396 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 191 



as further evidence that the patterns of art operate, in part, below 

 the level of consciousness. There is, however, another contradiction 

 which cannot be explained solely in terms of unconscious processes 

 since it is verbalized by the carvers. On the one hand they assert 

 their originality and independence ("I use my own ideas"), and on the 

 other they admit that they sometimes use models ("I get ideas from 

 looking at old masks"). Here it seems necessary to assume that there 

 is, in their eyes, some sort of an equation between being original and 

 being Iroquois, perhaps even a belief that the first value follows 

 naturally from the second and is dependent upon it. Such an equa- 

 tion, if it does exist, is reinforced when the carvers derive traditional 

 designs from sources which appear to them to be completely novel, as 

 in the case of Floyd Doctor who said that he had once gotten a "new 

 idea" from an advertisement on a billboard. Because the picture 

 was that of a man smoking, and closely resembled the blowing or 

 whistling type of false face, he was able to reinterpret the new forms 

 in terms of the old and produce a conventional Iroquois mask. 

 Another carver claimed to have made a "different kind" of mouth by 

 exploiting the fact that the piece of wood he chose had a branch on it 

 which he could utilize for this feature. Again the result was a blow- 

 lip mask (pi. 97, b). This process of reading-in allows the carver to 

 fulfill without conflict the two apparently contradictory conceptions 

 which he has of himself; that of the artist who is original, who in- 

 novates, who follows his own ideas, and that of the Indian who adheres 

 with only slight deviations to the traditional patterns. 



STANDARDS OF TASTE 



Some generalizations can be made about the particular qualities 

 or characteristics which, in the opinion of the Onondaga, constitute 

 a good or successful mask. They are derived from my appraisal of 

 the masks which are carved today (pis. 94-99), from the comments of 

 the carvers and others about the appearance of the masks, and from 

 the reactions of a small group of Onondagas to a series of photographs 

 which included both Iroquois and "foreign" masks, the latter chiefly 

 those of the Northwest Coast Indians. The information obtained 

 from these three sources suggests some of the criteria which determine 

 the stylistic elements of the carvings and which serve as a basis for 

 critical and appreciative judgments. 



To a western observer the most striking characteristic of contem- 

 porary Onondaga carvings is their conformity to the traditional 

 Iroquois style. With few exceptions, the masks which I saw, and 

 which I believe to be representative of the work of the modern carver , 

 esemble the conventional types described and classified by Fenton 



