NATIVE AMERICAN ARTS

arts of the aboriginal Americans, often called American Indians. The art itself is often referred to as Indian art. The arts of the Eskimos, or Inuit, are also included in this article. To achieve an understanding of the art of aboriginal Americans requires at the outset a willingness to discard many long-standing preconceptions and judgments based upon an evaluation of Western art. Above all, it is important to recognize that the basic aesthetic tenets and artistic goals of Indian art are different from those of European-derived Western art; and any art critic employing the usual Western criteria in an attempt to comprehend Indian art is bound to be unsuccessful. At best, it is difficult for non-Indian peoples to evaluate Indian art. Although it is not necessarily true that one must be a Native American to appreciate Indian artor even, for example, a Navajo to understand the value of that people's earthenware and weavingit is true that the finer subtleties and depths of significance that are so obvious to the Indian are often lost to the non-Indian observer. Finally, the cultural interaction of the past five centuries between Europeans and their descendents and the aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere by and large has been one of extreme hostility, fraught with a considerable degree of cultural bias. Most, if not all, of the major commentaries on Indian cultures have been recorded by those who were natural enemies; the best eyewitness accounts of the Aztec, for example, were written by Spanish conquistadores and Roman Catholic missionaries. Even modern white ethnographers and historians, however sympathetic they might be, simply cannot ignore the fact that they are, after all, evaluating the product of cultures that their forebears successfully suppressed and of peoples who in many cases whites exterminated or drove to near extinction. This inevitably introduces emotional and psychological elements into the act of judgment that result in tremendous distortions. Not until the 20th century did Indian art begin to enjoy serious, balanced consideration, and even this has been in meagre terms. One of the major obstacles to a realistic evaluation and appreciation of Native American art by whites and other non-Indians is the belief held by many that the creators of Indian art are in some way primitive artists who occupy a place so close to nature that they somehow are endowed with a privileged status insofar as natural artistic expression is concerned. To regard an object or a ceremonial activity as a work of art simply because it was Indian-crafted defies reason. While it is reasonable to state that none of the Native American and Arctic tribes and peoples failed to develop some degree of artand many were responsible for aesthetic masterworksit would be misleading to declare that all of these expressions are equally impressive. The quality, beauty, and workmanship of these arts vary widely; for, just as in the Western world, there have been good and bad artists, and the fact that a native craftworker turned his or her hand to a given task in no way guaranteed success. Another obstacle to a full appreciation of the arts of Native American peoples is a belief held by many sympathetic viewers of aboriginal art: that there are eternal aesthetic truths, expressions of which can be found in all cultures, and that to the truly sensitive eye these aesthetic verities are manifest wholly independent of the particular cultural milieu, the purpose of the artistic expression, or the relative level of cultural development. The position taken in this discussion, therefore, is that, since the literature, music, dance, and visual arts of Native American and Arctic peoples did not evolve in isolation from the sociological, religious, and political milieus of those peoples, an understanding of the latter cannot be divorced from an appreciation of the former. Frederick J. Dockstader The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica This article addresses the arts of Native American and North American Arctic peoples, in relation to the culture and subcultures of each of these peoples and in relation to the predominantly European-based Western world. Additional reading Literature North America: United States and Canada Biographical and critical studies are found in two reference works, Janet Witalec, Jeffery Chapman, and Christopher Giroux (eds.), Native North American Literature (1994); and Andrew Wiget (ed.), Dictionary of Native American Literature (1994); the latter work also contains topical and genre essays. Bibliographies include Jack W. Marken (compiler), The American Indian Language and Literature (1978); Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., and James W. Parins, A Biobibliography of Native American Writers, 17721924 (1981), with more than 4,000 entries, and a supplement (1985); Roger O. Rock (compiler), The Native American in American Literature (1985), which includes regional and local works usually not found elsewhere; and A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff, American Indian Literatures (1990).Broad studies can be found