From: sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock)
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,alt.native
Subject: Objects of Myth and Memory by Fane, Jacknis, Breen (Art)
Date: 7 Oct 92 23:06:25 GMT
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.

OBJECTS OF MYTH AND MEMORY: AMERICAN INDIAN ART AT THE BROOKLYN
MUSEUM by Diana Fane, Ira Jacknis, and Lise M. Breen.  The Brooklyn
Museum 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY, in association with the
University of Washington Press, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, Washington 
98145-5096.  Illustrated, index, notes.  320 pp., $60.00 cloth.
0-295-97023-5


                             REVIEW

     In 1903, the Brooklyn Museum hired Stewart Culin as a curator
of ethnology.  In the next nine years, he would assemble over 9,000
Native American artifacts, from those used in ritual ceremonies to
those used in household chores.
     The objects were held in storage until just recently, when the
present curator, Diana Fane, received a grant to inventory the
holdings, and place them in the context of the voluminous documen-
tation that Culin had performed when purchasing each piece.
     A self-made ethnographer, Culin wrote down everything he could
about the object: the name of the maker, the use of the object, how
much he paid for it, and other facts he deemed important.
     "Objects of Myth and Memory" traces Culin's career as he
assembles the objects, and 250 of them are pictured.  The book is
divided into four geographic locations: Southwest, California,
Northwest Coast, and Oklahoma, which correspond to principal
gathering places.  
     Two essays, by Fane and Jacknis, detail Culin's ethnographic
contribution and his early displays of the artifacts.  The book is
beautifully illustrated - each object is highlighted dramatically,
and additional information is gained from excerpts from Culin's
diaries.
     Much work has gone into the production of this book and the
corresponding traveling exhibit that is now at the Heard Museum in
Phoenix until the end of the year, but the question remains: are
these items legitimately held?  The answer is probably.  
     Earlier this year, in a discussion on NPR's "Morning Edition"
radio show, reporter Brad Klein said that the Brooklyn Museum
"consulted with native religious councils and assembled a panel of
Native American experts to decide what could be included..." 
Edmond Ladd, a Zuni and curator of the Museum of New Mexico,
concurred, saying that is was agreed that no objects of a religious
nature were to be exhibited.  
     In addition, the Zuni Religious Council petitioned the museum
for return of 13 carved war gods, which had been purchased by Culin
from an unscrupulous dealer who had stolen them from a Zuni shrine. 
Regarded as sacred objects, the gods were to be left at the shrine
to decompose as part of the ceremony.  The museum returned the gods
to the Zuni council.
     There is also concern about the personification of the items. 
They, when exhibited in museums, are art objects and are divorced
from their cultural utility.  For example, the Zuni war gods are
ceremonial objects, used in a ritual.  They are beautiful, but they
are not art objects to the Zuni.  "The Zuni language," Ladd says,
"doesn't even contain a word for art."
     So it is with mixed feelings that I recommend the purchase of
"Objects of Myth and Memory."  I strongly recommend, however, that
those purchasing the book take a trip to the places where the
objects are used: any of the pueblos and reservations of Arizona
and New Mexico; Osage, Oklahoma; Kwakiutl, Washington; Hoopa Valley
or Yokaya, California.  It's nice to look at what we call works of
art, but it's just as important to understand the culture that
created it.
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,alt.native