Christer Lindberg - Magical Art - Art As Magic 2016
Christer Lindberg - Magical Art - Art As Magic 2016
Christer Lindberg - Magical Art - Art As Magic 2016
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Anthropos
Spencer, Baldwin
Magical
1932 Spencer's Scientific Correspondence with Sir J. G. Frazer Art - Art as Magic
and Others. Ed. by R. R. Marett and T. K. Penniman. Ox-
ford: Clarendon Press.
Christer Lindberg
Stipe, Claude E.
1980 Anthropologists versus Missionaries. The Influence of
Presuppositions. (With Comments and Reply.) Current
Anthropology 21/2: 165-179. We might label as "art" those artifacts that engender
a strong emotional effect in their societies of origin.
1987 Criticisms of Missionaries. Anthropological versus
Such
World- View Issues. In: K. J. Franklin (ed.), Current Con- objects have a symbolic content, and in addi-
cerns of Anthropologists and Missionaries; pp. 55-66.tion, the reaction to their meanings or significance
Dallas: The International Museum of Cultures.
must somehow be pleasurable, or at least engaging.
Stocking, George W., Jr. To apply this definition cross-culturally, it is neces-
1983 The Ethnographer's Magic. Fieldwork in British Anthro-
sary to identify the aesthetic component in the eval-
pology from Tylor to Malinowski. In: G. W. Stocking,
uations
Jr. (ed.), Observers Observed. Essays on Ethnographic
and choices people make beyond the prac-
tical or intellectual reasons they have (Sturtevant
Fieldwork; pp. 70-120. Madison: University of Wiscon-
sin Press. (History of Anthropology, 1) 1986: 25). Speaking about what once was called
Turner, Frank M. "primitive art," we can note a substantial change in
1993 Contesting Cultural Authority. Essays in Victorian Intel- perception of tribal objects. "To think of arts as
our
primitive is equivalent to regarding a mouse or dog
lectual Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Anthropos 111.2016
gonquians as the
as a primitive stage of Chippewa,
the Cree, and Winneba-
elephant
go, amongmade
portant statement whom it probablyby originated,
the spread- anth
Linton alreadyingin widely to1941" (Covarrub
the north, west, and south, from the
the end of theMackenzie
1800s, they
Valley of the Rocky were
Mountains so far as s
traditional to New Mexico (Covarrubiasbut
knowledge 1967: 276-279). Both
estheti
grotesque, and naive. The
realistic and geometric famous
motifs were painted and em- art
Warburg was one
broidered on of the
clothing. Micmac few
and Maliset, for ex- who
tive American ample,
art workedin his
in the four studies.
ritual colors of red, white, B
and 1930s, black, and
Native yellow (Glenbow Museumarts
American 1988: 25). beg
ed both as cultural
Embroidery cansymbols
be regarded as pre-European and
only es
pieces. The opposition between
in the Pueblo area. In the east, embroidery seems to cr
breaking downbe post-European,
as modern artists
which is most obviously the case m
return to primitivism, i.e.,
with commercial silk or cotton the art o
threads embroidery
on items of skin
oped" state whether inand clothing (Feest 1992: 153 f.).tech
subject,
"That tribal artWith the arrival of the Europeans, new
influenced materials
Picasso an
colleagues in significant ways
were introduced such as cloth, metal, bright paint is b
But that it caused no
pigment, dyed wool fundamental
yarn, mirrors, hawk bells, brass c
rection of modern art
tacks, glass beads, etc. Inis equally
the process of time, many tru
decorative patterns
17). James Clifford argues found in early quillwork
that sur- com
vived the transfer to beadwork,
primitive and modern art while are new designs
not at
historical interaction.
were adapted to the traditional
"Actually compositions of re- the
gional
ern artifacts are art styles (Ewing 1982:
similar only26). If you compare
in that
an objectillusionism
ture the pictorial made in the 1800s with one made or in 1900 scul
ism that came and toagain indominate
1950, you can find variations in Wester
design,
after the Renaissance" (Clifford
technique, and material, but the basic form is intact. 1
What has beenThese labeled
Algonquian tribes, asas well as primitiv
the Montag-
to a magical worldview
nais and Naskapi, also made utensils
in and which
vessels of o
songs, and even bent (agrostis)
words and sewn birchbark
possess decorated with a so
protective powerscrapedordesigns the
representingability
silhouettes of animalsto ca
and plantlike curvilinear,
other person. While ritual symmetric has designs. Such
been
ater to some extent by constitute
vessels of scraped birchbark anthropoloone of many
lels between thetraits these peoples have in common with
function of Siberia
relig
arts has been so(Covarrubias
to1967: a274). The connection tolesser
much the Old d
World can also be traced via
ly if we are to consider prehistoricpropert
the art from
Western art to be
the Old Bering "magical"
Sea culture, which is characterized in th
"primitive art."by Tribal
complex, streamlined forms, elaborate
art is usuallyharpoon
some Indian tribes inof unknown
heads, winged objects North use, handles, Amer
and
tures from Oceania (particularly
other objects in animal, human, or abstract shapes. t
and New Guinea), andwith
These are decorated African
engraved lines in fluid, soci
goń, Yuro, Guro,curvilinear
Dan, designs; circles and ellipses, sometimes
Yoruba, Fang,
Wogo. My articlesurmounting
will low, rounded
primarilyelevations that suggest deal
eyes; small
tive American art circles at the
(not theinner angle of two con-
achievem
porary Native verging lines; sweeping parallel
artists). AsUnes thebristUng with
arts an
tive North America are far more rich and diverse spurs or flanked by fine broken or dotted Unes (Co-
than the pieces from the Zuni of New Mexico, varrubias
the 1967: 143). The wide spectra of Native
American symbolism range from realistic render-
Northwest Coast Indians, or the Inuit, that usually
are identified as the Native art of America, a brief
ings of natural subjects and conventional render-
ings - including the many where formahzation has
presentation of artistic styles and traditions seems
necessary. been carried so far that the subject is almost unrec-
Perhaps the most typical of North Americanognizable - to invented and totally abstract geomet-
ric shapes (Spinden 1931: 4).
