North American and Inuit Arts Max 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.
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
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
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
NWC art has intrigued art
historians and anthropologists
for its complexity, depth and extent of
cosmological meanings and
references
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
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.