Research Catalog

Title

A wealth of thought : Franz Boas on Native American art / edited by Aldona Jonaitis.

Publication

• Seattle : University of Washington Press, [1995]
• ©1995

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Jonaitis, Aldona, 1948-
• Boas, Franz, 1858-1942

Description

xiv, 365 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

In the nineteenth century, scholars who wrote about art of native peoples assumed that all art lay on a continuum from primitive to advanced: artworks of all nonliterate peoples were therefore examples of early stages of development. Boas was familiar with evolutionary theory in both the European and American art literature, and he set about to dispute much of what his contemporaries held as truths. Case studies from his own fieldwork on the Northwest Coast of North America demonstrated different tenets: the variety of history, the influence of diffusion, the symbolic and stylistic variations in art styles found among groups and sometimes within one group, and the role of imagination and creativity on the part of the artist. Aldona Jonaitis has chosen fourteen articles, written during the period from 1889 to 1916, to reveal Boas's intellectual development as an art historian. The subjects of his first analyses were the paintings and carvings of Northwest Coast Indians, primarily the Kwakwaka'wakw, the people he called the Kwakiutl. Later he went beyond the Northwest Coast to interpret other Native American artworks, and began to investigate the influence of psychology on art. This volume includes Boas's most significant writings on art, many originally published in obscure sources now difficult to locate. The essays are illustrated with their original photographs and drawings, and the collection is supported by an extensive, combined bibliography at the end of the book.

Subjects

• Art, Primitive
• Indian art > Northwest Coast of North America

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 337-355) and index.

Contents

Introduction: The Development of Franz Boas's Theories on Primitive Art / Aldona Jonaitis -- 1. Tattooing of the Haida -- 2. The Use of Masks and Head Ornaments on the Northwest Coast of America -- 3. The Decorative Art of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast -- 4. The Decorative Art of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast -- 5. Facial Paintings of the Indians of Northern British Columbia -- 6. Art of the Thompson Indians -- 7. The Decorative Art of the North American Indians -- 8. Primitive Art -- 9. Notes on the Blanket Designs -- 10. Decorative Designs of Alaskan Needlecases: A Study in the History of Conventional Designs, Based on Materials in the U.S. National Museum -- 11. Clubs Made of Bone of Whale -- 12. Representative Art of Primitive Peoples -- 13. Introduction to Primitive Art -- 14. Conclusion to Primitive Art -- The Boasian Legacy in Northwest Coast Art Studies / Aldona Jonaitis.

ISBN

• 0295973250
• 9780295973258
• 0295973846
• 9780295973845
• 1550541803
• 9781550541809

LCCN

94015180

OCLC

• ocm30156040
• 30156040
• SCSB-2056803

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library