arts, unknown in the rest of the world, is porcupine
quillwork. It includes several different techniques The "X-Ray Style Art," in which internal fea-
by which the quills of the American porcupine are tures appear is clearly associated with shamanism.
worked into two-dimensional designs. This art had The skeletal structure and interior organs of the ani-
its greatest development among such northern Al- mal are represented, with special accent on the "life-
Anthropos 111.2016
historic cultural
line" leading from the development in the muck of Key nec
animal's
Marco, in the swamps
heart, or sometimes its of thestomach
Florida Keys. In 1895, or
of animal painting and
Frank Hamilton Cushing engraving
discovered hundreds of re-
across Siberia markable
into America
wooden objects: as a
masks, statuettes, painted
that included boards, shamanism, social
carved tablets, boxes, stools, spear-throw-
emonials, and ers, hafted adzes, saber clubs with shark's teeth, ca-
mythological ideas
prominent feature noe models, etc.
not Many ofonly
these shrank beyond
in rec- rock
decorative arts of the North American Pueblos and ognition in drying, but enough were saved to give
Plains tribes. In the Trans-Pecos region of Texas,us insight into a new aspect of Indian art: sculptures
of animals - pumas, deer, wolves, frigate birds, and
more than two hundred sites with pictorial represen-
tations of humans and animals are scattered in can-
alligators (Covarrubias 1967: 264-267).
yons and along cliffs above the Rio Grande, Pecos, Pottery - the oldest continuing artistic tradition
and Devil rivers. Some of these petroglyphs and in North America - is found in the Southwest among
rock paintings are clearly associated with shamanic
the Zuni, Acoma, Hopi, and other Pueblo tribes. All
rituals. As we will see, however, the act of paintingNative American pottery is made by hand, without
appears to be more significant than the result. The the use of the potter's wheel. The artist applied the
oldest pictographs in the so-called Pecos River Styledesign directly on the surface of the vessel, without
may date back some four thousand years or more. first making drawings (Maurer 1986: 153). Thus,
The most prominent motifs are anthropomorphic the aesthetic and technical quality of the object
figures, many of whom have sticks, staffs, clubs, became a visual metaphor for a spiritual attitude,
a mental state of being. Most Pueblo art has reli-
or an atlatl connected to the right hand for hunting.
The spiral is very common in Southwestern rock art,gious significance and is centered in the cult of dei-
probably symbolizing journeys to the centre. Otherties of the heavens, of maize, and of the Makers of
possible interpretations are emergence, migrations,the Rain, as well as of their spokesmen or messen-
whirlwind, water, and solstice markers. Whirlwinds ger spirits called katchinas. The rain-magic designs
were widely believed to carry ghosts, and the sha- of the Pueblo Indians are painted on pottery recep-
man's supernatural ability to fly was sometimes re-tacles and embroidered on clothing, which, there-
ferred to as "whirlwind power" (in an altered state fore, have the value of constant prayers. They are re-
rotation is one principle of mental imagery). Celes-peated on altars and altar screens. They are involved
tial phenomena, such as eclipses and planets, were in color patterns for the four cardinal points of the
depicted, but archaeoastronomical theories about earth as well as for the above and the below. The
the use of these places for solstice observation are
katchinas are also impersonated by dancers wear-
ethnographically unsupported. ing masks made of cylinders of leather and painted
The "California Tradition" of primarily painted with distinguishing marks of the specific katchinas,
art depicted circles, dots, disklike forms, ladders,
and with additions of gourd, wood, cloth, feathers,
parallel lines, diamonds, zigzags, handprints, stick-
and branches of pine. These masks and the geomet-
figure humans, and lizards. Geometric designs haveric headdresses of wood, which top them, are sacred
both a less visual resemblance to the things they (Covarrubias 1967: 225 f.).
portray and more power to portray several things Another important craft in the Southwest, and
at once. Most of the Colorado River rock art con- particularly in California, was basketmaking. The
sists of such geometric motifs and images that major
can basketry technique here as well as on the Up-
per Missouri is plaiting. Sometimes, such as with
be understood as depicting the mythical creation of
the construction of the Navajo ceremonial or wed-
the world. Mural painting with charcoal and mineral
ding tray, the construction was strictly regulat-
pigments, in the fresco-secco manner, is limited to
ed according to ritual requirements. Thus, the rim
the Pueblo area (the only one that had plaster walls).
The earliest known Pueblo murals date from around coil must always end in a direct line with the spirit
a.D. 1000, but it was in the period between 1300path that interrupts the interior design of the sa-
and the Spanish conquest that the art form reached cred mountains of the world. As exit and entry for
its highest development. Pueblo mural painting has
the supernaturais, this pathway must face the east
continued to the present, mostly in connection within times the basket is used ceremonially (Fürst and
ceremonial activities (Feest 1992: 90f.). Fürst 1982: 49).
In the southeastern part of the present-day Unit-An outstanding example of the Northwest Coast
art is the famous Seattle Totem Pole, carved in the
ed States, the general similarities in iconography
between the southern and the Mexican death cults mid-nineteenth century and erected in the Tlingit
village of Tongass, southeast Alaska. Totem poles
have been widely debated. Lesser known is the pre-
Anthropos 111.2016
Anthropos 111.2016
Anthropos 111.2016
Anthropos 111.2016
Anthropos 111.2016