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contemporary society realizing the values in their heritage and seeing much of it diminishing many indians want to learn what they can of their past and salvage what can be. Preserved perhaps the greatest. Positive force to appear in some time are the indian tribal councils many. Of which support the arts in their own areas not only to augment income but also out of an awareness of the cultural value of those arts many of these people particularly the navajo hopi cherokee and crow have set up funds to develop crafts areas sales centres and museums to promote the appreciation of their traditional arts and thereby strengthen the fabric of the tribe some have set design up crafts schools so that the younger people will have access to the necessary training with so concept many years of cultural denial. However the native artists can no longer draw upon their rich heritage. Freely but must seek an adjustment with western. Derived motifs that have intruded upon and in some cases overwhelmed their world among all the north american tribes painting is perhaps the one art that has taken a new and positive direction many younger. Indians of talent are creating remarkable works in acrylic tempera oil and related media gaining recognition in the fine arts and showing promise of successful careers in the non indian world their, most serious problem is that of identification some prefer to paint in a completely free manner meaning that their work will not necessarily reflect their indian ancestry others remain concerned. Over the demonstration of the racial or ethnic, strain and seek means whereby they can paint in indian style and yet escape the stereotype so prevalent in the minds, of most non indians in other parts of the western hemisphere organizations similar to those in the united states have recently been established to promote native crafts movements in general such movements find their greatest support in areas where. Nationalism is on the rise and pride in one's background is preeminent the latin american nation that has taken the. Most effective steps, in this direction has certainly been mexico its museo nacional de arqueología national museum of archeology built in is perhaps. The finest such structure in the. World and stands as a monument to the heritage of that, country guatemala colombia peru and ecuador also have devoted major architectural attention to their native cultures introduction the visual art and architecture, of native. Oceania including media such as. Sculpture pottery rock art! Basketry masks painting and personal decoration in these cultures art and architecture have often been closely connected—for example storehouses and meetinghouses are often decorated with elaborate carvings—and so they are, presented together in this discussion, for more general explorations of media see individual media articles e g painting sculpture pottery and textile for a discussion of the characteristics functions and forms of masks see mask general characteristics materials and techniques until the th and th centuries when european cultures appeared upon the scene oceanian cultures maintained various forms of neolithic technology the only exception was in the northwest of new guinea where the people living around geelvink bay teluk cenderawasih imported very small quantities of metal from the indonesians of the moluccas maluku the technique of forging was jealously, guarded virtually as a cult secret some tools were traded but only. In quantities far too small to have made much impact on! Normal working conditions throughout the rest of melanesia and in polynesia and micronesia the. Basic tool remained the stone blade which was hafted as an adz or an ax and sometimes interchangeably as both tridacna. Shell was sometimes used for blades in parts of oceania where stone was in short supply including micronesia and the solomon islands, when obsidian was available it was chipped into blades for use as both weapons and tools other working materials included bamboo and bivalve shells which take extremely sharp edges some fine cutting and engraving was done with unhafted boar tusks or with, hafted shark and rodent teeth animal bones served as gouges awls and needles all these tools were employed in working wood which with rare exceptions was the main medium used throughout oceania clay was also employed mainly for sculptures, for some small musical instruments whistles and for pottery in melanesia and new guinea the making of! Clay vessels was almost exclusively women's work except in a few small areas? In new guinea and. The northern solomons the usual method. Involved spiral coiling of rolls of, clay the decorating of the pot was the work of men some working of shell and. Turtle shell was done, with simple drilling and abrading equipment the carving of stone although obviously presenting far. More arduous and time. Consuming problems than wood was undertaken. Remarkably often and occurred throughout the pacific, islands hammering pecking and polishing were the main? Methods even so resistant a material as jade was mastered by grinding with abrasives paint and painting were thought to animate sculpture—often literally in religiosymbolic terms as paint was considered to have magical vivifying, powers paints were generally ochres with some vegetable derived pigments water was the usual medium occasionally supplemented with sap brushes were the fibrous ends of chewed or frayed sticks small feather bundles pieces of wood and sometimes the most elementary applicator of all the finger apart from sculpture the surfaces used for painting were rock faces bark and tapa cloth made from pounded bark rock painting was most common in australia where panels of bark were also used in melanesia paintings were made mainly on sago. Palm spathes and sheets