Met Audio Tour,
Mini-test,
and Extra-Credit Learning Activity

 

 

The Tour:


There are two ways to do the tour: (1) you can download the tour and listen to it at the Museum on an MP3 player (I-Pod or the like) or (2) you can purchase for fifty cents an audio CD and listen to the tour on a cd-player. I have one cd-player I can lend out for students who do not have one.

Downloading The Tour:

MP3: Right click (or on a Mac, ctrl+click) here
AAC:
(higher quality, but itunes/ipod only):
Right click (or on a Mac, ctrl+click) here

Then choose, "Save File As," and save the file ("met_tour.mp3" or "met_tour.m4a") on your desktop. From there, you can drag it to your Mp3 player.

Details on getting to the Met:

Location:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
New York, New York 10028-0198
General Information: 212-535-7710


Directions by Subway, Bus & Car (directly from the Met's website)

Hours:

Friday 9:30 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

Saturday 9:30 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

Sunday 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Monday Closed!!!

Tuesday 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Wednesday 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Thursday 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.


You will be going to the "Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas" from the Permanent Collection on the First Floor

(map of the first floor with location of "Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas" indicated)

(Look at the end of this page for a map of the tour itself once you arrived at "Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas")

The Mini-Test For Extra-Credit:

In class, I will show several images of objects from the museum in class. For each object, I will provide you with a question that you will need to answer using material from the audio tour. You will be allowed one 3" x 5" index card of handwritten notes to bring into the test with you.

Because the topic of the tour -- Afro-European encounters in West and Central Africa, 1450 - 1800 -- focuses on objects that tell the story of the interaction between Europeans and African, the mini-test questions, too, will focus on that interaction. Knowing this will help make you to prepare for the mini-test.

To help you prepare for the test, here's an example.

Let's say the audio tour discussed the following object:


(Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Timelines of Art History)

The tour might tell you the following:

Brilliantly colored and elaborately woven textiles known as kente are worn by individuals of distinction throughout the Asante kingdom. Monumental kente wrappers are composed of strips that are separately woven and sewn together. The intricate designs characteristic of these textiles are individually named and may be reserved for the exclusive use of the king or other high-ranking officials. To create them requires significant preparation and skill; indeed, Asante legend traces the origins of kente to the spider Ananse, a trickster figure known for his exceptional wisdom and cleverness.

Because of its expense and symbolic associations, only persons of high rank wore kente, and certain patterns were reserved solely for the king's use. A royal weaving center was established in the seventeenth century on the outskirts of the capital at Kumasi, where the creations of weavers could be inspected and claimed by royal patrons. Originally, these cloths were made of white cotton with woven designs of indigo-dyed thread. By the seventeenth century, however, luxurious silks imported by European slave-traders were incorporated, resulting in the vibrant and richly hued textiles that are so admired today.

(Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Timelines of Art History)



I might ask this question:

In a sentence or two, describe how the vibrant and rich hues of Kente cloth are a product of the slave trade itself.

You might respond with:

Originally, kente cloths were woven in patterns of simply two colors, blue and white, but the rise of the slave trade gave the Ashanti kingdom access to brightly colored imported silks which the kingdom's weavers incorporated into Kente cloth. Thus, the bright colors we now associate with Kente cloth were made possible by the slave trade.

Such an answer would receive 100%!


MAP:

See map of the path of the tour through the Arts of Africa Wing (essential for following the tour); this map will appear in separate web page to allow you to print it out and bring it with you as take the tour.




Extra-Credit Analytic Essay (350 Fritz Points):

Imagine that you are a historian of Africa that has been asked by a major museum to determine how closely related were the cultures of Owo and Benin. You have, in turn, decided to answer that question through a close examination of the two societies' respective material cultures. The "learning activity" at the end of the Audio Tour will point you to look closely at particular aspects of the Owo Lidded Bowl (located in the case that contains the Benin Bronzes, but on the side closest to the Afro-Portuguese Ivories) and other objects in order to get you started on your investigation.

Once you listened to the learning activity, write down you what you observed about the objects in response to the discussion in the activity and the tour itself.

Now it's time to write your report.

You will want to organize your report around a thesis that encapsulates your argument as a whole. Be sure your thesis and report take a clear stand regarding how closely related were the cultures of Owo and Benin. Likewise, be sure your report uses evidence from the objects to support your argument.

One good form your thesis might take for this report is:

"The cultures of Owo and Benin were [identical, closely related, somewhat related, not related at all] as evidenced by objects A, B, and C for reasons X, Y, and Z.

Be sure to organize your presentation of evidence around the familiar cl/ev/wa structure.

Name your file:

hussein_sa_extracreditmet.doc