94 



AREOYO GRANDE ART 



[b. a. e. 



ers, in Eep. Smithson. Inst. 1893, 1894; 

 Murdoch, Study of Eskimo Bows, Rep. 

 Nat. Mus. 1884, 1885; Morse, Arrow Re- 

 lease, in Bull. Essex Inst., 1885; Arrows 

 and Arrow-makers, in Am. Anthrop., 45- 

 74, 1891 ; also various Reports of the Bu- 

 reau of American Ethnology, (o. t. m.) 

 Arroyo Grande. A Pima settlement in 

 s. Arizona with 110 inhabitants in 1858. 

 Del Arroyo Grande.— Bailey in Ind. Aff. Rep., 208, 

 1S5,S. 



Arseek. A tribe living in 1608 in the 

 vicinity of the Sarapinagh, Nause, and 

 Nanticoke (Smith, Hist. Va., i, 175, 

 repr. 1819). They are not noted on 

 Smith's map, but the Nause and Nanti- 

 coke are, by which their location is in- 

 dicated as on Nanticoke r., in Dorches- 

 ter or Wicomico co., Md. (.;. m.) 

 Aroeck.— Kozmaii, Maryland, 1,12,1837 (misprint). 

 Arsek.— Purehas (16:25), Pilgrimes, iv, 1713. 



Arsuk. An Eskimo village in s. Green- 

 land, w. of Cape Farewell, lat. 61°. — 

 Nansen, First Crossing of Greenland, 

 map, 1890. 



Art. The term ' ' art ' ' is sometimes ap- 

 plied to the whole range of man's cultural 

 activities, but as here employed it is in- 

 tended to refer only to those elements of 

 the arts which in the higher stages of cul- 

 ture come fully within the realm of taste 

 and culminate in the ornamental and 

 tine arts (see Ornament) . Among primi- 

 tive peoples many of these esthetic ele- 

 ments originate in religious symbolism. 

 Among the tribes n. of Mexico such 

 elements are exceedingly varied and im- 

 portant, and extend in some degree to 

 all branches of the arts in which plastic, 

 graphic, sculptural, constructional, and 

 associative processes are applicable, as 

 well as to the embellishment of the hu- 

 man person. These symbolic elements 

 consist very largely of natural forms, es- 

 pecially of men and beasts, and of such 

 natural j^henomena as the sun, stars, 

 lightning, and rain; and their introduc- 

 tion is probably due largely to the general 

 belief that symbols carry with them some- 

 thing of the essence, something of the 

 mystic influence of the beings and poten- 

 cies which they are assumed to represent. 

 In their introduction into art, however, 

 these symbos are subject to esthetic in- 

 fluence and supervision, and are thus 

 properly classed as embellishments. In 

 use they are modified in form by the va- 

 rious conventionalizing agencies of tech- 

 nique, and a multitude of variants arise 

 which connect with and shade into the 

 great body of purely conventional deco- 

 ration. Not infrequently, it is believed, 

 the purely conventional designs originat- 

 ing in the esthetic impulse receive sym- 

 bolic interpretations, giving rise to still 

 greater complexity. Entering into the 

 arts and subject to similar influences are 

 also many ideographic signs and repre- 



sentations which contribute to embellish- 

 ment and to the development of purely 

 esthetic phases of art. These elements, 

 largely pictographic, contribute not only 

 to the growth of the fine art, painting, 

 but equally to the development of the 

 recording art, writing. The place occu- 

 pied by the religious, ideographic, and 

 simply esthetic elements in the various 

 arts of the northern tribes may be briefly 

 reviewed: 



(1) The building arts, employed in 

 constructing dwellings, places of worship, 

 etc., as practised n. of Mexico, although 

 generally primitive, embody various re- 

 ligious and esthetic elements in their non- 

 essential elaborations. As a rule, these 

 are not evolved from the constructive fea- 

 tures of the art, nor are they expressed 

 in terms of construction. The primitive 

 builder of houses depends mainly on 

 the arts of the sculptor and the painter 

 for his embellishments. Among Pueblo 

 tribes, for example, conventional figures 

 and animals are painted on the walls of 

 the kivas, and on their floors elaborate 

 symbolic figures and religious personages 

 are represented in dry-painting (q. v. ) ; at 

 the same time nonsignificant pictorial sub- 

 jects, as well as purely decorative designs, 

 occur now and then on the interior walls, 

 and the latter are worked out in crude pat- 

 terns in the stonework of the exterior. 

 Though the buildings themselves present 

 many interesting features of form and pro- 

 portion, construction has not been brought 

 to any considerable degree under t he super- 

 vision of taste. The dwellings of primitive 

 tribes in various parts of the country, con- 

 structed of reeds, grass, sod, bark, mats, 

 and the like, are by no means devoid of 

 that comeliness which results from care- 

 ful construction, but they show few defi- 

 nite traces of the influence of either sym- 

 bolism or the esthetic idea. The skin tipis 

 of the Plains tribes present tempting sur- 

 faces to the artist, and are frequently taste- 

 fully adorned with heraldic and religious 

 symbols and with graphic designs painted 

 in brilliant colors, while the grass lodge 

 is embellished by emphasizing certain 

 constructive features in rhythmic order, 

 after the manner of basketry. The 

 houses of the N. W. coast tribes, built 

 wholly of wood, are furnished within 

 with carved and painted pillars, whose 

 main function is practical, since they 

 serve to support the roof, while the to- 

 tem-poles and mortuary columns outside, 

 still more elaborately embellished, are 

 essentially emblematic. The walls both 

 Avithin and without are often covered 

 with l)rilliantly colored designs embody- 

 ing mythologic conceptions. Although 

 these structures depend for their effect 

 largely on the work of the sculptor and 

 the painter, they show decided archi- 