of tapa cloth in polynesia the women manufactured great quantities of tapa which they then decorated with abstract designs using, vegetable dyes the techniques they employed included painting stenciling with leaf templates rubbing over relief design tables stamping and printing with carved bamboo rollers the only areas where weaving. Was practiced were the caroline islands the polynesian outliers! East of the solomon islands some of the santa cruz islands parts of vanuatu the saint matthias group. Northwest of new ireland and. A few places on the northern coast of irian jaya spinning was unknown instead of yarn or thread strips of banana fibre were used on a simple backstrap loom weaving was a woman's craft in the caroline and saint matthias islands but was practiced by men elsewhere a form, of finger weaving as in net making was, used by maori women in, creating textiles from flax fibres photograph initiation scene in a cult house from abelam papua new guinea in the museum of ethnology basel … initiation scene in a cult house from abelam papua new guinea in the museum of ethnology basel … the architecture of the pacific islands was varied and sometimes large in scale buildings, reflected the structure and preoccupations of the societies, that constructed them with considerable symbolic detail technically most buildings in oceania were no more than simple assemblages of poles held together with cane lashings only in the caroline islands were complex methods of joining and pegging known, oceanic artists' quest for media was consummately opportunistic they regarded almost anything from the lavish natural world that surrounded them, as potentially usable the marine world yielded shells of all kinds especially conus cowrie and nassa shells birds gave down beaks. And plumes those of the birds of paradise were especially museum prized animals provided teeth tusks and skins insects supplied their brilliant wing cases the vegetable realm was drawn upon for flowers leaves and fibres the assembly of such materials into single objects was! Rare in polynesia and micronesia. But the practice was typical of australian and melanesian styles and contributed brilliantly to their more spectacular effects the most basic medium of all was the human body which received both removable and permanent decorations including scarification enhanced by treatment to raise keloid welts in new guinea and tattooing with needles and pigments elsewhere artist and society in societies whose members are largely self reliant some degree of craft skill is practically, universal men make their own canoes build their own houses and carve simple household equipment such as hooks and stools individuals, are responsible for decorating their own belongings including their bodies in the case of body decoration however which can be culturally prescribed in form highly skilled in execution and dense in symbolism the more lavish displays usually entail more than the wearer's sole, efforts tattooing, and scarification usually tokens of ritual or hierarchical status were. The work of esteemed specialists to progress beyond simple skills a craftsman not only required the will, to excel but sometimes was subject in theory at least to socially defined restrictions there seems to have been an inclination to regard artistic talent as. Passing from father to son, or from mother to daughter when appropriate but in cases. In which this was true? Society's concept of the role of. The artist probably played a bigger role than heredity in many societies the artist was—and still is today—expected to begin his career as an apprentice to a known master often working on preparatory tasks or the less demanding details of a project in some parts of melanesia among the kilenge of new britain for. Example or in the solomons artistic progress is recognized as covering several stages the apprentice grows into an independent worker with limited skills and eventually if he has talent and ambition becomes a master in his, turn in the solomons the asp t is actually expected to produce test pieces for approval by, his peers and mentors elsewhere the process is apparently less formal and. Particularly for grandiose projects less individualistic large scale projects are often an affair of communal effort under specialized supervision in papua new guinea several men at a time may work on a single large architectural carving among the kwoma and a whole team may paint one, of the huge gables of the abelam individuals however. May carve major sacred objects when they are inspired by dreams or induced visions these interventions by the supernatural world, therapy. Can be quite common if work goes badly the failure is attributed less to the workers' incompetence than to the displeasure of the spirits concerned in polynesia with its more sharply graded societies the role of artist was more closely related. To the religious, expert for instance the maori, tohunga than it was in melanesia indeed in hawaii and elsewhere carvers formed a special priestly class and their work was accompanied at every stage with rituals and prayers the new zealand maori considered carving a sacred activity surrounded by spiritual and physical dangers myths of the origins of carving connected it directly to the gods and its subjects linked it intimately to the ancestors carving was one of eight proverbial attainments of a chief and young maori of high rank were trained in the formal schools of learning there were cases of chiefs being captured and enslaved for their talents, and conversely of slaves celebrated as artists the material rewards. Were not great while the carver and painter was preoccupied with his work it, was the business of his employer to keep him well fed on completion the artist received agreed amounts of valuables but he might well give away some of them among the kilenge