unit 5

background + vocab

Indigenous Americas

• to signal First Nations cultural traditions > colonizing and migrant peoples

• categorized by geography and chronology

• various native groups shared harmonies with nature, elders, community, cohesion, dream guidance, larger rituals, animal based media, etc. w/ essence

• material hierarchy : feathers, textiles »» metal, bone stone »» ceramic, wood

Ancient America

art before 1550 CE south of the US Mexican boarder

• divided into Mesoamerica, Central America, and Andean South America

Native North America

denotes culture north of US Mexican border from ancient times to present, specifically focusing on 1492 CE to now

• divided into Northwest Coast, Southwest, Plains, and Eastern Woodlands

Ancient Mesoamerica

Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and West Honduras

• 15,000 BCE to 1521 CE- fall of the Aztec Empire

• sculpture and 2D arts tended to be figural and depicted rulers and mythological events

• anthropomorphic works possess cosmic geometry and were shamanistic in nature

styles: similar calendars, stepped pyramids, sites and building oriented to sacred mountains and celestial phenomena, and value of greens, such as jade, shells, and quetzal feathers

Ancient Central Andes

Peru, Ecuador, West Bolivia, and North Chile

• shamanistic/cosmic but remained terrestrials

• interactions with big three- mountains, desert coasts, and rainforest

• Chavin and Inka culture

• practice earliest and most persistent artificial mumification

styles: challenging environments, cyclicality, and reciprocity

Post-contact interactions

• colonial artists preserved certain traditions both overly and covertly

• integrated w/ indigenous art, such as the horse, adding to the concept that there is not a singular, timeless, authentic Native art style

• participatory and active

Lintels

were carved into the sides of these buildings talking about the kings who commissioned the temples, providing the dynastic record as well

Effigy

a model of a person or figure often crude