in Garrick Mallery, Picture-Writing of the American Indians (1893, reprinted in 2 vol., 1972), an exhaustive consideration of the visual forms of communication adopted by many tribes, particularly strong in Plains Indian research; Stith Thompson (ed.), Tales of the North American Indians (1929, reprinted 1971), one of the earlier and more complete studies of American Indian legend; Abraham Chapman (ed.), Literature of the American Indians: Views and Interpretations: A Gathering of Indian Memories, Symbolic Contexts, and Literary Criticism (1975); Paula Gunn Allen (ed.), Studies in American Indian Literature: Critical Essays and Course Designs (1983), with a useful bibliography; John Bierhorst, The Mythology of North America (1985), a comparative analytic study; Gerald Vizenor (ed.), Narrative Chance: Postmodern Discourse on Native American Indian Literatures (1989), a collection of essays; Arnold Krupat, The Voice in the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon (1989), an analysis of the place of Native American literature in the body of American literature; A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff, Literatures of the American Indian (1991); and Louis Owens, Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel (1992), a critical study. Problems of translation are addressed by Brian Swann (ed.), On the Translation of Native American Literatures (1992), a collection of essays on both North and South American stories, most given bilingually, and Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of Native Literatures of North America (1994).Literature of the 20th century in particular is examined in Charles R. Larson, American Indian Fiction (1978); Kenneth Lincoln, Native American Renaissance (1983), a scholarly survey of songs, poems, tales, and novels; W.H. New (ed.), Native Writers and Canadian Writing (1990); Laura Coltelli (compiler and ed.), Winged Words: American Indian Writers Speak (1990); and Hartmut Lutz, Contemporary Challenges: Conversations with Canadian Native Authors (1991), interviews covering a variety of topics, such as literary influences and the issue of Native American voice and identity.Native American oratory is discussed in Melville Jacobs, The Content and Style of an Oral Literature: Clackamas Chinook Myths and Tales (1959), a discussion of a method by which oral literature can be understood in terms of its own content; Louis T. Jones, Aboriginal American Oratory (1965), a collection of Indian speeches and orations; Virginia Irving Armstrong (compiler), I Have Spoken: American History Through the Voices of the Indians (1971, reissued 1984), a graphic rsum of oratory from the 17th to the 20th century, emphasizing the eloquent speech of North American tribes; W.C. Vanderwerth (compiler), Indian Oratory: Famous Speeches by Noted Indian Chieftains (1971), a collection of orations by 37 individuals, recorded from 1750 to 1910; Dennis Tedlock, The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation (1983), a treatment of the oral traditions of the Zuni (of the southwestern United States) and the Quich (of Guatemala); Joel Sherzer and Anthony C. Woodbury (eds.), Native American Discourse: Poetics and Rhetoric (1987), a wide-ranging analysis that includes storiesboth ancient and modernfrom various Native American peoples; Brian Swann and Arnold Krupat (eds.), Recovering the Word: Essays on Native American Literature (1987); and David Murray, Forked Tongues: Speech, Writing, and Representation in North American Indian Texts (1991), with a focus on the translation and interpretation of Native American oral and written literature.Recent anthologies with useful introductions include John Bierhorst (compiler), In the Trail of the Wind (1971, reissued 1990), a survey of American Indian poetry from many tribes; Rayna Green (ed.), That's What She Said: Contemporary Poetry and Fiction by Native American Women (1984); and Jamake Highwater (ed.), Words in the Blood: Contemporary Indian Writers of North and South America (1984). Earlier collections include George W. Cronyn (ed.), The Path on the Rainbow: An Anthology of Songs and Chants from the Indians of North America, new and enlarged ed. (1934, reissued as American Indian Poetry, 1970), a volume of Indian poetry from many tribes; A. Grove Day, The Sky Clears: Poetry of the American Indians (1951, reissued 1983), a compilation of American Indian poetry, including more than 200 poems and lyrics from 40 tribes; and Knud Rasmussen (compiler and trans.), Beyond the High Hills (1961), a sensitive collection of poems from the Hudson Bay Eskimo people, illustrated with photographs. Mexico, Central America, and South America In addition to the relevant titles cited above, other useful texts include Delia Goetz and Sylvanus G. Morley (trans.), Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quich Maya (1950, reissued 1983), a complete version of the most important example of Maya literature to survive the conquest; Ralph L. Roys (trans.), The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, new ed. (1967), an account by the prophet of Chumayel village recorded in 1782, rich in Mayan ritual and