ABORIGINAL DECORATIVE ART KRIKGER 523 



symmetry may also be observed in Melanesian shields or in their 

 designs on paddles and arrows, also on Polynesian dressing;: boxes 

 of carved wood. Decorations of Melanesian houses have a rhythmic 

 repetition of desi«;n motive. Banded patterns on bamboo, althouj^h 

 ditferint; one from another, are symmetrical in themselves and are 

 repeated at rhjthmic intervals giving a pleasing effect for the pat- 

 tern as a whole. The omission, inversion, and distortion of pat- 

 tern is carried out with almost mathematical precision. In Peru- 

 vian art on textiles, stamped blocks each incorporating a conven- 

 tionalized life form of a cat or lish, for example, are repeated at 

 regular intervals. Perhaps the simplest form of this rhythmic repe- 

 tition pertains to brasses, bronzes, and iron objects from Malay and 

 other oriental metal-work centers. Figures carved in the round, 

 altliough produced by the Maori, the Melanesian, the African, the 

 Haida of the Pacific northwest coast, the Aztec, the Eskimo, and 

 the prehistoric West Indian Arawak, yet are sufliciently distinjctive 

 to become a ke}' or index to the art of a geographic design area. In 

 carving in the round, certain subsidiary principles arbitrary in their 

 nature lead up to differences in their execution. The element of 

 grotesqueness, frequently misunderstood, en,ters into the designs of 

 each of the areas just mentioned so far as carvings in the round are 

 considered. The omission of parts, the repetition of others, the mis- 

 placement to fit the media on which the design is applied — all these 

 principles are well understood by the primitive wood carver; yet for 

 each there is a difference in st3de. 



Tools. — Tools used in executing art motives frequently effect a 

 difference in the finished product, in other words, in style. The 

 North American Indian uses a knife having a single-curved cutting 

 edge while the African uses a straight double-edged knife. Not only 

 in tools do we see a cause for the development of different art styles, 

 even when applied to the same element of design such as the spiral, 

 but in the manner, in which they are used do we find a considerable 

 difference in the end results. This may be illustrated through the 

 use of hammers whether held in the hand or attached to a handle. 

 Cultural habits complicate the explanation of styles in art still fur- 

 ther. Squatting tribes, for example, naturally do not develop artis- 

 tically embellished stools or seats. A develo})ment of art in hair 

 coiffures naturally leads to the invention and ultimate artistic em- 

 bellishment of a neck rest. This we sec at its best in Africa and in 

 Japan. Development of tools in the form of molds, stamps, dies, 

 patterns, drills, and bellows are but a few that might be named as 

 having made possible the progress of design. 



Rhythm. — The use of some one feature or detail repeatedly to 

 express entirely different ideas is perhaps seen to best advantage 

 in tlie repeated use of the eye motive by the Pacific northwest coast 



