Book Review : Christopher Steiner, African Art in Transit (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994

TL;DR: In this paper, Steiner studied the trade in African art in Cote d'lvoire and the main focus of the study was Abidjan, but the fieldwork itself took Steiner into the countryside, accompanying metropolitan traders on buying trips.

Abstract: The plaudits on the back cover of this book might well have been written by close kin so over-enthusiastic are they, and were one of a gullible disposition, it would be easy to believe that the book will end global poverty and turn lead into gold. Alas, reality is much harsher. And anyway, these are conceits largely of the publishers and not the authors, so no more. This is an ethnography which sets out to be ’multilocale’ in the spirit of works which appeared in the 1980s, notably the Arjun Appadurai edited collection, The Social Life of Things (1986). Steiner’s interest is in the trade in African art in Cote d’lvoire. The main focus of the study is Abidjan, but the fieldwork itself took Steiner into the countryside, accompanying metropolitan traders on buying trips. Because the trade itself is international, Steiner is also concerned to delineate the economic and historical factors which influence the global market in African art.