Meaningof Art
Question1
Overmany years, art has been used as a medium of expressing particularbeliefs, customs as well as traditions with regard to particularethnic community. In the African context for instance, art was anideal way of expressing the cultural heritage of differentcommunities as seen from Lega people of Congo. Different art formswere used to express deeply rooted cultural beliefs, which made italmost impossible for international audience to accurately deduct theauthentic meaning of such forms of art. For this reason, there is agreat need for preservation of authentic first generation form ofarts of other people in the European or American art galleries. Oneway of preserving the cultural meaning that is assumed to beauthentically present in other people’s art is through education aswell as labeling specific arts with relevance to their meaning. Thesame art education should be popularized in European or American artschools to ensure that the historical meaning of art is not lost.
Question2
Inthe American and European culture, the method used to preserve thememory of popular ancestors is fundamentally different from thatpracticed by the Fang and Kota people Gabon. In the typical Americanway of preserving the memory of ancestors is through the culture ofnaming. A child is normally named after a popular member of thefamily particularly grandparents as well as great-grandparents withthe aim of preserving the memory. This is the most common way ofmemory preservation as opposed to displaying relics such as bones andskulls of those ancestors. For this reason, I believe that with anattractive and inspiring life, I will be remembered by mygreat-grandchildren through the naming culture.