Preview: This chapter treats the artistic productions of Native Americans in Mesoamerica, South America, and North America after 1300. In Mesoamerica, works such as the

Chapter 35: Native Arts of the Americas, 1300 to 1980
Preview: This chapter treats the artistic productions of Native Americans in Mesoamerica, South America, and North America after 1300. In Mesoamerica, works such as the Borgia Codex (ca. 1400-1500) predate the European conquest and shed light on Mesoamerican customs, rituals, and science. The Aztec Empire, the dominant power in pre-conquest Mesoamerica, built a Great Temple in the capital city of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City), featuring an enormous pyramid that enclosed earlier pyramids. Aztec artists decorated buildings with relief carvings and also produced stone statues dedicated to their gods. The Inka Empire thrived in the 15^th century in South America; Inkan builders constructed thousands of miles of roads spanning the huge empire, and used ashlar masonry to build Machu Picchu, an enormous terraced estate on the mountainside. Native cultures in North America were more numerous and widely dispersed. In the American Southwest, the Ancestral Puebloans are known for their urban developments; the Navajo are renowned for their weavings and ritual sand paintings; the Hopi carved katsina figures; and the Pueblo Indians produced a distinctive style of pottery. On the Northwest Coast, the Haida made totem poles reaching as high as 60 feet and representing clans, animals, and spirits. Natives in the Great Plains are known for their bead necklaces, shields and headdresses. Their painted ledger books record their vanished customs.
Key Terms: Mictlan, khipu, powwow

Key Art & Architectural Terms: codex, rotulus/rotuli, hieroglyphs, ashlar masonry, courses, pueblo, sand paintings/dry paintings, katsina
Lecture Notes:
Introductory Notes:

NATIVE ARTS OF THE AMERICAS, 1300 TO 1980

Mesoamerica:

Mixteca-Puebla:

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  The founding of Tenochtitlán, folio 2 recto of the Codex Mendoza, from Mexico City, Mexico, Aztec, ca. 1540-1542
  
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    Medium, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    
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  Mictlantecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl, folio 56 of the Borgia Codex, possibly from Puebla or Tlaxcala, Mexico, Mixteca-Puebla, ca. 1400-1500
  
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    Medium, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    

Aztec:

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  Reconstruction drawing with cutaway view of various rebuilding’s of the Great Temple, Tenochtitlán, Mexico City, Mexico, Aztec, ca. 1400-1500
  
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    Description:
    
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    Architectural features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    
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  Coyolxauhqui, from the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán, Mexico City, Mexico, Aztec, ca. 1469
  
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    Medium, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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  Tlaltecuhtli (Earth Lord), from the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán, Mexico City, Mexico, Aztec, 1502
  
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    Medium, scale:
    
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  Coatlicue, from Tenochtitlán, Mexico City, Mexico, Aztec, ca. 1487–1520
  
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    Medium, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    

South America:
Inka:

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  Machu Picchu, Peru, Inka, 15^th century
  
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    Description & architectural features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    
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  Remains of the Temple of the Sun (surmounted by the church of Santo Domingo), Cuzco, Peru, Inka, 15^th century
  
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    Description & architectural features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    
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  Inka llama, alpaca, and woman, ca. 1475-1532
  
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    Medium, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    

North America:
Southwest:

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  Detail of a kiva mural from Kuaua Pueblo (Coronado State Monument), New Mexico, Ancestral Puebloan, late 15th to early 16th century
  
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    Medium, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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  Otto Pentewa, Katsina figurine, New Oraibi, Arizona, Hopi, carved before 1959
  
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    Materials, scale:
    
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    Description & stylistic features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    
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  Maria Montoya Martinez, jar, San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, ca. 1939
  
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    Materials, scale:
    
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    Description & stylistic features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    

Northwest Coast and Alaska:

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  Eagle transformation mask, closed and open views, Alert Bay, Canada, Kwakiutl, late 19^th century
  
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    Materials, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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    Function & significance:
    
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  War helmet mask, Canada, Tlingit, collected 1888-1893
  
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    Materials, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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  Bill Reid (Haida), assisted by Doug Cranmer (Namgis), re-creation of a 19^th-century Haida village with totem poles, Queen Charlotte Island, Canada, 1962
  
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    Materials, scale:
    
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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  Bill Reid, The Raven and the First Men, 1978-1980
  
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  Chilkat blanket with stylized animal motifs, Canada, Tlingit, early 20^th century
  
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    Materials, scale:
    
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Great Plains:

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  Mask, Alaska, Yupik Eskimo, early 20^th century
  
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  Mandan buffalo-hide robe, ca. 1800
  
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    Description, subject & stylistic features:
    
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  Karl Bodmer, Hidatsa Warrior Pehriska-Ruhpa (Two Ravens), 1833
  
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  Honoring song at painted tipi, in Julian Scott Ledger, Kiowa, 1880
  
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Concluding notes:

Exercises for Study:

1. Define the following terms and give an example for each:

codex

totem pole

pueblo

2. Describe the construction technique and function of the structures at Machu Picchu.

3. Describe the construction technique, function, and symbolism of the Great Temple, Tenochtitlán.

4. Compare and contrast the following pair of artworks, using the points of comparison as a guide.

A. Kwakiutl eagle transformation mask (Fig. 35-12); Tlingit war helmet mask (Fig. 35-13)

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  Cultures:
  
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  Style and materials:
  
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  Function & use: