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:: The concept of art and the Indians

Images

Graphic motif used by the Bakairi of the State of Mato Grosso to make a mask that will be used in the yakuygâde ritual. Rectangular and carved in wood, it represents tutoring spirits related to the aquatic world. Drawing: Odil Apacano, n/d (no date).

This facial tattoo is part of the second rite of initiation of the Karajá of the States of Mato Grosso and Tocantins, which is held when the girl is approximately 11-years old. Photo: Vladimir Kozak, n/d.

Hilda Tomás do Carmo, a Tikuna Indian from the State of Amazonas, shows the drawing that represents the "celebration of the young woman". Photo: Jussara Gruber,1999.

Ceramic is an art form exclusive to women among the Karajá. Photo: Vladimir Kozak, n/d.

Detailed, symmetrical motifs, traced in ink obtained from the mixture of genipap (an orange, edible fruit) with coal dust, still characterize the corporal painting of the Kadiwéu (MS). Photo: Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1935.

Entre os Kadiwéu (MS). também são as mulheres que decoram a cerâmica. Elas utilizam padrões que seguem um repertório rico, mas que são fixos, de formas preenchidas com variadas cores. Coleção FFLCH/USP, 1935.

As máscaras tikuna, que guardam características essenciais do sobrenatural, "dançam" no pátio da aldeia. Foto: Jussara Gruber, 1979.

The masks of the Matis from the State of Amazonas represent the mariwin spirits, whose traditional role is to beat up children in order to stimulate their beliefs. Photo: Philippe Erikson, n/d.

Among the Xikrin, painting is considered an attribute inherent to the feminine nature. Photo: Michel Pellanders, n/d.

In the nomination ritual of the Xikrin do Cateté, corporal painting and the elaborate feathery art literally transform the girls into birds. Photo: Isabelle Vidal Giannini, 1996.

A Baniwa Indian of the Upper Içana River, in the State of Amazonas, puts a label with the logo Arte Baniwa (Baniwa Art) on a 'urutu de arumã', one of the pieces of basketry that is commercialized in São Paulo. Photo: Pedro Martinelli, 2000.

The maruana, a wheel with paintings that represent giant caterpillars, is present in every Wayana house. Drawing: Yeyé. Photo: Lúcia Hussak Van Velthen, 1984.

The motif of this piece of basketry by the Wayana of the State of Pará is the kaikui, the jaguar that symbolically represents the warriors. Photo: Lúcia Hussak Van Velthen, 1984.

The towa, a percussion instrument of the Wari´ (State of Rondônia), is made of clay coated with gum from the rubber tree. Photo: Aparecida Vilaça, 1995.

The concept of art and the Indians

Art is a category created by the Western civilization. And, even in the West, what can and cannot be considered art is far from being a consensus. What, then, can be said of the use of that term in reference to visual manifestations of peoples who do not even have a correspondent word to ‘art’ in their languages?

This is a complex subject. But the fact is that, in spite of the inadequacy of the term, many Indigenous artistic pieces have had impact on the sensitivity and/or curiosity of the so-called white man since the 16th Century, when the Europeans landed on the lands inhabited by the Amerindians. At the time, objects made by these peoples used to be collected by kings and nobles as ‘rare’ specimens of ‘exotic’ and ‘faraway’ cultures.

Even today, a certain museum-like conception towards Indigenous artifacts continues to exist. For many people, these pieces are just ‘handicraft’, considered a lesser art form, one in which the artisan simply reproduces the traditional patterns without creating anything new. Such perspective does not take into consideration the fact that this kind of production does not exist above time and cultural dynamics. In addition, the plasticity of the works is the result of the confluence of collective and individual conceptions and questions, even though they do not stress individuality, like Western art does.

Made for daily or ritual use, the production of decorative elements is not indiscriminate, and can be restricted according to categories such as sex, age and social position. The objects also demands specific knowledge about the materials that are used, of the correct occasions for their production etc.

The ways in which pigments, feathers, fibers, clay, wood, stone and other materials are used give singularity to Amerindian production, making it distinct from Western art, just like Africa’s and Asia’s. However, one cannot really speak of an ‘Indigenous Art’, but rather ‘Indigenous Arts’, since each people has particularities in the ways it expresses itself and confers sense to its production.

The support for these expressions transcend the pieces (Indigenous artifacts) exhibited in museums and fairs (bowls, baskets, gourds, hammocks, paddles, arrows, benches, masks, sculptures, cloaks, headdresses...), since the human body is painted, scarified and perforated – just as rocks, trees and other natural formations, not to speak of the crucial presence of dance and music.

In all these cases, the aesthetic order is linked to other realms of thought, constituting means of communication – among persons, peoples and worlds – and forms of conceiving, comprehending and mirror the social and cosmological order.

In relations among peoples, artifacts are also exchange objects, including with the ‘white man’. In recent years, commerce with the greater society has started to become an alternative of income generation for the Indians through the dissemination of their cultural production. Arte Baniwa, a trademark created by the Baniwa Indians of the Upper Negro River, in the State of Amazonas, is a successful example of this kind of enterprise.

Learn more about this subject in the article written by Lúcia Hussak Van Velthen, "Em outros tempos e nos tempos atuais: arte indígena", in the catalogue Artes Indígenas - Mostra do Redescobrimento. São Paulo, Fundação Bienal de SP, 2000. And in the book Grafismo Indígena: Estudos de Antropologia Estética, organized by Lux Vidal. São Paulo, Edusp/Nobel, 2001.