IMAGINING INDIANS SWSmithsonian, 1996 M10 17 - 274 pages In Imagining Indians in the Southwest, Leah Dilworth examines the creation and enduring potency of the early twentieth-century myth of the primitive Indian. She shows how visions of Indians - created not only by tourism but also by anthropologists, collectors of Indian crafts, and modernist writers - have reflected white anxieties about such issues as the value of labor in an industrialized society, racial assimilation, and the perceived loss of cultural authenticity. Dilworth explores diverse expressions of mainstream society's primitivist impulse - from the Fred Harvey Company's guided tours of Indian pueblos supposedly untouched by modern life to enthnographic descriptions of the Hopi Snake dance as alien and exotic. She shows how magazines touted the preindustrial simplicity of Indian artisanal occupations and how Mary Austin's 1923 book, The American Rhythm, urged poets to emulate the cadences of Native American song and dance. Contending that Native Americans of the Southwest still are seen primarily as living relics, Dilworth describes the ways in which they have resisted cultural colonialism. She concludes with a consideration of two contemporary artists who, by infusing their works with history and complexity, are recasting the practices and politics of primitivism. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
REPRESENTING THE HOPI SNAKE DANCE 2 I | 21 |
DISCOVERING INDIANS IN FRED HARVEYS | 77 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Alice Corbin Henderson American culture American Indian American Rhythm ancient Anglo Anthropological Apaches appeared Arizona artists ATSF attractions authenticity baskets began Bourke Bourke's camera century ceremony Charles Lummis civilization collecting collector Cushing decorative depicted dian display ethnic ethnographic ethnologists Exposition Fewkes Fewkes's Figure film Fred Harvey Company George Wharton James groups Hartley Hispanic Hopi House Hotevilla Huckel identity images Imagining Indians Indian art Indian Building Indian crafts kiva land literature lived Maker Marsden Hartley Mary Austin Masayesva mesas Mexico modern modernist Moki Museum Nampeyo Naranjo-Morse Native American natural non-Indian Nora Naranjo-Morse objects painting Pearlene photographs playing Indian poem poetry postcard pots pottery primitive primitivism primitivist production Pueblo women railroad region represented ritual Santa Fe Santa Fe Railway seemed Smokis Snake dance songs southwestern spectacle of Indian spiritual tion tive Americans traders tradition University Walpi weaver weaving woman writers wrote Zuni