oral traditions; Miguel Len-Portilla, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico (1969, reissued 1986; originally published in Spanish, 1964), a selection of myths, hymns, poetry, and prose accounts from Aztec, Maya, Mixtec-Zapotec, and Otom peoples of Mexico recorded and discussed in depth; John Bierhorst, The Mythology of South America (1988), and The Mythology of Mexico and Central America (1990), comparative studies; and Miguel Len-Portilla (ed.), Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World, trans. from Spanish (1992), a Nahuatl anthology with English translations and useful historical and biographical information. Erna Gunther The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Music North America: United States and Canada History and criticism are offered in Frances Densmore, The American Indians and Their Music (1926, reissued 1976), one of the first major studies of the subject that combined anthropological knowledge with sound musical training to produce a well-organized ethnomusicology; George Herzog, Research in Primitive and Folk Music in the United States (1936), a useful survey by a pioneer musicologist; Helen H. Roberts, Musical Areas in Aboriginal North America (1936, reprinted 1970), one of the earliest attempts to divide American Indian music into its geographic subdivisions; Bruno Nettl, North American Indian Musical Styles (1954), and Music in Primitive Culture (1956), representative works by a prolific ethnomusicologist with anthropological as well as musical training, including selected musical scores and bibliographies; Paul Collaer (ed.), Music of the Americas: An Illustrated Ethnology of the Eskimos and American Indian Peoples (1973; originally published in German, 1967), a magnificently illustrated study of the forms and instruments of the aborigines of the New World; and Marcia Herndon, Native American Music (1980), an analysis of the music of North America and Mexico.Works dealing with the music of specific tribes or with specific instrumentation include Frederick R. Burton, American Primitive Music (1909, reissued 1969), an important book because of its early exposition of the little-known Garden River Reserve area in Ontario and for its transcriptions of Indian hymnody; Frances Densmore, Chippewa Music, 2 vol. (191013, reprinted 1973), Teton Sioux Music (1918, reissued as Teton Music and Culture, 1992), Menominee Music (1932, reprinted 1972), and Music of Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico (1938), important books by a pioneer who spent a lifetime salvaging the lore of one tribe after another, transcribing tunes from recordingsearly cylinders, then discs, of poor fidelity but of inestimable cultural value; Bernard S. Mason, Drums, Tomtoms, and Rattles (1938, reissued 1974), a practical book on North American instruments; David P. McAllester, Peyote Music (1949, reprinted 1971), transcription and interpretation of the songs used in this semi-Christian, nativist cult, and Enemy Way Music (1954, reprinted 1973), one of the few books with musical scores of a Navajo curative rite, with valuable material on native aesthetic concepts; Alan P. Merriam, Ethnomusicology of the Flathead Indians (1967), an exhaustive study of the music of a Montana tribe, with musical scores, analyses, and historical notes by an anthropologist; Judith Vander, Songprints: The Musical Experience of Five Shoshone Women (1988), an easily accessible, ethnomusicological survey; and Bruno Nettl, Blackfoot Musical Thought: Comparative Perspectives (1989).Discussions of music and dance are presented in Gertrude P. Kurath, Iroquois Music and Dance (1964, reprinted 1977), transcription and analysis of many Seneca songs, from recordings by William N. Fenton and Martha Huot, with dance diagrams and interpretations from the author's fieldwork, and Music and Dance of the Tewa Pueblos (1970), background, choreography, music, photographs, and bibliography; Thomas Vennum, Jr., The Ojibwa Dance Drum: Its History and Construction (1982), with in-depth coverage of the use of drums in dance and ceremony; Jamake Highwater, Ritual of the Wind: North American Indian Ceremonies, Music, and Dance, new and rev. ed. (1984); James H. Howard and Victoria Lindsay Levine, Choctaw Music and Dance (1990); and William K. Powers, War Dance: Plains Indian Musical Perfomance (1990), an introductory text, particularly good on the Sioux.Native American songs are the focus of Natalie Curtis (Natalie Curtis Burlin) (ed.), The Indians' Book (1907, reprinted 1987), a pioneering collection of many tribal tunes, written down by ear and lucidly presented; Frank G. Speck, Ceremonial Songs of the Creek and Yuchi Indians (1911), and Penobscot Man (1940, reissued 1970), two reliable books by an anthropologist (also with comments on dance); Helen H. Roberts and D. Jenness, Eskimo Songs: Songs of the Copper Eskimos (1925); Helen H. Roberts and Morris Swadesh, Songs of the Nootka Indians of Western Vancouver Island (1955), with the previous study, two painstaking works with detailed musical scores and background notes; Wallace L. Chafe, Seneca Thanksgiving Rituals (1961), a painstaking transcription