This book traces the visual cultures and histories of Mami Wata and other African water divinities. Mami Wata, often portrayed with the head and torso of a woman and the tail of a fish, is at once beautiful, jealous, generous, seductive, and potentially deadly. A water spirit widely known across Africa and the African diaspora, her origins are said to lie "overseas," although she has been thoroughly incorporated into local beliefs and practics. She can bring good fortune in the form of money, and her power increased between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries, the era of growing international trade between Africa and the rest of the world. Her name, which may be translated as "Mother Water" or "Mistress Water," is pidgin English, a language developed to lubricate trade. Africans forcibly carried across the Atlantic as part of that "trade" brought with them their beliefs and practices honoring Mami Wata and other ancestral deities. Henry John Drewal is the Evjue-Bascom Professor of African and African Diaspora Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Other contributors include Marilyn Houlberg, Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Amy L. Noell, John W. Nunley, and Jill Salmons.

A broad-ranging retrospective on the transformation of Inuit art in the twentieth century, Inuit Modern features more than 175 works by seventy-five Inuit artists from one of the world's most comprehensive privately held collections of Inuit art: the Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection.
In response to new thinking about the North, Inuit Modern
Five leading experts on Inuit art have contributed essays and Ingo Hessel, the co-curator, introduces each full-colour plate section, providing a lively and insightful context for the artwork.
The Inuit voice is a critical component of Inuit Modern, complementing the scholarly essays. In their interviews, artists Zacharias Kunuk and David Ruben Piqtoukun offer the perspective of Inuit in the twenty-first century. Poems by the beloved writer Alootook Ipellie and quotes from Inuit artists appear throughout the book.

This publication brings together existing research as well as new data to show how Arnhem Land bark painting was critical in the making of Indigenous Australian contemporary art and the self-determination agendas of Indigenous Australians. It identifies how, when and what the shifts in the reception of the art were, especially as they occurred within institutional exhibition displays. Despite key studies already being published on the reception of Aboriginal art in this area, the overall process is not well known or always considered, while the focus has tended to be placed on Western Desert acrylic paintings. This text, however represents a refocus, and addresses this more fully by integrating Arnhem Land bark painting into the contemporary history of Aboriginal art. The trajectory moves from its understanding as a form of ethnographic art, to seeing it as conceptual art and appreciating it for its cultural agency and contemporaneity.

This volume investigates Pacific collections held in Australian museums, art galleries and archives, and the diverse group of 19th and 20th century collectors responsible for their acquisition. The nineteen essays reveal varied personal and institutional motivations that eventually led to the conservation, preservation and exhibition in Australia of a remarkable archive of Pacific Island material objects, art and crafts, photographs and documents. Hunting the Collectors benchmarks the importance of Pacific Collections in Australia and is a timely contribution to the worldwide renaissance of interest in Oceanic arts and cultures. The essays suggest that the custodial role is not fixed and immutable but fluctuates with the perceived importance of the collection, which in turn fluctuates with the level of national interest in the Pacific neighbourhood. This cyclical rise and fall of Australian interest in the Pacific Islands means many of the valuable early collections in state and later national repositories and institutions have been rarely exhibited or published. But, as the authors note, enthusiastic museum anthropologists, curators, collection managers and university-based scholars across Australia, and worldwide, have persisted with research on material collected in the Pacific.

Contemporary Nati ve American artists have a strong presence in the North American and international art markets. This talented group's work can be found in many annual events, an ever-changing array of fine art galleries, and a number of museums throughout North America. These artists give visible form to the past, present, and future of American Indian life. In Contemporary Native American Artists, key luminaries of the Native American art world are brought together through stunning photography and intimate portrayals of their lives and art.

Suzanne Deats, a graduate of the University of New Mexico, is an artist and art critic. She worked at the Santa Fe Reporter for seven years before writing magazine articles and a number of books about artists and fine arts. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Kitty Leaken, a seasoned photojournalist, creates documentaries that preserve art and culture of native peoples in Tibet and Sri Lanka. She graduated from Stanford University, has provided photography for several books, and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A celebration of key Native American artists

Taking as its departure point Bernard Smith's classic study, European Vision and the South Pacific (1960), Double Vision explores the ambivalences of European perceptions of the Pacific and juxtaposes them with the indigenous visual cultures that challenge Western assumptions about art and representation. Double Vision addresses these larger interpretive questions through case studies of the cultures of voyages, colonial art, and indigenous affirmations of identity. It suggests that images and texts can be combined through a new practice of innovative, visually oriented cultural history. This approach yields a fresh understanding of history, colonialism and culture in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Double Vision is a challenging combination of visual and textual inquiry, and its outstanding list of contributors offers a fresh perspective on art and history in the Pacific.

