Pottery: A Tool for Cultural Preservation in Some Niger Delta Traditions

Indigenous art forms have become part and parcel of today’s cultural development. It is the symbolisation processes that were replete with physical qualities in traditional civilisation. These attributes are found in clothing, housing, objects of religious worship, and ceremonies such as dance form and entertainment. The symbolisation process is therefore, an endorsement of certain fine distinctions that have become a way of life. This paper investigates the adaptation of these symbols into modern pottery objects to satisfy and sustain their cultural values and aid understanding of some of the Niger Delta Traditions. The paper also highlights the hidden beauty that the symbols possess as the used parts of pottery forms. Sherry B. Ortner’s 1979 research formula was used to explain the names and meaning of the symbols and describe their usefulness within the cultural context before they were adapted for modern pottery.

Introduction

There are so many views and opinions’ concerning what culture is. For example, Li & Karakowsky (2001) define culture as consisting of the explicit and implicit behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols; constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts. They further stress that, to sum up, culture is the total learned behavior of a group of people and that such behavior is generally considered to be the tradition of that people and it is transmitted from generation to generation.

In another view, Lederach, (1995), sees culture as a “shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them”. Zimmermann (2015) says that, “culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts”. Furthermore, Tylor (1970:1) defined culture as a complex whole, which includes, knowledge, beliefs, morals, laws, custom and art as acquired by man in a society.

These definitions highlights two factors: first, that culture is acquired as man finds acceptance within a social framework or society and secondly, that as a member of a society man needs culture to continue to function, providing regulation and ensuring security. This therefore makes culture the center