of texts and melodies by a musically trained linguist; Leanne Hinton and Lucille J. Watahomigie (eds.), Spirit Mountain: An Anthology of Yuman Story and Song (1984), legends and music from eight tribes in the original Native American language as well as an English translation, with helpful background information; and Richard Keeling, Cry for Luck: Sacred Song and Speech Among the Yurok, Hupa, and Karok Indians of Northwestern California (1992), a history and analysis. Mexico, Central America, and South America In addition to the applicable titles noted above, further works include Raoul D'Harcourt and Marguerite D'Harcourt, La Musique des Incas et ses survivances, 2 vol. (1925), still one of the most exhaustive studies of the ancient Inca and their music and its modern place in South America; Segundo Luis Moreno Andrade, La msica de los Incas (1957), a well-rounded survey, written by an Ecuadorean ethnomusicologist, of the ancient and contemporary Inca musical world; Robert Stevenson, Music in Aztec & Inca Territory (1968, reprinted 1976), a major survey of attitudes toward ancient music, its instrumentation, and social position in the two areas as well as much valuable material on dance at the time of the conquest; and Ellen B. Basso, A Musical View of the Universe: Kalapalo Myth and Ritual Performances (1985), an examination of the role of music in Kalapalo myth.Musical instruments are covered in Charles W. Mead, The Musical Instruments of the Inca (1924), an illustrated examination of various Peruvian examples, largely from the American Museum of Natural History collections; Karl Gustav Izikowitz, Musical and Other Sound Instruments of the South American Indians (1935, reissued 1970), a remarkable compilation of facts on the forms and functions of instruments; and Samuel Mart, Instrumentos musicales precortesianos, 2nd ed. (1968), a valuable description of native instruments, past and present, with excellent photographs, scales of prehistoric flutes, and notations of native South American and Middle American tunes.Music and dance are considered in Samuel Mart, Canto, danza y msica precortesianos (1961), thoroughly illustrated, with equal sections given to an examination of musical instruments, songs, and the forms of dance in pre-Columbian times, by one of Mexico's foremost ethnomusicologists; and Elisabeth Den Otter, Music and Dance of Indians and Mestizos in an Andean Valley of Peru (1985).Gilbert Chase, A Guide to the Music of Latin America, 2nd ed. rev. and enlarged (1962, reissued 1972), is an indispensable bibliography. Dance North America: United States and Canada Several suitable references on dance are found in the section on music above. Additional titles of interest are Erna Fergusson, Dancing Gods (1931, reissued 1988), an evaluation of ceremonial dances of the Indians of the Southwest; Curt Sachs, World History of the Dance (1937, reissued 1965; originally published in German, 1933), including several sections on various Indian tribal dance performances; Bernard S. Mason, Dances and Stories of the American Indian (1944), a well-illustrated work almost entirely concerned with North American Indian dance steps, forms, and costumes; John L. Squires and Robert E. McLean, American Indian Dances (1963), a volume intended primarily for hobbyist readers; Reginald Laubin and Gladys Laubin, Indian Dances of North America: Their Importance to Indian Life (1977, reissued 1989), highlighting dance of the Plains area, with discussion of the music, costumes, and religious meaning; and Charlotte Heth (ed.), Native American Dance: Ceremonies and Social Traditions (1992), a valuable collection of essays on the history and meaning of dance of North, Central, and South American tribes.Descriptive studies of the dance of specific tribes include Virginia More Roediger, Ceremonial Costumes of the Pueblo Indians (1941, reissued 1991), a superbly illustrated volume dealing with all Pueblo tribes and their ritual dress, including dance costumes; Frank G. Speck and Leonard Broom, Cherokee Dance and Drama (1951, reissued 1983), a specialized study of Eastern Cherokee dances and related ritual; Fred W. Voget, The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance (1984), a look at the incorporation of the Shoshoni Sun Dance into Crow culture; Frederick J. Dockstader, The Kachina and the White Man: The Influences of White Culture on the Hopi Kachina Cult, rev. and enlarged ed. (1985), a survey on the origin of Pueblo masked dances and their development among the Hopi people of Arizona; Alice Anne Callahan, The Osage Ceremonial Dance I'n-Lon-Schka (1990); and Thomas Yellowtail and Michael Oren Fitzgerald, Yellowtail, Crow Medicine Man and Sun Dance Chief: An Autobiography (1991), a serious study of Crow culture.Choreography is a major theme in Julia M. Buttree (Julia M. Seton), The Rhythm of the Red Man (1930), containing choreographies and some music; Bessie Evans and May G. Evans, American Indian Dance Steps (1931, reprinted 1975), descriptions of steps, six choreographies, and music; William N. Fenton and Gertrude P. Kurath, The Iroquois Eagle Dance: An Offshoot of the Calumet Dance (1953, reprinted 