada.
Douglas Lowell Cole was an American-Canadian historian. Cole specialized in the art and culture of the Northwest Pacific Coast, and from 1966 until 1997 served as a professor in the history department at Simon Fraser University.
Laura Boulton was an American ethnomusicologist. She is known for the many field recordings, films and photographs of traditional music and its performances and practitioners from Egypt, the Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika. Boulton also collected traditional musical instruments around the world. In her work with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) during the Second World War, she is recognized as being a pioneer for women who work in the film industry.
Joseph A. Opala, OR is an American historian noted for establishing the "Gullah Connection," the historical links between the indigenous people of the West African nation of Sierra Leone and the Gullah people of the Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia in the United States.
Paul Richards is an emeritus professor of technology and agrarian development at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, and adjunct professor at Njala University in central Sierra Leone. He was formerly a professor in the Department of Anthropology, University College London for many years, and previously taught anthropology and geography, at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Janet Catherine Berlo is an American art historian and academic, noted for her publications and research into the visual arts heritage of Native American and pre-Columbian cultures. She has also published and lectured on gender studies, the representation and participation of women in indigenous and visual arts, the history of graphic arts since the mid-19th century, indigenous textile arts, and American quilting history and traditions. In the early portion of her academic career Berlo made notable contributions towards the understanding of the art and iconography of Mesoamerica, in particular that of the Classic-period Teotihuacan civilization. Since 2003 Berlo has held the position of Professor of Art History and Visual and Cultural Studies at the Department of Art and Art History, University of Rochester, New York.
Madam Yoko or Mammy Yoko was a leader of the Mende people in Sierra Leone. Combining advantageous lineage, shrewd marriage choices and the power afforded her from the secret Sande society, Yoko became a leader of considerable influence. She expanded the Mende Kingdom and at the time of her death, she was the ruler of the vast Kpa Mende Confederacy.
Museum anthropology is a domain of scholarship and professional practice in the discipline of anthropology.
Religion in Guinea is approximately 89 percent Muslim, 7 percent Christian, with 2 percent adhering to indigenous religious beliefs. There are also smaller numbers of Atheists and practitioners of other religions in the country. Much of the population, both Muslim and Christian, also incorporate indigenous African beliefs into their outlook.
Art in Sierra Leone has a long and significant tradition of carving and ceremonial works like masks and cloth for initiation and protection. Although art styles are oftentimes ascribed to a single ethnic group, the styles and processes are spread throughout the country and many artists move between the different ethnic groups in the country.
Public masquerades play an extremely significant role in the life of the Mende people - one of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone.
Debra Sparrow, or θəliχʷəlʷət (Thelliawhatlwit), is a Musqueam weaver, artist and knowledge keeper. She is self-taught in Salish design, weaving, and jewellery making.
Gitel (Gertrude) Poznanski Steed was an American cultural anthropologist known for her research in India 1950–52 involving ethnological work in three villages to study the complex detail of their social structure. She supplemented her research with thousands of ethnological photographs of the individuals and groups studied, the quality of which was recognised by Edward Steichen. She experienced chronic illnesses after her return from the field, but nevertheless completed publications and many lectures but did not survive to finish a book The Human Career in Village India which was to integrate and unify her many-sided studies of human character formation in the cultural/historical context of India.
Charlotte Townsend-Gault is an art historian, professor emeritus, author, and curator. Townsend-Gault’s research, teaching and scholarship concerns contemporary visual and material Native American and First Nations cultures, particularly those of the Pacific Northwest.