Monday April 14, 2014

Test Day

-Essay Outline given out
-Readings- The East Page 71-79 and pg 88-105

Tuesday April 15, 2014

The East

Home of the Mi’kmaq, Iroquois, Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mesquakie and Anishinabe.

As a culture area- Bound by the Mississippi Valley (West) and the Atlantic Ocean( east), Gulf of Mexico (south) and Great Lakes, Ottawa & St. Lawrence River-known as the Woodlands

Huge geographic area has diverse climate and history however it is linguistically homogenous- Algonkian Iroquoian and Muskogean (With smaller groups of Siouan around the great lakes

Secondly- trade route unified North/South, East/West

This allowed new crops, exotic materials for art to spread as well as spiritual, political and artistic ideas.

Hunting cultures, burial practices, and Early Woodlands art Forms (PAGE 75)

Archaic period of Woodlands Peoples developed characteristics spiritual and ceremonial practices, such as ritual preparation of the dead and the placement of red ochre, rattles and smoking pipes in graves.

Banner stones- used to weigh atlatls (Page 10, used to throw spears further), spear points made of copper (not for practical use) but used as effigies (model/representation) of tools and thus valued for symbolic and aesthetic worth rather than efficiency

Large scale earthworks used as burial sites and ceremonial centre

1800-500 BCE cultures left beads and pendants depicting owls, falcons and humans.

Woodland period

300-BCE-1000CE Early, middle and late woodland periods

Pottery was established, burial mounds, large scale embankments and fine works of art

Adena people are known for tablets and pipes

Early-Middle period Woodland peoples became known in Ohio Valley for high elaborate burials

Hopewell people placed an unprecedented amount of offerings of luxury good and works of art- that were skillfully executed and abundantly place within tons of earth. (EX) envelop a corpse from head to feet in pearls, to weigh it down in many pounds of copper and surround it with the sculpture and pottery.

Exchange network- Great Lakes Copper, Gulf Coast shell, rocky mountain Grizzly bear teeth, Florida alligator and shark teeth and Appalachian Mica are found- transmitted similar artists concepts and culture inventions throughout the region.

Hopewell Artist

PICTURE PAGE 77

Mica ornament 200bce- 400bce

Elegantly shaped hand- placed in an elite grave together with many other gifts, including other mica effigies shell and river pearl ornaments, and objects of copper stone and bone

The holes that perforate the palm suggest it was worn as a pendant

The hand motif may have represented both an ancestral relic and a symbol of the potency and creativity of the empowered human being

Shell Gorget (1200-1350 CE)

Woodlands culture 4 ½ inches, conch Shell

Shell Gorgets were suspended from the wearers neck as throat armor or ornamentation. The image depicts a kilted human figure holding a rattle and a raccoon pelt. It may represent ritual transformation of a bird-man or raccoon man

Woodland period Continued

Visual iconography- primary cosmic power attributed to sky beings, imagine as predatory, raptorial (Falcon or eagle-like) birds

Earth and water beings combine horned long-tail, panther like and amphibian traits, such as being with two pairs of curved horns, a reptilian skim, panther body and tail, was represented 1500 years ago by Hopewell Culture, in rock painting during time of contact and by weavers just 200 years ago.

Bear claw print, raptorial bird, cosmological symbols of the circle and cross of four directions are found in the large scale geometries of mounds and the designs of individual ornaments

Eastern woodlands- intensively cultivated corn in the middle to late woodland period, which allowed population growth and density.

Flat Pouch Odawa/Ottawa culture

Eastern Great lakes c. 1780 Black dyed deerskin, porcupine quills, 10 ½ x 8 “

Pouches of this type were worn on the chest by means of a neck strap

The quill work decoration represents thunderbirds, snakes or horned underwater panthers as here

It is thought that these pouches held charms related to hunting as well as pipes and tobacco which were used in ritual to honor the game spirits

Tabbed skin bag

Ottawa or cultural relatives.

