ARTH 079. Indigenous Arts of the Americas

This survey course introduces students to Indigenous art and architecture of the Americas from time immemorial to the present. It selectively surveys the visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of Americas, with an emphasis on those whose ancestral territories reside in what is now known as the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Students will consider how different forms of Indigenous cultural production, including architecture, painting, sculpture, ceramics, carving, textiles, beadwork, photography, and new media, operate within the category of “art” in conjunction with a range of traditions and beliefs. The class is organized into six regional sections - Ancient Americas, Southwest, Northwest Coast, Woodlands, Great Plains and West, and Arctic - that will each focus on the major forms of art from each region, and will conclude with an examination of how these traditions continued and developed into the Modern and Contemporary period. Discussion classes will explore major historiographic questions, including the role of ethnography in the history of Indigenous art; the politics of museum display, ownership, and repatriation; and the decolonization of institutions and (art) histories in conjunction with visual sovereignty. The course will emphasize that different forms of Indigenous art represent continuous, dynamic, and living traditions which have preserved culture and resisted domination in the face of colonial conflict, assimilation, and oppression.

Note: This course is an Introductory Survey Course
Humanities.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Art History
Department website: www.swarthmore.edu/art-history

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