El Anatsu began his artistic career as a young artist in Ghana, where he built sculpture primarily from wood. He has continued to use wood throughout his practice, particularly during his early years as lecturer of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. As his art grew, so too did the range of his materials. Over three decades he has incorporated found metal and other media, infusing the work with references to personal, cultural, and global histories. At the Venice Biennale in 2007 El Anatsui stunned the world with two monumental sculptures made from thousands of liquor-bottle tops stretched between columns.

This career retrospective includes a selection of the artist's most important objects, including ceramic, wood, and metal pieces as well as rare paintings, prints, and drawings that complement his sculpture. This is Anatsui's most comprehensive exhibition to date.

Lisa M. Binder is assistant curator at the Museum for African Art, New York. Other contributors include Kwame Anthony Appiah, Olu Oguibe, Chika Okeke-Agulu, and Robert Storr.

Mesoamerican Manuscripts: New Scientific Approaches and Interpretations brings together a wide range of modern approaches to the study of pre-colonial and early colonial Mesoamerican manuscripts. This includes innovative studies of materiality through the application of non-invasive spectroscopy and imaging techniques, as well as new insights into the meaning of these manuscripts and related visual art, stemming from a post-colonial indigenous perspective. This cross- and interdisciplinary work shows on the one hand the value of collaboration of specialists in different field, but also the multiple viewpoints that are possible when these types of complex cultural expressions are approached from varied cultural and scientific backgrounds. Contributors are: Omar Aguilar Sanchez, Paul van den Akker, Maria Isabel Alvarez Icaza Longoria, Frances F. Berdan, David Buti, Laura Cartechini, Davide Domenici, Laura Filloy Nadal, Alessia Frassani, Francesca Gabrieli, Maarten E.R.G.N. Jansen, Rosemary A. Joyce, Jorge Gomez Tejada, Chiara Grazia, David Howell, Virginia M. Llado-Buisan, Leonardo Lopez Lujan, Raul Macuil Martinez, Manuel May Castillo, Costanza Miliani, Maria Olvido Moreno Guzman, Gabina Aurora Perez Jimenez, Araceli Rojas, Aldo Romani, Francesca Rosi, Antonio Sgamellotti, Ludo Snijders, and Tim Zaman.

Along the Atlantic seaboard, from Scotland to Spain, are numerous rock carvings made four to five thousand years ago, whose interpretation poses a major challenge to the archaeologist.
In the first full-length treatment of the subject, based largely on new fieldwork, Richard Bradley argues that these carvings should be interpreted as a series of symbolic messages that are shared between monuments, artefacts and natural places in the landscape. He discusses the cultural setting of the rock carvings and the ways in which they can be interpreted in relation to ancient land use, the creation of ritual monuments and the burial of the dead. Integrating this fascinating yet little-known material into the mainstream of prehistoric studies, Richard Bradley demonstrates that these carvings played a fundamental role in the organization of the prehistoric landscape.

This study focuses on the altars of the major annual Hopi ceremonials which display ritual objects, the possession and use of which give religious and secular power. With the importance of such objects in mind, an iconographic study of Hopi religion is particularly illuminating. This study aims to demonstrate how to view Hopi altars and is supplemented by a theory of the mechanics of efficacy in the Hopi altar context.
The text provides a general introduction to Hopi religious practice and distinguishes three levels of information: 1) the calendrical and ritual contexts of Hopi altars, 2) the functions of these altars within those contexts, and 3) the iconography and iconology of the altars, understood here in a literal sense as the study of the forms and structures of the altars on the one hand and the study of the implicit and explicit symbology of the altars on the other.
The book provides keys to understanding through exemplification and typology, and is meant to be of particular use to museums and research libraries.

The appealing, affordable, Native American art of "flat pots."
The Hopi people of northern Arizona and their Pueblo relatives in New Mexico are famous for their fine pottery jars, bowls, and figures. But they also have a less well-known tradition: the making of unique, handcrafted clay tiles, beginning with ancient altarpieces and progressing to one-of-a-kind contemporary art tiles prized by collectors. Recently a few Navajo potters have also started to experiment with this special form--an attractive, affordable, and highly collectible Native American art. Profusely illustrated, with a foreword by the noted anthropologist and artist Barton Wright, "Hopi and Pueblo Tiles" is the first full-length study of these charming "flat pots." 80 color & b/w photos.

A tradition that dates back almost ten thousand years, basketry is an integral aspect of Cherokee culture. In the mountains of Western North Carolina, stunning baskets are still made from rivercane, white oak and honeysuckle and dyed with roots and bark. "Cherokee Basketry" describes the craft's forms, functions and methods and records the tradition's celebrated makers. This complex art- passed down from mothers to daughters- is a thread that bonds modern Native Americans to ancestors and traditional ways of life. Anna Fariello, associate professor at Western Carolina University, reveals that baskets hold much more than food and clothing. Woven with the stories of those who produce and use them, these masterpieces remain a powerful testament to creativity and imagination.

