Native Arts Of North America, Africa, And The South Pacific: An Introduction (Icon Editions) [Paperback]

George A. Corbin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0064301745 | ISBN-13: 978-0064301749 | Publication Date: June 1, 1988 | Edition: 1st

This introduction to the art of tribal peoples of North America, Africa, and the South Pacific does not briefly cover the hundreds of artistic traditions in these three vast areas but rather studies in depth thirty-six art styles within all three areas using the methods of art history, including stylistic analysis and iconographic interpretation. Emphasis is on the art in cultural context and as a system of visual communication within each tribal area. Where appropriate for a more complete understanding of the art, data from archaeology, ethnology, linguistics, religion, and other humanistic disciplines are included.Among the peoples and cultures whose art is studied are the Haida, Kwakiutl, and Tlingit; the Hohokam and Mongollon, the Anasazi and Hopi; the Dogon and Bamana of Mali; the Asante of Ghana; the Benin, Yoruba, and Ibo of Nigeria; the Fan, the Bamum, and the Kuba of Central Africa; Australian aboriginal and Island New Guinea art; Island Melanesia art; central and eastern Polynesia; Hawaii and the Maori in Marginal Polynesia.The format of the text and selected illustrations is based on seventeen years of teaching African, North American Indian, and South Pacific art to undergraduate and graduate students at Herbert H. Lehman College (CUNY), New York University, and Columbia University. The book is intended for art history and anthropology students and the interested lay reader or collector. The detailed notes at the end of the book are for further study, research, and understanding of the tribal art style under discussion.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; 1st edition (June 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064301745
• ISBN-13: 978-0064301749
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Prehistoric & Primitive

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Googling for Corbin, February 13, 2010

By 

Kathleen C. Ambrose (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Native Arts Of North America, Africa, And The South Pacific: An Introduction (Icon Editions) (Paperback)

I am at a total loss whenever I attend a social function and the host introduces four or five people whom I've never met before. I struggle to remember their names and try to discreetly interrogate them regarding their interrelationships, but I am able only to create a vague picture. Why did the host invite these particular people and why did he believe I would be interested in meeting them? This is analogous to the introduction Corbin offers in his book. The author simply declares that the book was "written from the point of view of an art historian" and contains selected art styles (1). For me, it is a good thing that he decided to select a limited number of traditions instead of trying to cover everything, but he never explains why these particular groups were chosen, or the criteria he used to make his choice. He states that the text will analyze the "formal qualities of the art" within the cultural context, but there is no discussion of methodology or mention of cross-cultural aspects. Instead, he begins with an overview of "three broad categories of traditional art" (2); the first two categories being body decoration and masking and the third, I construed, being architecture/handicrafts. All of the information contained in these categories resulted in hours of Googling. The upside was I finally used most of my reference books on Native Americans that have been lying dormant since I purchased them. The downside was, by page seven, I was exhausted and frustrated.

The introductory section on Native American body decoration includes illustrations of a Mandan (Google) chief and a tattooed Haidan (Google) couple. Corbin discusses the symbolism of Mandan chief's decorations, but forgoes analysis of Haidan tattoos. For that, I had to check the footnote and download the Swan Report (Google:see Swan, J.G. Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology Google Books. Retrieved on January 25, 2010) referenced in his footnote. He then jumps to body decoration in Cameroon that includes a photo of a decorated Northern Cameroon woman that, as if I couldn't see the photo, he describes in detail. He offers no explanation regarding the symbolism of the decorations, stating: "[V]ery little is known about the symbolism of this Cameroon woman's scarification patterns" (7). A little more data is presented for the Fang man, but I wish he would have explained why he chose this example and included an analysis. I own a couple references on body adornment (See Camphausen, Rufus. Return of the Tribal: A Celebration of Body Adornment. Diane Publishing Co., 1997; Gay, Kathlyn and Christine Whittington. Body Marks: Tattooing, Piercing, and Scarification. Twenty-First Century Books, 2002)that explain both the processes and significance of this art, so I find it puzzling that Corbin does not elaborate or at least reference some descriptions. The rest of the introduction follows the same pattern, so I continued to Google until the end of the chapter.

The footnotes offer a few other sources for reference, but his extensive bibliography is divided into categories instead of by chapter which made it hard to cross-reference the footnotes. If Corbin is attempting to spur the reader to research these topics further, he has succeeded. The text will probably work as a minimal introduction to the subject, and it does have an abundance of photographs (the hardcover version photos are much better), but if this was an invitation to a party, I would send my regrets.