Eastern Great Lakes c.1790 Black Dyed Deer skin, porcupine quills, silk binding, hair tassles, tin cones 20 ½ “

The fundamental concepts of sky, earth and underworld are represented in quill-work design by

The Thunder Bird

A stylized plant form on a horizontal band

And abstracted reptiles reduced to two diagonal lines.

Early Contact period in the North East

First contact on coastal regions was not sustained until early 17^th C established colonies an Atlantic coast and lower St. Lawrence River

Fur trade flourished with beaver pelt for felt hats.

Interior people began to see new trade networks in 1500’s with an influx of exotic goods which were assimilated to existing belief systems, enriching rather than altering artistic and ceremonial life.

The persistence, after thousands years, of the same symbolic language of materials- red stone, white hell, shiny material- that characterizes Adena and Hopewell burials is striking

Trade and commerce by Aboriginal Peoples were motivated by values place on the symbolic and spiritual qualities attached to certain classes of materials used in ceremonial life.

Gift such as crystals, copper and shells- all medicine substances with life giving, healing properties were analogous to mirrors, glass beads, trade silver and metals- with the similar physical properties of whiteness, brightness, reflectiveness and transparency.

Arts of the middle Ground

Gift giving was a major motivation for Native Trade

Ex. Feast of the dead (pg.89-90) Descriptions from Jesuit Relations reveal prepared gifts besides shell, stone, pottery and glass (durable) used the skills of hide tanner, painter embroiderer in porcupine quills and moose hair, the weaver and the wood carver for artistic production.

Encroachment/pressure exerted by colonist moving westward and high for the control of European trade led to the dispersal- violent and bloody- of the Huron and The Neutral- not as an extinction but as a radical recombination of cultural groups

Huron and other Iroquoians from the eastern Great Lakes mingled with the Odawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi…known collectively as the Anishinabe today.

Long distance travel- led to recombination of cultural groups and an unprecedented era of hybridity- “world of flux” Arts of healing and diplomacy were prevalent

Three main ritual complexes at this time (ON TEST)

1. Midewiwin Grand Medicine Society of the Great Lakes Peoples

2. The Calumet/Pipe ceremony

3. Wampum exchange

There was an elaboration of the healing arts- Midewiwin- secret societies of male/females practitioners ensured health of individuals and society safe travel to next world

Basic practices are ancient birch bark scrolls are incised with figures of animals and anthromorphic beings, drawn sparsely

Used as mnemonic aids that codify the Society’s oral traditions and ritual procedures used in the spiritual realm.

This is also seen in rock painting on drums, wooden song board and other Anishinabe rituals objects such as bags and boxes.

Calumet/Pipe and Wampum- intended to promote harmony among communities- Pipe ceremony was prevalent on the Plains and spread east to the Iroquois

Pipes were often carved in animal forms, a possible reference to the owner’s guardian spirit or hereditary clan.

Pipe smoking was used to concentrate one’s thoughts, and the effigy of one’s guardian spirit served the mediation of vision-dreams and the fostering of a good relationship with one’s guardian spirit

Carved stone bowl- usually made of red catlinite or pipestone- symbolizes the earth with its feminine regenerative powers

While the long stem- decorated with porcupine quills, paint, eagle feathers and other materials, symbolizes the male energizing powers of the sky world.

Test question, What is the importance of pipes?

Extra points if you include: Pipes were used as an art of diplomacy.

Eastern Ojibwa Effigy Pipe Bowl

Wooden pipe bowl with a bear effigy and lead inlay in bowl.

Since early colonial times these wooden pipe bowls were usually lined with metal

Most of the effigies on these pipes bowls are self-directed – the face of the effigie is directed towards the one smoking

The decorative chevron pattern along the side of this pipe cowl, while somewhat usual resembles the decorative motif on a very similar pipe bowl acquired in the Detroit region about 1800 (c.f Phillips 1984:Fig 45) This notable similarity as well as other evidence suggest that the manufacture of such pipe bowls was done by specialist and attribute the pipe to Eastern Great Lakes.

