Inuit and Native American art

North American and Inuit ArtsMax Carocci

historical North American groups popularly known as ‘tribes’ are very diverse, and partially the result of historical changes

American peoples’ links to their Asian antecedents can be partially detected in the cosmological and ideological substratum that they all share

Ojibwa shaman’s drum 19th c.

•American peoples’ common cosmological principles

1-Animated universe

2-Permeability of cosmic planes

3-Human role in maintaining cosmic balance

4-Spatially ordered universe

5- Cyclical cosmic regeneration

Cosmological and ideological principles are filtered through art

Left: Apache shieldRight: Crow shieldBoth 19th c. USA

Understanding these basic

principles allows us to ‘see’ what

art is and what it does in Native

North America’s indigenous

cultures

Left: Dorset figurine Arctic CanadaBC 500-1500 ADRight: Greenland Inuit mask19th c.

-Arctic-Northwest Coast-Southwest-Plains

Northern peoples: from Palaeo-Eskimo to Inuit

Palaeo-Eskimo (3000-1000 BC)

West (Alaska and Canada): Norton, Old Bering Sea, Okvik, Birnik, Punuk, 1000 BC-1400 AD

East (Canada and Greenland): Thule 700 BC- modern times; Dorset 800 BC-1400

Old Bering Sea traditionstyle bannerstone

Punuk culture(Bering Sea, Alaska) AD 600-1100

Dorset BC 500-1500 D: early shamanic themes

Norton phase -Alaska(1000 BC-800 AD)

funerary masks from the Ipiutakperiod(AD 1-800 )

Transformation masksAlaska19th c.-early 20th c.

Kodiak, Alaska wooden masks

Aleutian ceremonial hats and hunting bent woodvisor 19th c.

Stimulated by tourism, historic Inuit art continued Thule culture’s concern with an ever changing reality with shamanic themes and transformational motifs

Composite shaman holding Figure, 1966 NuvaliaqQimirqpik

Karoo Ashevak1972Shamanand helper

Inuit’s twentieth century innovations: graphic arts and print making

Simon Tookome 1972

Jesse Oonark1971

Traditional themes Dances and beings

North-America’s Northwest Coast: maritime adaptation and social complexity

Lachane 500 BC-320 AD (North coast)

Marpole phase 400 BC- 400 AD (South coast)

Early NWC material culture anticipates historical developments of one of America’s most distinctive aesthetics

Tsimshian 19th c. ceremonial masks

Shamanic art

Mechanical and

transformation masks

Prestige art

NWC art has intrigued art

historians and anthropologists

for its complexity, depth and extent of

cosmological meanings and

references

Head

Body

Bottom

Forest Bear

Shorehuman

SeaWater creature

NWC Monumentality

Southwestern expressions

Anasazi (ca. AD 900)mono/bi/and polychrome pottery

Mimbres and Mogollon (ca. 1200 AD)anthropomorphic pottery

Acoma

Zuni

Hopi

S. Ildefonso

Santa Clara

Laguna

Kachina beings are represented as miniature sculptures

When worn, the masks turn the wearer into a kachina

Pueblo textiles’ complex symbolism is linked to ancestral cosmologies centred around the

importance of water and soil fertility

Puebloanpeoples had a lasting influence on newly arrived Navajo who adopted masked dances weaving and sand painting from them

Navajo textiles are famous for the intricate geometric patterns

Sand paintings

Plains expressions 18th – 20th c.

Left: Assiniboine square drum 19thc. Centre: Oto Catlinite pipe 19th c.Top centre: Lakota beaded shirt 19th c.Top right: Kiowa peyote ceremonial objects 20th c.

Nomadic plains peoples’ art is largely characterised by the use of beads, and hide painting that developed between the 18th

and 20th c.

Left: hide container, CheyenneRight: horse decoration Crow

Women’s artsLeft: Lakota beaded dress 19th c.

Centre: Crow beaded boots 19th c.Bottom right: Kiowa beaded pouches

19th c.Top right: Crow beaded shirt 19th c.

Left: Crow warrior regalia 19th c.Centre: Arapaho man’s moccasins 19th c. Top right: Plains Cree headstall 19th c. Top centre: Quapaw robe 18th c.

Oscar Howe Sioux 1954

James Auchiah, Kiowa 1939

Anonymous Plains 18thc.

George Thomas, Crow 1882