Customer Reviews

The Early Years of Native American Art History: The Politics of Scholarship and Collecting (McLellan Books)

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This anthology illustrates the core problems in Native North American Art History by showing the paradoxes in its founding methodology. The essays deal directly with early scholars' and collectors' cultural barriers to understanding their subjects. The book provides examples of how to question the idealogical bases of what we often accept as the truth regarding the work.

I've found it to be immensely useful in a course that surveys the field; students develop a better appreciation for the work by studying the wider implications of ethnography and collecting. In particular, Marvin Cohodas' essay on Louisa Keyser often opens the way to new levels of understanding the contradictions in the discipline.

Anyone with a serious interest in native art should read this collection.