1991), history, choreographies, music, analysis, photographs, and bibliography; and Gertrude P. Kurath, Michigan Indian Festivals (1966), history, choreography, music, photographs, and bibliography. Mexico, Central America, and South America In addition to the related titles cited above and in the section on music, other helpful works include Auguste Genin, Notes on the Dances, Music, and Songs of the Ancient and Modern Mexicans (1922; originally published in French, 190810), a comparison of pre-Columbian with contemporary folk dances; Frances Toor, A Treasury of Mexican Folkways (1947, reissued 1985), a volume on folklore, including the dance, by a longtime resident of Mexico; Lisa Lekis, Folk Dances of Latin America (1958), an exhaustive bibliography, with historical notes and descriptions; Samuel Mart and Gertrude P. Kurath, Dances of Anhuac: The Choreography and Music of Precortesian Dances (1964), a thorough and well-illustrated analysis of the subject; and Carlos Vega, Las danzas populares argentinas, new ed. (1986), authoritative history, choreography, and some music. Gertrude Prokosch Kurath The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Visual and material arts General works Overviews of Native American art can be found in Miguel Covarrubias, The Eagle, the Jaguar, and the Serpent (1954, reissued 1967), a splendid volume on the arts of the Americas, with many line drawings and colour plates by the author, a major Mexican artist, continued by Indian Art of Mexico and Central America (1957), one of the best single treatments on the formative centuries of ancient Mexican civilization; Frederick J. Dockstader, Indian Art in America: The Arts and Crafts of the North American Indian, 3rd ed. (1966), a survey of the native arts of the United States and Canada, Indian Art in Middle America (also published as South American Indian Art, 1964), extending the area of study to the southern boundary of Panama, with particular emphasis on the lesser-known tribes of the region, and Indian Art in South America (1967), the final volume in this series, completing a survey of the entire range of aboriginal art of the New World; and Jamake Highwater, Arts of the Indian Americas: Leaves From the Sacred Tree (1983), an introduction to various art forms of the Americas.Studies of pre-Columbian art include Ferdinand Anton and Frederick J. Dockstader, Pre-Columbian Art and Later Tribal Arts (1968), a popular treatment that covers the Western Hemisphere, extremely valuable for the many illustrations, most of which are in colour; Pl Kelemen, Medieval American Art, 3rd rev. ed., 2 vol. (1969), a rich sourcebook of illustrations that includes the entire hemisphere; Jan Mitchell, The Art of Precolumbian Gold, ed. by Julie Jones (1985); and Manuel Lucena Salmoral, America 1492: Portrait of a Continent 500 Years Ago (1990; originally published in Spanish, 1990), providing an impressive pictorial glimpse of Native American life and art about 1492.Other works on Native American antiquities are Franz Boas, Primitive Art, new ed. (1955), a classic with considerable discussion of the place of native arts in European societyespecially helpful for the section on Northwest Coast art; Hans D. Disselhoff and Sigvald Linne, The Art of Ancient America (1960; originally published in German, 1955), a well-illustrated volume that concentrates primarily upon the prehistoric cultures of Central and South America and largely ignores North American Indian art; Geoffrey H.S. Bushnell, Ancient Arts of the Americas (1965), a general treatment of the Western Hemisphere, with greater attention given to Latin America; and Pl Kelemen, Art of the Americas, Ancient and Hispanic (1969), a well-illustrated study of the earlier periods of the Americas, particularly valuable for its inclusion of the colonial influences on Indian aesthetics. North America: United States and Canada Overviews are found in Frederic H. Douglas and Rene D'Harnoncourt, Indian Art of the United States (1941, reprinted 1969); Wolfgang Haberland, The Art of North America, rev. ed. (1968); Peter T. Furst and Jill L. Furst, North American Indian Art (1982), a wide-ranging study with illustrations; Edwin L. Wade and Carol Haralson (eds.), The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution (1986); Ralph T. Coe, Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art, 19651985 (1986), a treatment of the contemporary development of the native tradition; Jerry Jacka and Lois Essary Jacka, Beyond Tradition: Contemporary Indian Art and Its Evolution (1988); Christine Mather, Native America: Arts, Traditions, and Celebrations (1990); Christian F. Feest, Native Arts of North America, updated ed. (1992); David W. Penney and George C. Longfish, Native American Art (1994); and Jeremy Schmidt and Laine Thom, In the Spirit of Mother Earth: Nature in Native American Art (1994).Native American art of the Northwest Coast in particular is examined in Robert T. Davis, Native Arts of the Pacific Northwest (1949, reissued 1954); Robert B. Inverarity, Art of the Northwest Coast Indians (1950, reissued 1971); Dorothy Jean Ray, Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska (1977), and Aleut and Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in South Alaska (1981), useful studies covering history, analysis, and interpretation; Audrey Hawthorn, Kwakiutl Art (1979, reissued 1988), an informative history and assessment; Claude Lvi-Strauss, The Way of the Masks (1982; originally published in French, 1975); Bill Holm, The Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art (1983), an exhibition catalog featuring scholarly essays that cover various art forms from everyday to ceremonial; and Maximilien Bruggmann and Peter R. Gerber, Indians of the Northwest Coast (1989; originally published in German, 1987), an overview from the past to modern times. Totem poles of the Pacific Northwest are the subject of Marius Barbeau, Totem Poles, 2 vol. (195051, reissued 1990); Hilary Stewart, Totem Poles (1990); and Aldona Jonaitis, From the Land of the Totem Poles (1988). Other traditions are treated in Clara Lee Tanner, Southwest Indian Craft Arts (1968); Patrick Houlihan et al., Harmony by Hand: Art of the Southwest Indians, Basketry, Weaving, Pottery (1987); Helga Teiwes, Kachina Dolls: The Art of Hopi Carvers (1991); and Margaret Archuleta and Rennard Strickland (eds.), Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century , 2nd ed. (1993); and in these exhibition catalogs: David S. Brose, James A. Brown, and David W. Penney, Ancient Art of the American Woodland Indians (1985); Barbara A. Hail and Kate C. Duncan, Out of the North (1989), with extensive textual coverage of the arts of subarctic peoples; Diana Fane, Ira Jacknis, and Lise M. Breen, Objects of Myth and Memory (1991), a well-researched work covering the art of western North American native peoples in great detail; David W. Penney et al., Art of the American Indian Frontier (1992); and Evan M. Maurer et al., Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life (1992), with detailed essays.Treatments of various individual media are found in many specialized works. Discussions of architecture include Stephen C. Jett and Virginia E. Spencer, Navajo Architecture: Forms, History, Distributions (1981), a comprehensive survey; and Peter Nabokov and Robert Easton, Native American Architecture (1989). Basketry is the focus of Clara Lee Tanner, Apache Indian Baskets (1982), and Indian Baskets of the Southwest (1983); Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh and William A. Turnbaugh, Indian Baskets (1986), an introduction; Andrew Hunter Whiteford, Southwestern Indian Baskets: Their History and Their Makers (1988); Frank W. Porter III (compiler), Native American Basketry (1988), a sizable annotated bibliography highlighted by an interesting introductory history of Native American basketry; Craig D. Bates and Martha J. Lee, Tradition and Innovation: A Basket History of the Indians of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Area (1990); and Mary Dodds Schlick, Columbia River Basketry (1994). Beadwork and jewelry making are described in William C. Orchard, Beads and Beadwork of the American Indians, 2nd ed. (1975), the most complete single study of Western Hemisphere bead artistry; William A. Turnbaugh and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh, Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest (1988); Kate C. Duncan, Northern Athapaskan Art (1989), a discussion of the history of Athabascan beadwork and embroidery; and Dexter Cirillo, Southwestern Indian Jewelry (1992). The art of painting is portrayed in Dorothy Dunn, American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas (1968); Jamake Highwater, Song from the Earth: American Indian Painting (1976), tracing the history and evolution of painting since pre-Columbian times; Leland C. Wyman, Southwest Indian Drypainting (1983); Nancy J. Parezo, Navajo Sandpainting: From Religious Act to Commercial Art (1983, reprinted 1991); and J.J. Brody, Anasazi and Pueblo Painting (1991), a scholarly treatment. Pottery is described by Betty LeFree, Santa Clara Pottery Today (1975), an accessible survey of contemporary Pueblo pottery; J.J. Brody, Mimbres Painted Pottery (1977, reissued 1991), a history with illustrations; J.J. Brody, Catherine J. Scott, and Steven A. LeBlanc, Mimbres Pottery: Ancient Art of the American Southwest (1983); Russell P. Hartman and Stephen Trimble, Navajo Pottery: Traditions & Innovations (1987); Stewart Peckham, From This Earth: The Ancient Art of Pueblo Pottery (1990); Larry Frank and Francis H. Harlow, Historic Pottery of the Pueblo Indians, 16001880, 2nd ed. (1990), an attractive look at the evolution of Pueblo pottery; Rick Dillingham and Melinda Elliott, Acoma & Laguna Pottery (1992); and Stephen Trimble, Talking with the Clay: The Art of Pueblo Pottery, 2nd ed. (1993). On rock art, useful works are Polly Schaafsma, Indian Rock Art of the Southwest (1980); Campbell Grant, The Rock Art of the North American Indians (1983), a brief introduction; and P.S. Barry, Mystical Themes in Milk River Rock Art (1991), an examination of rock painting in Alberta. Sculpture is detailed in Wilson Duff, Images, Stone, B.C.: Thirty Centuries of Northwest Coast Indian Sculpture (1975), a catalog that