tribal art
Indigenous peoples' creations
Tribal art refers to objects created by indigenous or traditional societies, typically for ritual, ceremonial, or functional purposes rather than purely aesthetic ones.
The term encompasses masks, sculptures, textiles, and carvings from Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and other regions: The museum's tribal art collection includes Yoruba masks and Maori carvings.
Western collectors and museums have applied this label since the early twentieth century, though the category reflects outside perspectives more than how the makers themselves understood their work.
- sacred objectsItems of spiritual importance
- totemsSpiritual clan symbols
- totem polesCarved ancestral pillars
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
- folk traditionsCommunity customs across generations
heritage · rituals · animism · beadwork · tribal tattoos · oral traditions · ancestral worship · wood carving · masks · ethnography · clan symbols · sacred spaces · stone sculpture · scarification · mythology · primitivism · figurines · community identity
tribal artWestern art
European visual heritage
European art · classical art · Renaissance art · colonial art · modern art