at least to those who praised him praise and esteem were in fact the. Main rewards and were steps toward the making of a big man of power and influence in melanesian communities in polynesia mana— personal prestige and, moral authority—was achieved in the same way equal or even greater credit often went to the man. Who commissioned, the work for he was regarded as its true author his achievement in seeing that the work was first instigated and then carried through to a successful conclusion earned him fame and prestige aesthetics pacific languages seem to be deficient in. Terms to express appreciation. Of or reactions to art apart. From a few that designate the mastery of individual specialists little is understood moreover. About the islanders' aesthetic concepts reactions to works of art seem to range from the pragmatic and rational in the secular realm to the violently emotional in the religious at a fairly simple level aesthetic appreciation is expressed as approval, of the manner in which a work. Has been accomplished paintings of its compliance with possibly unformulated but. Nevertheless well understood standards craftsmanship and suitability to function are highly valued in general innovation does not seem to have been highly prized nevertheless changes have certainly taken place in the arts over the long period of pacific history, even though, in the absence of more than a scattering of archaeological examples such changes are difficult to document one technique used by artists to attain success was to copy models of recognized excellence and symbolic, soundness old works were often retained, precisely for this purpose the inevitable introduction of variations in these situations as a result of variations in, individual talent was largely ignored and the intention of identity between old and new objects was accepted as always having been achieved the. Ideal of the local tradition was thus maintained even though actual stylistic fluctuations must, have occurred over time in some areas the exotic was deeply admired and therefore copied in parts of new guinea for instance certain items captured in warfare are known to have been duplicated, such cases were probably comparatively rare however more often works displaying special craft techniques such as work. In. Ivory imported by fijians from tonga were treasured because, it was accepted by the importers that the imports were beyond their skills to manufacture, for themselves the maori of new zealand developed the most precise? Aesthetic terminology. Of. Oceania describing both the innate properties of a work and its effect on the viewer a masterpiece possesses ihi power wall, emanates wana authority and inspires wehi awe and fear the belief that art and religion overlap is widespread. In the pacific and religious objects are often works of visual art though not invariably these objects are not considered sacred in themselves however they are humanly worked things into which supernatural beings can be induced, for human purposes these supernaturals are always powerful unpredictable and thus dangerous in new guinea their destructive power may turn, against the object itself causing a carving to rot self consumed or an object may become so loaded with accumulated power that it has to be buried or otherwise. Eliminated it is possible that the practice. Of abandoning elaborate and painstakingly made carvings after ritual use—as in new ireland and among the asmat. Of irian jaya—was inspired by such beliefs in many societies an uninitiated person who glimpsed the sacred objects would be executed but it is likely that the offended spirits were considered the killers not the men who acted, for them and performed the execution among the maori ancestral heirlooms were, not to be touched without ritual purification and mistakes in ritual especially in the building of meetinghouses with their powerful ancestral associations could be fatal awe and fear are understandable emotions in such circumstances in areas where religion, depends more on. Ritual dances or oratory than on objects expression of the visual arts may be channeled as in samoa and much of micronesia into an exquisite refinement of craftsmanship often in the making of utilitarian objects in these circumstances the quality, of an object, often becomes. A symbolic reference to social status oceanic visual art then, although rarely baldly pictorial in a western manner is replete with references to both religious and social values it may even it has been suggested be a material means by which values are transmitted nonverbally to those qualified to understand the messages involved thus becoming a mode of communication that reinforces and is vital to society, early styles the. History of oceanic art falls into two major phases corresponding to the periods before and after western contact this is due not so much to the changes ensuing from contact—decisive as, they have been—as to the preservation of. Otherwise ephemeral material by western collectors and researchers the total loss of early works and the paucity of archaeological discoveries renders the comprehension of ancient oceanic art fitful and incomplete in fact there is. Not enough known about early micronesian art to warrant discussion here nevertheless what has survived elsewhere hints at the antiquity of art traditions in oceania and sometimes illuminates the origins of more recent styles australia the australian continent, is liberally dotted with thousands. Of rock art sites they include rock shelters outcrops of rock and surface sheets of rock and are decorated with painted pecked or engraved figurative and nonfigurative forms in a wealth of styles these are the main. Testimonials to the prehistoric art of the aborigines the only portable works from early periods that, have been discovered are some elaborate items. Used