Daniel P. Biebuyck

Daniel P. Biebuyck (born 1925) is a leading authority on central African art with pioneering contributions to contextual African art studies.

Biography

Biebuyck was born in 1925 in Deinze, Belgium. He studied classical philology, law and cultural anthropology, and African art at Ghent State University, and social anthropology and Bantu Linguistics at University College London, LSE, SOAS. Under the auspices of the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique central (IRSAC), he was involved in field research from 1949–1961 among ethnic groups in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He studied the Lega, Bembe, Zyoba and Nyanga peoples.Biebuyck was repeatedly initiated to the various grades of the Bwmai initiation of the Lega, Pembe, and Nyiundu peoples. Most of what is known about the Lega (general culture, Bwami association, and artworks) is due to his field studies between 1951 and 1953, in 1954 and in 1957, and his subsequent publications.[1] As a member of the land tenure commission for the Belgian Congo (1957–1961), he conducted brief field research among over 40 different populations where he studied questions pertaining to the relationships between sociopolitical structures, administrative interferences, and land tenure.

Fieldwork

In 1989, Biebuyck retired from the University of Delaware as H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Anthropology and the Humanities. As professor, adjunct or visiting professor, he taught at the following universities: University of Delaware, Lovanium University, Liège University, London University, University of California at Los Angeles, Yale University, New York University, University of Southern Florida: Golding Distinguished Professor of African art.

Sample of Courses Taught: General Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Social Anthropology, Humanistic Anthropology. African Cultures, African art, African values and sytems of thought. World Ethnography, Ethnography of Central Africa. The Primitive Arts, Primitive Art and Oral Literature, Art and the Anthropology of Art. Central African Ethnography: Peoples of the Congo.

Publications

Biebuyck's major publications are in the fields of central African Art, Epic literature, and systems of land tenure. Many were sponsored by grants from National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the universities of Delaware and California. In addition to numerous articles and reports on different facets of african arts. Books

Short Monographs 1977 Symbolism of the Lega Stool. Working Papers in the Traditional Arts. Philadelphia: ISHI. 1966 Rights in Land and its Resources among the Nyanga. Brussels: Académie royale des Sciences d’Outre-Mer. 1962 Les Mitamba: système de mariages enchaînés chez les Babembe. Brussels: Académie royale des Sciences d’Outre-Mer. 1961 With Mary Douglas. Congo Tribes and Parties. London: Royal Anthropo. Institute. 1957 With Jean Dufour and Y. Kennes. Bibliographie sur la tenure des terres et les problèmes fonciers. Léopoldville: Gouvernement Général. 1957 With Jean Dufour. Le problème foncier: synthèse et propositions. Léopoldville: Land Tenure Commission. 1956 Bibliographie sur la tenure et les problèmes fonciers. Léopoldville: Gouvernement Général. Work in Progress 2016-17 L'épopée Mubila des Balega (RDC): text in Kilega and French translation, with introduction, an English summary, and extensive glossaries. 2016-17 Sense and Nonsense in Representations of Lega Art. 2017 Complementary Data on Bwami and its Initiation Objects.

References

  1. ↑ Grootaers, Jan-Lodewijk (2003). "Lega: Ethics and Beauty in the Heart of Africa". African Arts 36. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
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