Indigenous Americas ( art history)

Chavin de Huantar

perus; chavin; 900-200 BCE; stone (architectual complex), granite (scuplture), gold alloy (jewlery); pre-incan civilization in peru; religious and pilgramage center; andrean = andies mountain region; under it has maize and passgeways that leads it to a stone; has a lot of shallow reliefs of predadtory animals from this region --> snakes, jaguars, birds, crocidiles and lots of combinations of humans and animals; the imagrey and text is very hard to undertsatnd bc this temple was made for the elite only = so they were the only ones that possed knowledge to understand it; contourrivalry = parts of an image that can be visually interpreted in many ways = in this case you can put a stone upside down and a new face appears; the lazone stone is the stone in the maze that goes too --> makes lots of bizzare sounds = adds to the experience or they would take shrooms to elivate their religious experience; "spear stone"; stone is carved and red it from up to down; only the highest ranking are allowed to enter the maze and see it; stone is half man and half animial; golden nose ring = thought to be worn by the preist;

Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

colorado; ancestoral pueblo; 450-1300; sandstone; they are built up into the cliffside; very large = lots of time and energy; place for people to gather as a whole community = great religious spot; the shelter provides shade when its hot and and when its cold protects them from the elements; farmed up top; elgalitarian society = very communal; every house had a kira = cirular object that that is wooden carved out, used for commuity services and prayer, and had fires in it; the stones are cut perfectly and mud is used to hold them togther; the walls would have been stucco and painted; water is drained through the back and held for storage; records stop at 1300-1400 becuse of a massive drought or a rival tribal conflict forced them out

Yaxchilan

mayan; 725 CE; limestone; modern day mexico; very promient site, built near a river; Sheild Jaggure and his son comissoned most of the buildings and the art; usually the buildings have 3 openings (don't really know exactly what happened in the buildings); combs = architectual elements that make something look taller than it is = in the middle of it would have had a scuptural frieze; lintel = any horizontal peice --> they are made for acts of trasnitions from wordly to otherwordly; our lintel sticker is about lady xok = the emperors 1st wife = may have been were hew tomb is; (kings and queens show themselves as intermedaries b/w the gods; this lintel shows blood letting = it was how royalty would connect themseleves to the gods which sepereates her from ordinary citizens; in our sticker = she lights her blood on fire (to heighten religious experience) and then a serpent animal spirit comes out of her mouth

the great serpent mound

mississippian; 1070; earthwork; effigy mound = mound in the shape of an animal (non-funneary/burial); serpent mirrors a creek that runs along side of it; tail and head are celestially aligned to solstice events (head - summer solstice sets on it; tail - winter solstice rises on it;) you walk around the mound; their is something circular in the serpents mound - proably and egg, sun, or something; it is the cite of an impact crater; layers of construction (bottom to top) = stone, clay and ash, top soil

Temple Mayor

aztec; 1375-1520; mexico; temple = stone, volcanic stone = coyoxlahuqi stone, jadeite = olmec style mask, basalt = calender stone; aztexs were around for about 200 yrs = had a harsh end due to spanish invasion; tenochitian = main city and where the temple was built; tenochitatan was found bc a small ethnic group from the north was told by the gods to move around until they saw an eagle on a stone in a river (the mexican flag today) = where mexico city is now; aztecs had very organized architecture, society and language; their are 7 different verison of the same temple = each time their was a new ruler they would build on top of the exitsiting temple and keep making it bigger and more decorated; the city was divided in 4 main parts (cardianal directions of something celestial; temple mayor is a ziggarat = a big platform with 2 temples on top of it; tomplatis = huge stack of human skulls = it made up a building; mostly prisoners of war or captives would have been used for human sacrafice (some would volunteer); the 2 temples are dedicate to 2 different gods (haizpochtil = sun and war goddes and taloc = agriculture and rain god); in the middle of the temples is the sacrafical stone = where the high preist would take out the person's heart and decapitate them; the temple looks like their main cosmic mountain = coatepec;

continuation of temple mayor...

