Category:Art And Entertainment

Antique Carpets

Carpets that are 100 years old or more, are called antiques. The oldest complete rug, the Pazyrk Carpet (now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg) was discovered in 1949 during the excavation of a burial site in Siberia. It was frozen in permafrost for over 2500 years. Antique Carpets were mostly woven with yarn coloured with Natural Dyes. Natural dyes are extracted from plants, minerals and sometimes even insects such as cochineal. Most Antique Carpets display Abrash – the shaded effect in the woven product, created by the imperfect absorption of handmade vegetable dyes by hand-spun wool. The presence of the shade bands of Abrash could have three explanations – the herder-weaver used mixed animal wool in the rug (different animal wools absorb different amounts of dye). More...

Dhokara Metalcraft

Dhokara is one of India’s ancient craft traditions, and is one of the earliest methods of non-ferrous metal casting known to human civilization. The special characteristic of this craft is that each piece is individually molded and cast. Most primitive cultures of the world have used this casting technique over the centuries. More...

The section on Art and Entertainment is designed to enable readers to understand how a particular culture expresses itself – in so doing they may gain a better understanding of the culture in question. Art and Entertainment forms express a culture’s language of leisure. They represent its deepest yearnings, hopes and sources of joy through sounds, actions and pictures. The articles in the section will enable readers to discover unusual entertainment and art forms, as well as provide information on the latest trends in the Art and Entertainment scene. At their very core lies the sensibility that it is when people of different cultures delight in each other’s cherished art forms or means of entertainment, that they may be able to better understand each other as well as the world they inhabit together.

Capoeira

• Capoeira represents a spiritual response to being oppressed, and combines an eclectic mixture of elements. Hence, it is quite different from other martial arts.
• The original Capoeiristas, African slaves in Brazil, developed this martial art to defend themselves using just their own bodies. They disguised their warrior skills with dance and music. But Capoeira proved so effective for them that in 1890, the martial art was outlawed in Brazil. It remained that way until 1928.
• Traditionally, Capoeira was a males-only activity. In the last few decades, it has become a powerful symbol of feminism and equality in Brazil and other countries where it is practiced.
• Capoeira is a martial art that is set to music and disguised to look like a dance or acrobatic game. More...