Native American Art: Stereotypes, Terminology, and Historical Context mod 9 done

Stereotypes and Misconceptions in Native American Art

Stereotypes persist in discussions about Native American arts and cultures, stemming from a lack of awareness regarding the complex histories of Native peoples and their art.
Common stereotypes include the warrior or chief on horseback with a feathered headdress and the "Indian Princess" in an animal hide dress.
These stereotypes are perpetuated by popular culture and movies, which homogenize the diversity of Native groups across North America.
The term "primitive" has been used to describe Native art, reflecting a distorted colonial perspective.
Europeans often viewed Native Americans as "noble savages," affecting the reception and appreciation of their arts.
Native objects were often collected by anthropological museums as curiosities or specimens of "dying" cultures, leading to theft and unauthorized acquisition.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990 is a U.S. federal law requiring the return of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony to tribes with demonstrated lineal descent or cultural affiliation.
Many museums are actively repatriating items and human remains.
Example: In 2011, a museum returned a wooden box drum, a hide robe, wooden masks, a headdress, a rattle, and a pipe to the Tlingit T'akdeintaan Clan of Hoonah, Alaska; these objects were purchased in 1924 for 500.

In the 19th century, many Native groups were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homelands onto reservations.
Art changed dramatically in response to these upheavals.
It is crucial not to view artworks created after these transformations as less culturally valuable due to the influence of European or Euro-American materials and subjects.

Many 20th and 21st-century artists, such as Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Sioux), Alex Janvier (Chipewyan [Dene]), and Robert Davidson (Haida), consider themselves to work within "traditional arts."
In 1958, Oscar Howe defended his methods in a letter after his work was deemed not "authentic" Native art.
Howe emphasized the power, strength, and individualism present in old Indian paintings and rejected the idea of being restricted to one phase of Indian painting.

The word "Indian" is considered offensive by many and originates from Christopher Columbus' mistaken belief that he had found India.
Various terms are used to describe the peoples of North America, including Native American, American Indian, Amerindian, Aboriginal, Native, Indigenous, First Nations, and First Peoples.
"Native American" is widely recognized but applies to peoples throughout the Americas.
It is important to represent individual cultures specifically, using tribal and First Nations names to avoid homogenization.

Native American and First Nations material prior to c. 1500 is in a separate section to include information about the Ancestral Puebloans, Moundbuilders, and Mississippian peoples.
Objects and buildings created after c. 1500 are in their own section to highlight the continuing diversity and transformations of Native groups.
Artists working after 1914 are located in both the Art of the Americas section and in modern and contemporary areas.

Many US state names are derived from Native American sources (e.g., Alabama, Arizona).
Common words like Pontiac, moose, raccoon, pecan, kayak, squash, and chipmunk also come from Native languages.
Pontiac was an 18th-century Ottawa chief who fought against the British.
"Moose" entered English in the early 17th century from Algonquian languages.

Historians often translate and transliterate terms, names, and words from different languages.
Translation renders words from one language to an approximate equivalent in another.
Transliteration reproduces sounds from one writing system to another based on phonetic similarity.
Variations in spelling occur due to the difficulty of replicating sounds across languages.
Example: Nasca and Nazca are used interchangeably, but generally, Nasca refers to the period and culture, while Nazca describes the region, town, and river.

The Maya writing system, dating back to 300 BCE, uses pictographic symbols (glyphs) to record entire words and syllables.
A single word could be written in different ways, and the same glyph could have multiple forms, making the script challenging to decipher.
Deciphering the Maya writing reconfigured understandings of the Maya and their history.

The chapter provides a brief overview of art, cultures, regions, and time periods of the ancient Americas.
It begins with North America and moves south to Mesoamerica and South America.
The original human occupants of the Americas arrived from Asia between 20,000 and 10,000 BCE.

Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde, Colorado
Mayan architecture of Chichen Itza
Nasca geoglyphs in Peru
Great Serpent Mound in Southwestern Ohio
Codex Féjervary-Mayer
Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan
Mayan Stele H at Copan, Honduras
Temple of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza
Smiling ceramic figurines of the Veracruz people from the Remojadas region of Mexico
Nasca geoglyphs with zoomorphic representations

Recognize land acknowledgements.
Analyze architectural and burial structures of Native American civilizations in North America.
Identify characteristics of the Olmec "Mother Culture" in later Mesoamerican cultures.

Commonly referred to as Native North American art includes peoples in the United States and Canada.
Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America are typically included in Mesoamerica.
Geographic divisions include Eastern Woodlands, Southwest and West (or California), Plains and Great Basin, and Northwest Coast and North (Sub-Arctic and Arctic).

Chronology varies by geographic region.
Examples include Late Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, and Fort Ancient periods in the Eastern Woodlands.
Basketmaker and Pueblo periods in the Southwest.
Terms like pre- and post-Contact and Reservation Era are also used.
The term Prehistory is problematic as it suggests Native peoples had no history before European contact.

Art historians traditionally separate Mesoamerica and the American Southwest, which is misleading.
Archaeological excavations at Pueblo Bonito connect Chacoan life and culture to Mesoamerica.
Cacao remnants in pottery and remains of Mexican birds indicate trade networks.

Important to name the culture and artist's identity, providing the nation or tribe's name in the original language when possible.
With contemporary artists, identify them as they self-identify.
Terminology evolves, and it's important to be adaptive and respectful.
Tribal names can be official federally recognized names, colloquial versions, settler-given names, or Native language names.
Settler-given names like Sioux and Winnebago are often not preferred.
Some settler-given names, like Osage, are acceptable.

Names of people or places may originate from outside cultures.
Some names have stuck, like "Teotihuacan," while others, like "Anasazi," have been rejected.
The preferred name for the ancestors of the Pueblo people is either the Ancient Puebloans or Ancestral Puebloans.
"Puebloan" comes from the Spanish word pueblo.
Some tribal nations embrace colonial Spanish names or the label of "Indian."
It is always recommended, when possible, to use the name preferred by a culture or individual.