attempts to interpret the meanings of the stone sculpture of the Northwest Coast; John C. Ewers, Plains Indian Sculpture: A Traditional Art from America's Heartland (1986); and George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, rev. and updated ed. (1992), a well-illustrated guide to art history and artists. Textiles and weaving are discussed in Charles Avery Amsden, Navaho Weaving: Its Technic and History (1934, reprinted 1991); Mary Hunt Kahlenberg and Anthony Berlant, The Navajo Blanket (1972); Anthony Berlant and Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, Walk in Beauty: The Navajo and Their Blankets (1977, reissued 1991); Kate Peck Kent, Prehistoric Textiles of the Southwest (1983), Pueblo Indian Textiles: A Living Tradition (1983), and Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries of Change (1985); Frederick J. Dockstader, The Song of the Loom: New Traditions in Navajo Weaving (1987); and Ann Lane Hedlund, Reflections of the Weaver's World (1992), the catalog of an exhibition of contemporary Navajo weaving. Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies Pre-Columbian art is discussed in Andr Emmerich, Art Before Columbus (1963, reissued 1983); Hasso Von Winning, Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America (1968); Jos Alcina Franch, Pre-Columbian Art (1983; originally published in French, 1978), a wide-ranging overview with more than 1,000 illustrations; George Kubler, The Art and Architecture of Ancient America: The Mexican, Maya, and Andean Peoples, 3rd ed. (1984, reprinted 1990); Gerald Berjonneau, Emile Deletaille, and Jean-Louis Sonnery, Rediscovered Masterpieces of Mesoamerica: Mexico-Guatemala-Honduras (1985); Mary Ellen Miller, The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec (1986); and Karl Taube, The Albers Collection of Pre-Columbian Art (1988), a catalog with scholarly notes.Mayan art is the focus of Herbert J. Spinden, A Study of Maya Art (1913, reissued 1975); Tatiana Proskouriakoff, An Album of Maya Architecture, new ed. (1963, reissued 1978); J. Eric Thompson, The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization, 2nd ed. enlarged (1966, reissued 1977); Henri Stierlin, Art of the Maya: From the Olmecs to the Toltec-Maya (1981; originally published in French, 1981); Sylvanus G. Morley and George W. Brainerd, The Ancient Maya, 4th ed. (1983); Mary Ellen Miller, The Murals of Bonampak (1986), a survey of the Mayan murals discovered at Bonampak in 1946; Linda Schele and Mary Ellen Miller, The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (1986), a presentation of the Maya through their art as a more violent people than is often thought; Elizabeth P. Benson and Gillett G. Griffin (eds.), Maya Iconography (1988), an introduction; and Carolyn E. Tate, Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City (1992), with a focus on architecture.Aztec art is considered in George C. Vaillant, The Aztecs of Mexico, new ed. (1975); Henri Stierlin, Art of the Aztecs and Its Origins (1982; originally published in French, 1982); and Esther Pasztory, Aztec Art (1983), a scholarly coverage of various Aztec art forms, accessible to the general reader.Other studies include Marshall H. Saville, The Goldsmith's Art in Ancient Mexico (1920); J. Walter Fewkes, A Prehistoric Island Culture Area of America (1922); Samuel K. Lothrop, Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, 2 vol. (1926); Wendell C. Bennett, Ancient Arts of the Andes (1954, reprinted 1966); Donald Robertson, Mexican Manuscript Painting of the Early Colonial Period (1959); Ignacio Marquina, Arquitectura prehispnica, 2nd ed. (1964); Serge Gruzinski, Painting the Conquest: The Mexican Indians and the European Renaissance (1992; originally published in French, 1991), exploring the conquest through the art found in contemporary documents; and Muriel P. Weaver, The Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors, 3rd ed. (1993). South America Several titles cited above include coverage of South American visual and material arts as well. Studies specifically on South America include, on pre-Columbian art, Samuel K. Lothrop, Treasures of Ancient America (1964, reissued 1979); Andr Emmerich, Sweat of the Sun and Tears of the Moon: Gold and Silver in Pre-Columbian Art (1965); and Ferdinand Anton, Ancient Peruvian Textiles (1987; originally published in German, 1984), an introductory study.Works dealing with the art of the Incas include John A. Mason, Ancient Civilizations of Peru, rev. ed. (1968, reissued 1991); and Henri Stierlin, Art of the Incas and Its Origins (1984; originally published in French, 1983), with helpful geographic background and maps.Other studies include Junius Bird and Louisa Bellinger, Paracas Fabrics and Nazca Needlework, 3rd Century B.C.3rd Century A.D. (1954); Raoul D'Harcourt, Textiles of Ancient Peru and Their Techniques (1962, reissued 1987; originally published in French, 1934); Alan R. Sawyer, Ancient Peruvian Ceramics (1966); Terence Grieder, The Art and Archaeology of Pashash (1978), an account of Peruvian art based on artifacts found in a burial site excavated in the 1970s; Dorothea S. Whitten and Norman