Flowing from ethnographic research with Ngiembɔɔn kingdoms of Central Cameroon spanning 15 years, Brian narrates the series of discoveries that culminate in a clear picture of the mechanisms underlying artistry’s capacity to invigorate. In the process, he demonstrates ethnographic analyses that account for any and all musical, dramatic, visual, verbal, and dance-related features. He also provides guidance and resources for teaching students how to research and describe communities and their arts.
Simply put, artists increase social energy when their actions resonate with shared thought- and life-ways. This vitality swells when artists can predict when, where, and how they enact particular artistic genres. Like an unmoving magnet encasing a spinning magnet (i.e. a dynamo) produces electrical energy, stable cultural features resonating with those more malleable results in social energy.
Brian’s treatise will change how scholars across disciplines understand and engage with arts as they exist anywhere in the world. This volume offers methods for improved research and scholarship, whose application results in communities living better lives.
