Learn about the four species of box turtles found in North America and gain interesting information about their habitats, feeding habits, and reproductive behavior.

African Dream Machines takes African headrests out of the category of functional objects and into the more rarefied category of ‘art’ objects. Styles in African headrests are usually defined in terms of western art and archaeological discourses, but this book interrogates these definitions of style and demonstrates the shortcomings of defining a single formal style model as exclusive to a single ethnic group. Among the artefacts made by southern African peoples, headrests were the best known. Anitra Nettleton’s study of the uses and forms of headrests opened up a number of art-historical methodologies in the attempt to gain an understanding of form, style and content in African art objects. Her drawings of each and every headrest encountered become a major part of the project.

The Fifth International Symposium of the Pacific Arts Association, titled "Art, Performance, and Society," called for papers in sessions dealing with "Production and Performance," "Social and Cultural Context," "The Record and the Remainder," and "The Mission of Museums." In all, some sixty papers were presented, twenty-four of which have been included in this book. The first two topics elicited several papers that explored the creative process, including the description and analysis of performance, and the taxonomy of objects used, the transmission of cultural knowledge, and the identity and work of individual artists. The second two topics provided the opportunity for papers on some significant early museum collectors and collections, various methods of documenting cultural material (such as photography), how cultural material has been and can be exhibited, and the role of museums and cultural centers in Pacific Island countries.

Why has the home of a Yoruba river goddess become a UNESCO World Heritage site and a global attraction? Every year, tens of thousands of people from around the world visit the sacred grove of Osun, Osogbo's guardian deity, to attend her festival. Peter Probst takes readers on a riveting journey to Osogbo. He explores the history of the Osogbo School, which helped introduce one style of African modern art to the West, and investigates its intimate connection with Osun, the role of art and religion in the changing world of Osogbo, and its prominence in the global arena.

Western attitudes to Africa have been influenced to an extraordinary degree by the arts and artefacts that were brought back by the early collectors, exhibited in museums, and celebrated by scholars and artists in the metropolitan centres. The contributors to this volume trace the life history of artefacts that were brought to Europe and America from Congo towards the end of the nineteenth century, and became the subjects of museum displays. They also present fascinating case studies of the pioneering collectors, including such major figures as Frobenius and Torday. They discuss the complex and sensitive issues involved in the business of 'collecting', and show how the collections and exhibitions influenced academic debates about the categories of art and artefact, and the notion of authenticity, and challenged conventional aesthetic values, as modern Western artists began to draw on African models.