This is a comprehensive study of the rock engravings of southern Africa, illustrating the major and more interesting engravings made by the Bushmen of the region. The beauty and variety of these engravings is revealed in full-colour photographs and rubbings. Their significance, meaning and mode of execution are discussed in the accompanying text, where the importance of the site is also explained. Thomas Dowson's research shows that there are strong indications that engravings, like rock paintings, have ritual associations and that they were executed by shamans after trance. Interviews with some of the present inhabitants of the region, and folk tales relating to the animals depicted in the engravings, amplify our understanding of the creative impetus responsible for these masterpieces. This book is a tribute to the Bushmen engravers of successive ages and to the magnificence of their work. It should be appreciated by archaeologists, anthropologists and students of southern Africa.

A collection of traditional Aboriginal paintings which spans decades and which displays the distinctive styles of two regions of Australia: the western desert and Arnhem Land. The paintings are simply presented to be easily appreciated, with brief notes on information provided by the artists themselves.

The Haida world is a misty archipelago a hundred stormy miles off the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. For a thousand years and more before the Europeans came, a great culture flourished in these islands. The masterworks of classical Haida sculpture, now enshrined in many of the world's great museums, range from exquisite tiny amulets to magnificent huge housepoles. Classical Haida literature is every bit as various and fine. It extends from tiny jewels crafted by master songmakers to elaborate mythic cycles lasting many hours. The linguist and ethnographer John Swanton took dictation from the last great Haida-speaking storytellers, poets and historians from the fall of 1900 through the summer of 1901. His Haida hosts and colleagues had been raised in a wholly oral world where the mythic and the personal interpenetrate completely. They joined forces with their visitor, consciously creating a great treasury of Haida oral literature in written form. Poet and linguist Robert Bringhurst has worked for many years with these century-old manuscripts, which have waited until now for the broad recognition they deserve. Bringhurst brings these works to life in the English language and sets them in a context just as rich as the stories themselves--one that reaches out to dozens of Native American oral literatures, and to mythtelling traditions around the globe. The world of classical Haida literature is a world as deep as the ocean, as close as the heart and as elusive as the Raven, whose unrepentant laugh persists within it all. This is a tradition brimming with profundity, hilariy and love. It belongs where Bringhurst sees it: among the great traditions of the world. Bringhurst, an acclaimed typographer and book designer, will be redesigning this edition in a beautiful new package.

Combining photography with collected observations, this book documents a group of Native American artists examining the relationship between native and contemporary and traditional and innovative artistic endeavors. On view at the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, October 1994.

Native Modernism: The Art of George Morrison and Allan Houser showcases magnificent paintings, drawings, and sculptures by two highly acclaimed artists. In this groundbreaking, beautifully illustrated book, distinguished Native American writers and scholars add a rich new dimension to previously published accounts of Native American art with a fascinating exploration of Morrison's and Houser's work in the context of contemporary art, Native American art history, and cultural identity. George Morrison (Grand Portage Band of Chippewa, 1919-2000) and Allan Houser (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache, 1914-1994) shattered expectations for Native art, and paved the way for successive generations to experiment with a wide array of styles and techniques. Born in a small Chippewa community in Minnesota, Morrison traveled and studied in New York City and Europe during an extraordinarily creative period in twentieth-century art. He emerged triumphantly as both a major American artist and an Indian artist. Often described as an abstract expressionist, Morrison developed, in such celebrated series as his Horizon paintings, a non-figurative visual language. Sculptor and painter Allan Houser also forged a unique path that redefined the way art by Native Americans is viewed and understood. The work of this prominent twentieth-century artist has appeared in important exhibitions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and his monumental bronze Offering of the Sacred Pipe, installed at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, has become a worldwide symbol of peace.

Germaine Arnaktauyok is one of the Canadian North's most prolific and recognizable artists. In this book, she tells the story of her life in her own words: her "very traditional Inuk life" growing up in Nunavut at a camp near Igloolik, and her experiences later in a residential school in Chesterfield Inlet; her education as an artist in Winnipeg and Ottawa; and her return to the North, where she continues to create drawings, etchings, and illustrations that have been featured in museums and galleries worldwide. She also provides commentary on several of her works, offering a seldom seen perspective on her inspiration and process. Featuring over one hundred full-colour reproductions of Germaine Arnaktauyok's fascinating pieces from throughout her career, this beautiful book provides an in-depth look at one of the world's most important artists.

This is the only specifically designed key to the interpretation of American rock art. The Field Guide brings together 600 commentaries on specific symbols by over 100 archaeologists, researchers, and Native American informants. Covers the northern states of Mexico to Utah and from California to Colorado.