The flat bottom of the pipe is inlaid with the lead figure of an otterskin

Wampum

Wampum 17^th and 18^th century- used to commemorate blessed legal agreements and imposed political order

The Whelk (spiral) and quahog (clam) shell made wampum beads- white and purple- white shell- signified peace healing and enlightenment and were exchanged on strings and woven into belts

Belts served as mnemonic devices remembered by designated wampum keeps- display and recitation of history- reminded parties of the agreements made by ancestors.

Exchanges of wampum were regarded as legal transactions confirming- a covenant- a solemn agreement between parties and witnessed by the higher power and are still used today to supper land claims and cultural agreements (TEST)

Iroquois Confederacy- Haudenosaunee- Wampum was introduced when the Creator dried up a lake, revealing white- shell beads on its bed in order to condole Ayonhwatha (Hiawathe) made the shells into strings of beads to symbols and externalize his grief was he able to join the peacemaker Deganawidah in reconciling the warring Iroquois Nations Deganawidah later used Ayonhwatha’s wampum in an important ritual of renewal.

Two-Row Wampum

Iroquois Confederacy Belt

Tuesday April 15,2014

Arts of self-adornment

The body was one of the most important spaces for visual artistic expression and ritual dress was reserved for celebrations and formal occasions.

Also used decorative elements on clubs, pouches and medicine bundle covers- and hair was carefully groomed and adorned.

Tanned deerskin, smoking hides used wood in carefully calculated lengths of time to achiever particular colors and odors

Eastern Peoples used mineral pigments of black, white and red painting curvilinear designs and patterned strips, edges’ were embroidered with porcupine quills and shell beads.

Red Stroud- a red wool trade cloth- from English mills is highly valued for quality and colors with resembled the ochre that indigenous peoples have valued for millennia as medicine and paint

Adaptation cloth and ribbon replaced hide and paint beads replaced porcupine quills.

Woodlands Shirt

http://www2.artsmia.org/blogs/blog/2011/07/08/woodlands-shirt-technology-enhancing-art-and-history/

A history of bags

Oldest examples of bags show entire animals skins or of hide cut into rectangular pouches, both types worn folded over the belt.

Bandolier- a rectangular or square bag with a bandolier strap- copied from European uniforms was popular but still used the images of thunderbirds, underwater panthers or abstract designs.

Finger woven bags or twined bags were used in pre-contact and made of nettle fiber, wood fiber, or animal hair- designs symbolizing powers indicated that these most likely served as containers for medicine bundles.

In the late 1800’s women experimented with various techniques such as quillwork on looms, weaving beads instead of quills, replacing hide with fabric and dyed deer hair with wool yarn

Twined Bag

It is hypothesized that the use of floral work was introduced by Ursuline nuns or by the introduction of European floral imagery on textiles, ceramics and interior decoration however it is noted that “none of their realizations of floral designs in media as diverse as porcupine quillwork, beadwork or silk embroidery is stylistically identical to a European prototype” (pg.102)

Vegetation- flowers/plants-figure prominently in oral traditions and are revered within Native spiritual systems as an essential part of the cycle of Creation

Plants were used within healing practices and berries play an important role as ritual foods- symbolizing seasonal renewal

Native arts became commodity- new styles and the types of commodities- demonstrated creativity but was also motivated by the extreme economic deprivation brought about by forced removal and government policies

Native arts were supported by a mixed economic base of travel and trade 1830’s -1930’s helped along by a tourist market of coastal resorts, summerfairs, vacation sites and destinations

Bandolier Bag

Ojibwa cloth bandolier bag with small back pocket

Bag is spot stitched decorated with multicolored glass seed beads in curvilinear floral designs on a translucent bead background and bound with blue and red wool tape. Thread fringe is decorated with green bugle beads and pink wool tassels

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The West- The Great Plains and Plateau Region

Division between male and female arts, they were gender specific.

http://www.redeyevideo.org/SBP.html

Unkan Pete Catches- Blood Clots were the people.

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National Museum of the American Indian- His fight's horse raiding story