E. Whitten, Jr., From Myth to Creation: Art from Amazonian Ecuador (1988), a scholarly treatment; and David M. Guss, To Weave and Sing: Art, Symbol, and Narrative in the South American Rain Forest (1989), a survey of the Yekuana of Venezuela, with a primary focus on their basket weaving. Frederick J. Dockstader The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Dance The dances of the American Indian peoples are comparable in many ways to the folk dances of Europe. They represent forms passed down over centuries and modified through interaction with foreign and other Indian cultures. The origins are similar, lying in religious rite; in attempts to invoke magic and thus cure illness or assure success in food production, hunting, and warfare; and in such life-passage rites as birth, puberty, and death. Nowhere among the many diverse Indian cultures is there a sense of dance comparable to that expressed in the staged art dance of the West. A number of influences from European dancing passed into the American Indian dance, but in many regions of the Western Hemisphere the traditional dances have been retained. The treatment of American Indian dance in this article is meant to focus first on certain general features of dance and their manifestation in a number of areas. The diversities existing within this larger framework then become apparent through consideration of the dances of the several cultural regions or tribal groupings. (Further reflections on nature and function, forms and techniques of dance will be found in the article folk art: Folk dance.) General characteristics of American Indian dance Among the essential factors in an overall picture of American Indian dance are the diverse types of dance, the organization of the dances in terms of participation, and the relations of man and deity expressed in the dances. In addition, a variety of other stylistic considerations are relevant, as are the foreign influences that have been absorbed. Music Native musicians of the New World have preserved many traditional songs and, at the same time, have also been receptive to European influence; thus, any examination of their music raises the problem of distinguishing native from hybrid music. This consideration of American Indian music involves an outline of the dominant features of native styles, such as melodic and rhythmic characteristics and the meaning of song texts, and includes a description of the principal musical instruments used. There follows an examination of the stylistic features of various Indian cultures within North America, Central America, and South America. Dominant native style The definition of the native American Indian musical style is complicated by variety between tribes and within tribal repertoires. It is feasible to approach the problem by contemplating the songs in prominent native rituals of four different North American tribesIroquois midwinter rites, Dakota war (grass) dance ceremonies, Pueblo plaza dances, and Navajo medicine ceremonies. An evident feature of the music is male dominance. Equally evident is the limitation of music to song, performed without harmonization and with percussion accompaniment. The singing voice is well supported from the diaphragm and has a pulsating quality caused by rhythmic expulsion of the breath. Yet within this basic vocal-tone quality the tribes show considerable variation. The voice of the Dakotas and other Great Plains Indians is shrill, loud, and ornate, compared with the full-toned vocalization of the other three tribesespecially the deep, rich Pueblo quality. Visual arts Regional styles of American Indian visual arts The term Indian art covers an extremely broad category, encompassing all art expressions of the original inhabitants of the Americas and their cognate descendants. It thus includes not only varied and completely disparate cultures but also spans great time sequencesfrom the mid-20th century back to prehistoric times. (Surviving artifacts clearly demonstrate that ancient man was already possessed of considerable aesthetic ability; flint, for example, was carefully flaked into attractive, well-balanced forms; and stone carving and pottery were capably handled.) Although the dissimilarities between the artistic expressions of different cultures and different times are great, there are also similarities; for the borrowing of art forms from distant and occasionally alien peoples was a common practice. Objects in museum collections reveal, for example, that prehistoric merchants travelled thousands of miles seeking and bringing back from other tribes such ornamental materials as feathers, shells, jade, and turquoise. This far-flung trade expanded the limits of tribal styles, for the Indian merchant returned with new ideas as well as materials. In time, new designs and motifs became part of the stylistic concepts and traditions of his own people. Intertribal marriage, too, affected regional styles. While in some tribes marriage within the group was required, in others it was forbidden. In the latter case, the girlwho was often the artisttook her own artistic traditions to the new group, into which they were subseque