Author Description

Carved ivory was one of the first commodities exported from Africa to Europe. Ivory artifacts from Atlantic Africa figured in cabinets of curiosities and were used in everyday life. The hybridism of some of this corpus has sparked lively debate among researchers and collectors about provenance, dating, and meaning. "African ivories in the Atlantic World, 1400-1900" addresses the subject in its different dimensions. Priority is given to the African contexts of production and use. Circulation is approached in the scope of trade in raw ivory, a topic usually subsumed by the historiography of the Atlantic slave trade. Finally, some of the paths taken by carved and raw African ivory to Europe and South America are identified and the current legal status of this commerce is discussed.