storytime = mother diety lived on the top of the mountain =her name was cotalique = "snakey skirt", and she had 300 sons and one daughter; (her daughter = coyoxlahuqi "bells on her cheek); one day while the mother is sleeping on top of the mountain and eagle flies by and impregantes her with a feather --> coyoxlahqui is jealous bc she doesn't want any more compeition so she convinces her 300 brothers to go up to the mountain and kill her mom; the son that the mom gives birth too (by the feather) is Huitzpotichi and he comes out fully armed and ready to fight against his brothers and sisters; he dispereses his brothers all throughout the universe and he dismembers coyoxlahuqi and throws her down the mountain;

coyoxlahqui stone = the sacrafices done in aztec times mirros that story = the body rolls down the temple and lands on this stone; the stone shows a dismembered coyoxlahqui and you can tell its her bc she has bells on her cheeks; it would have been painted

olmac style mask = predates aztecs by centuries; under the temple mayor their were pits of historical and cultural items that the aztecs had collected (throuh trade and wars and stuff)

calender/sun stone = shows the presence of traditon and sacrafice; its a very complex calander; it is a silical calender = begins and ends; would have been painted; the center of it is a face (has ear spools so its an elite = it is of the son god) and it shows the orgins of the cosmos; our current era is the 5th sun cycle = our current world is going to end by an earthquake (bf our era the eart was destroyed by jaguars, rain of fire, wind, and water

ruler's feathered headdress

aztec; 1428-1520; feathers and gold; belived to be the last aztec ruler = Motechunzoma 11; its 4ft tall; added to the spanish ppl sense of wonder; aztec fashion was derived from ppl that they conquered (tax and tribute = gold, corn, humans for sacrafice); green feathers = very sacred from a treaured bird = quetza; the quetza only have about 2-3 larger feathers = so to make this they had to kill a lot of birds; don't know for sure if it was ever worn; relates to the story of temple mayor and being impreganted by the mother; would have been made by and expert and super revered craftsman

City of Cusco

inka; 1440 CE (convent was added 1550-1560 CE); andestine; inka controls spreads all the way down the pacific coast; this is right in the center - capital = centrality is very important; emperor splits up the whole empire into 4 parts bc it would have been to big --> invites the highest elites from each region to live with him in Cusco to keep an eye on them; they live in the andes mountain (high up); city is in the shape of a jaguar; and the city was seperated in 2 parts (elite vs normal);

Stone walls:

sacsayhuman = the head of the city and has very lagre stone walls = each of the stones are different sizes and carved by hand to make sure that they fit perfectly with eachother = ashlar masonry = carved to fit stones, require no cement to hold them together; it is very good for earthquakes = bc the stones are fit tightly together = when an earthquake hits they simply jostle --> then resettle instead of falling over; their are 3 diffrent levels of walls = were the last stand against spain happened

Qorikancha =

it would have been their golden temple, but the spanish took it over and made it into a convent; it only has one surving wall; the temple would have been dedicated to their most important god = sun god = Inti; gold would have outlined the whole exteior temple

Maize Cobbs

inka; 1440-1533; sheet metal/repousse; this would have been found in qorikancha; when the spanish came they found a garden of gold and metal stuff = and it was the inka trying to make their ideal version of life in that garden and offer it to the gods; not gold or silver but they were excellent at metal work; the technique of repousse = decorating metals in which parts of the design are raised in relief from the back or the indisde; corn was very important to the inka becuase of food but also because it could make alcholol (moonshine) and they used alcholol in religious ceromonies

City of Machu Picchu

inka; 1450-1540; inka; granite; peru; it was a place built for the empeor and his closets elites for ceromonial purposes or as a retreat; only functional for 90 yrs bf the spanish came = their was no record of it; just like a big city = lots of temples and buildings; lots of terraces = to help against eroding mountains and landslide, but it was also where they planted some crops; same type of stones are used = cut preciscley to fit with eachother; hiram bingum found it = took a lot of artifacts back to yale and they were only returned to peru in about 2000; it was also divided by status = leader had its own place; had some aquaducts to bring water in;

everything was about oberving the sun
obervatory = was perfectly situated so that you could see clestial events, would have had a roof, you would go to look at the sky;
inkihauna stone= was supposed to be lassoed to the sun and had something to do with agriculture and harvesting

