Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the symbolism and aesthetic value/significance of cicatrices in traditional Yoruba culture, and examines the secondary patterns formed by the play of light and shadows on these sculptures in the skin.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates the symbolism and aesthetic value/significance of cicatrices in traditional Yoruba culture, and examines the secondary patterns formed by the play of light and shadows on these sculptures in the skin.

The first body adornments in pre-history times were probably symbols and images daubed or incised onto the skin. Anthropological attention on inscribed skin has largely concentrated on their significance as identity markers - status, gender etc. Foucault refers to 'the body as text upon which social reality is inscribed' (Docile Bodies, 1975), while Gell believes that "with tattoo, the body multiplies; the additional organs and subsidiary selves are created; spirits, ancestors, rulers and victims take up residence in an integument which begins to take on a life of its own…" (Gell, 1993).

I am of the Daramola/Jeje school of opinion in regarding traditional African cicatrisation as a quintessence of beauty (Daramola, Jeje, 1967, Adeoye, 1979) and creativity (Faleye 2008).

To indicate the ubiquity of scarification (cicatrisation) in traditional Yoruba society, the sign for 'okola' (one with facial scars) in the sign language of the Yoruba deaf community, is the same used to signify 'The Yoruba'.

In this paper, my interest is primarily on the sensibilities that govern the aesthetic value of this practice, how light is used to emphasise and highlight body modification. This includes the use of foreign object insertion to achieve a keloid effect, in order to create a 3 dimensionality that catches the light and produces patterns and shadows on the skin.