BULL. 301 



SCULPTURE AND CARVING 



491 



Mexico had made very decided progress in 

 the sculptural arts before the arrival of 

 the whites, and in more recent times the 

 tribes of British Columbia and Alaska 

 have produced carvings of very consider- 

 able merit. The acquisition of imple- 

 ments of steel has no doubt contributed 

 to the success of this work. The carv- 

 ings of the Haida, Tlingit, Kwakiutl, 



(nii 



HE Bear mother, in 

 Black Slate:' Haida. 

 (niblack) (1-4) 



and other tribes, in wood, bone, ivory, 

 and slate are remarkable for their artistic 

 qualities and perfection of execution, 

 displaying more than a mere suggestion 

 of the masterly qualities of the prehistoric 

 work of the tribes of Mexico and Central 

 America (Niblack, Boas). A carving in 

 black slate bv a member of the Haida 



Pipe, Stone; Ohio Mound; Height, 8 in. (mills) 



tribe, representing the "bear mother" 

 (Swan), is not surpassed in spirit and 

 expression by any known work n. of 

 Mexico. However, like the totem-pole 

 models, masks, rattles, dishes, boxes, and 

 tobacco pipes which excite our admira- 

 tion, it was executed with steel tools and 

 at a time when the influence of the art of 

 the white man had no doubt come to be 



somewhat decidedly felt. The Eskimo 

 have exercised their very pronounced 

 genius for realistic carving in ivory and 

 bone, and to some extent in stone and 

 wood. Their representations of animal 

 forms in the round are often admirable, 

 although usually applied to objects that 

 serve some practical purpose (Turner, 

 Boas, Nelson, Murdoch, Hoffman). The 

 Pueblo tribes are not especially accom- 



HUMAN HEAD, STONE; NEW YORK (l-e) 



plished in sculpture, notwithstanding the 

 facts that they stand alone as builders in 

 stone and have exceptional skill and taste 

 in modeling in clay. Their small animal 

 fetishes in several varieties of stone are 

 interesting, but very elementary as works 

 of art, and the human figure, as illus- 

 trated by the wooden katcinas of the 

 Hopi, is treated in an extremely primi- 

 tive manner. The ancient Pueblos were 

 hardly more skill- 

 ful in these 

 branches (Gush- 

 ing, Stevenson, 

 Fewkes). The pre- 

 historic sculpture 

 of the Pacific states 

 had barely ad- 

 vanced beyond the 

 elaboration of uten- 

 sils, although these 

 were often well ex- 

 ecuted. Worthy of 

 especial attention, 

 however, are cer- 

 tain ape-like heads 

 found in Oregon 

 and Washington, 

 believed by some to 

 represent the seal 

 or sealion rather 



Stone Figure; Tennessee (i-s) 



than any exotic form (Terry) . Carvings in 

 wood, stone, bone, horn, and shell, among 

 the historic natives of e. United States, are 

 deserving of slight notice except in so far 

 as they illustrate the very beginnings of 

 sculptural effort. The mound-building 

 tribes of precolumbian times made some- 

 what ambitious attempts at the portrayal 

 of the human form in the round, and ex- 

 pended much time in the shaping of 

 tobacco pipes in many varieties of hard 