for personal decoration long necklaces and chaplets made of animal teeth and lizard vertebrae bone. Beads and stone pendants have been. Found in burials and elsewhere dating from bp before the present and later long bone pins indicate the existence of garments probably cloaks made of animal skins the early, use. Of colour for various purposes is attested by the. Inclusion of red ochre in burials at lake mungo in, new south wales dated bp while this is not necessarily evidence of any specifically artistic activity it shows the ritual value of the colour and of the material which was imported from sources many miles away paintings for which human blood was the medium have been found and proved to be more than years, old the chronology of the rock art styles is established largely by the classic method of tracing the superposition of works in one style over works in another, but current theories are also based on such factors. As known climatic and geologic. Events the presence or absence in the paintings of certain animals or equipment that are now. Extinct or obsolete and the degree to which modern aborigines are familiar with the sites and the meanings of the art one factor that decisively marks the end of the early period is the representation of european, or in the north of the continent indonesian cultural elements such as ships and introduced animals one of the earliest known styles is the panaramittee it was widespread mainly through southern australia central australia and tasmania and dates from about bp onward it is characterized by small pecked designs both figurative and nonfigurative on rock surfaces the nonfigurative designs include circles crescents and radiating lines the figurative are almost all of footprints and bird and animal tracks another, early style dated to bc is represented in koonalda cave under the nullarbor plain in south australia certain areas of the cave walls which are composed of a soft rock are densely covered with engraved or, finger marked geometric designs most of the designs consist of no more than. Parallel lines or herringbone patterns but they cover several thousand square feet it is possible that their significance lies as much in their placement at specific points in the cave as in their now undiscoverable symbolism! Both rock engravings and paintings in the simple figurative style are widely found at sites in the. North east and west of australia but rarely in the interior the style. Apparently followed the panaramittee but it cannot be dated precisely it is characterized by somewhat loose silhouettes of human and animal forms and has remained influential until recent times in northwestern erotic australia in both coastal and hinterland areas there are at least two sequences of painting styles in arnhem land rock painting has been divided, into, a sequence of four styles partly on the basis of apparent references to environmental changes the earliest the. Mimi a clan of spirit. Beings or dynamic style is notable for linear human stick figures that wear ornaments carry spears and boomerangs. And are occasionally fine endowed with animal heads they are. Associated with paintings of now extinct animals such, as the tasmanian wolf thylacine the style is presumed to date from bp to pre bp it is followed by the estuarine style which developed during a period when saltwater conditions prevailed a situation reflected in the use of fantastic realism auction fine posters sculptor museumcrocodiles as subjects in paintings in the x ray style in which the internal organs are shown a subsequent, freshwater phase is characterized by representations of ceremonial fans made from feathers of marsh birds finally there are paintings from a contact period which began with the arrival of indonesian fishers of trepang sea cucumber at the end of the th century and continued after with the arrival of australian drovers on horseback the visits of both are pictured in the rock art. A parallel sequence has been traced in paintings from the kimberly region to the west an early period is. Manifested by the bradshaw style of small human figures mostly in red perhaps dating from? Before bc the bradshaw style is succeeded by the. Wandjina style which takes its name from the, ancestor spirits depicted, in the paintings the large. White. Spirit, figures are outlined in black and. Have mouthless circular faces that are framed, in red rayed halos this style has persisted to the present melanesia photograph stone figure igneous. Rock from the ambum river valley papua new guinea in the australian … stone figure. Igneous rock from the, ambum river valley papua new guinea, in the, australian … the first indication of the existence of, any form of art in melanesia is shown by. The use of pigments probably for personal decoration in the, eastern highlands of papua new guinea by bc other examples of early art in new. Guinea include the stone carvings including pestles animal and human figures and mortars that have been found in the. Central highlands where most seem to have been made some were exported to eastern papua new guinea the carvings are as yet undated although it is known that plain stone bowls were in use about bc much of the sculptures' imagery has been repeated in the recent art styles of the sepik area and elsewhere rock art in the form of paintings and petroglyphs is abundant in papua new guinea but also remains undated the most important evidence of art in the early western pacific is the ceramic style called lapita after a site, in new caledonia it is the most, prominent material aspect of a culture that flourished from approximately bc to the beginning of the modern era and that achieved an astonishingly wide distribution lapita sites or other evidences of. Lapita influence are found from the northern. Coast of papua new guinea throughout the major island groups of |