All-T'oqapu tunic

inka; 1450-1540; camelid fiber and cotton; the slit is were the head would have been and it would have been belted; we think that it was never worn bc it is so well presererved; decorated tunics were reserved for only the elites = it was believed that tunics had spirtual powers that would protect whoever wore them; we think it was for an empeor = usually for nobels the tunic would only have 1 pattern = this has many = symbolizes that he has total control of the empire; ex: checkerboard with red = millitary power; the red was made by smashing a bug and getting all of its insides; alpac/llama fur = main material; would have been made by very advanced women weavers; T'oqapu = each of the different little sqaures that represent status;

bandolier bag

lenape (deleware tribe); 1850 CE; beadwork on leather; orinally the deleware tribe but bc of the Indian removal act of 1830 = they were uprooted and had to leave = they take their traditions with them; their were a lot of these bags; bandolier - shape and style and how it was worn; they saw europeans soliders wear ammunition cross straps = and were heavily infulenced; worn by men during ceromines = higly decorated; beads - come directly from europe and so do the silk and ribbons; lots of unique shapes and abstract patterns; their is an element of duality on the 2 main straps = always similar but not exactly the same pattern = contratst and balance of heaven vs earth, good vs bad, etc; you wear it like a cross body bag

transformation mask

Kwakwaka'wakw; late 19th century; wood, pain, and string; showed the transition b/w animals and humans; only worn by very important people during specific events = it is very important for culture and way of life; their is a mythology that surronds it = their ancestors would roam this world and transform themselves in animal skins or mask to reveal their human selves within; mask are arranged into 4 main clans = killer whale, eagle, raven, and wolf = and they also have a crest on each to represent what clan each of them are in; everyone would meet and all of the clans would dance together around a fire and reveal their faces at certain dramatic times; cermonies at which the dances were done = ptlach ceromonies = marriages, coming of ages, funerals --> and whoever hoseted them would give gifts to the ppl who came (depending on the gift you showed your status of wealth); the dance renidforces connection with the ancetors; oolican oil = the most common gift that was given; it is a way of expressing joy = now for most of the time it is used as a celebration of life for a mourning period; in 1884 = canadian gov outlawed potlach's bc they were intimidating and strongly anti-chritian = they would arrest you if you did it --> they would also take the masks and sell them to musems (their most important cultural artifacts); bc potlach was a way of life = if you take them away you break down their whole system; ppl were scared to go to jail and practice their religion; when you opened the mask each side was mirroed and symmetrical

Painted Elk hide

costigo (cazdi cody); shoshone; 1890-1900; costigo = his father was a cheif and painter, his tribe was moved to the shoshone reservation in wyoming, he sold paintings to help raise money for his fam and his tribe; he was inspired by hylogrhypics carved on rocks on his reservation; gets money from eastern toursim = he shows tourists and insight on native culture (awful); he does stuff that he think the tourists will like = for example = bison are extinct but he puts them in his drawings bc the tourists like them or they would have been hunting with guns at this point in time but he depcits them with bows and arrows ; he also starts to use comerical paints = yellow and blues (vs natural ones); he walks a fine line bc you don't want to degrade your culture just to sell it; used a stenicl so he could make a lot of them quickly; people are oberserving some type of cerimonal dance = he mashes 2 dances together = the sun dance and wolf danc; in the sun dance a bison head is raised and 4 mean teather themseleves to a pole and dance for days = the sun dance was banned by the US gov so he had to mix the 2 dances in his art so that he wouldn't get in trouble

black on black ceramic vessel

maria and julian martienz; pueblo; mid 20th century; (new mexico); maria martinez = she stands as a symbol for native americans women's rights; her pottery becomes highly valuable all around the country = its priced super high bc of her signature (she would let other ppl copy her signature to raise money for the pueblos); she didn't want to put her signature on it in the first place bc she thought that it belonged to the community; her and her husband were apart of the orginal excavation of native aritfacts and they found black pottery and were inspired to make similar things; everything is scupted by hand, without a wheel; and then her husband painted on the pottery; designs are mostly abstracted geoghpahics = corn, mountains, rivers, feilds, and some animal motifs *but not as common (the feather motif is the most expensive); they passed down their technique through the faimly = keeper of knowledge and tradition; it took them 10 yrs to perfect their method; they are sold as art pieces and NOT for practical use; lots of time and care goes into making each one = you surrond the pottery in heat and not flames, covered in cow manuer and newspapers = after you cover it then you light it on fire --> fire is smothered with dirt --> you have to smother it at the right time or else you are left with red and not black; the peices come out already glossy; a lot are broken through this process