Graburn, Nelson H. H.

English

Kosmopolis

Studies in Visual Communication 
Volume 5 
Issue 1 Fall 1978 Article 12 
1978 
Ray: Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska 
Nelson H. H. Graburn 
University of California, Berkeley 
Recommended Citation 
Graburn, N. H. (1978). Ray: Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska. 5 (1), 72-73. Retrieved 
from https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol5/iss1/12 
This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol5/iss1/12 
For more information, please contact repository@pobox.upenn.edu. 
Ray: Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska 
This reviews and discussion is available in Studies in Visual Communication: https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol5/
iss1/12 
approach to visual studies of society and to studies of 
visuals. 
Nevertheless, the authors have done a service in bring-
ing out a workbook-manual which will orient under-
graduates, and instructors who have not yet consid-
ered ways of doing such studies, to the possibilities of a 
visual sociology. Although limited and not strong in its 
presentation of the potentials for original research using 
photography, this publication will provide a good introduc-
tion for the intended audience. 
Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska. 
Dorothy Jean Ray. Seattle: University of Washington 
Press, 1977. x + 298 pp., 307 black-and-white photo-
graphs. $29.95 (cloth). 
Reviewed by Nelson H. H. Craburn 
University of California, Berkeley 
This encyclopedic work is the latest of Dorothy Jean 
Ray's many works on Alaskan Eskimo arts and may 
represent the culmination of her decades of research in 
northern and western Alaska. It is also the latest of a 
number of recent volumes on the historical and contem-
porary arts of the Eskimo (Burland 1973; Ritchie 1974; 
Roch 1975; Swinton 1972) and is a major contribution to 
the important trend to take seriously the nontraditional 
arts of native peoples (Graburn 1976). Though the book 
was published in connection with an exhibition shown at 
the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, in 
May 1977, it is more nearly an encyclopedia than a 
catalog, in that it attempts to describe and comment on 
the significance of all the genres or arts and crafts of the 
North Alaskan Eskimo in historical and recent times. 
This is a large volume, with an 11 by 81!2 inch format, 
wide margins, and plentiful illustrations, as befits the 
breadth of the subject matter surveyed. In spite of the 
imbalance between text (69 pages) and illustrations (176 
pages), which is partially redressed by the extensive 
captions placed next to the photographs, this is not a 
"coffee table" book as it might first appear. Though the 
book is adequately illustrated, the photographs are all 
black and white and not spectacular, nor is the paper on 
which they are reproduced of high quality. Furthermore, 
as the author explains in the "Note about the Photo-
graphs," many of them were taken purely for the record 
under "home-made" conditions with ancient equipment. 
More than a small proportion of the plates lack definition 
either through having unsuitable backgrounds or 
through being out of focus. It should be added that a few 
of the institutionally produced photographs (e.g., #237 
from the Smithsonian Institution) also suffer from the 
same faults, whereas some of the very oldest photo-
graphs (e.g., #296 by Lomen, 1903) are superb, as are 
the line drawings (taken from Choris 1822, and others) 
which illustrate the oldest material culture. 
The book is for the serious collector and scholar 
interested in all aspects of Alaska Eskimo material culture. 
The contents cover the area from St. Michael north 
around to the Canadian border, roughly the lnupik-
speaking area, plus St. Lawrence Island (included because 
of its historical and stylistic affinities), and the time span is 
from 1778 to the present. After a short Foreword (by 
Richard Grove), the very brief Preface and Chapter I cover 
the historical and cultural contexts of Eskimo art. The bulk 
of the text comprises Chapter II on Traditional Art and 
Chapter Ill on Market Art. These sections are organized by 
material and genre, in approximately chronological order, 
allotting a page or so to each type. The breadth of the 
study will become obvious to the readers from the fol-
lowing lists: (1) Traditional Art includes Wood; Masks, 
Sculpture; Ivory; Charms, Amulets, Dolls, Decorated 
Utilitarian Objects; Baleen; Flint; Stone; Jade; Charms; 
Mythological Creatures: Painting and Engraving; Body 
and Face Painting, Tattooing, Rock Painting; Modified 
Engraving; Ice, Frost, Feathers and Decoys: Clay Pots, 
Mud Decoys, Rock inuksuks, Ice Models; Sewing: 
Ceremonial and Vanity, Traded Skins, Clothing, Orna-
ment, Coiffure, Ptarmigan Quill Work; Weaving, 
Basketry: Grass, Birchbark. (2) Market Arts comprise 
Ivory Carvings; Wood Carvings; Other Materials: Bone, 
Baleen, Whale and Elephant Ivory; Stone; Soapstone 
Carving, Fakes; The Billiken; New Engraving; Figurines; 
Ivory Jewelry; Erotic Objects: Walrus Penis; Baleen 
Baskets; Bentwood Buckets, Horn Ladles and Dolls; 
Siberian-style Pipes; Caribou Jaw-Model Sleds; Skin 
Masks; Cloth and Fur Products; Drawings, Clothing, 
Soft Dolls, Appliqued Skin and Felt Pictures, and 
Stitchery. 
Each of the above is described in an authoritative 
fashion, with attention to history, outside influences, and 
materials, in sections ranging in length from a paragraph 
to two pages. Each section in turn is well illustrated in the 
many photographs with long explanatory captions; in 
fact, the plates illustrate well over 600 objects. The last 
part of Chapter Ill is devoted to Projects and Programs 
rather than genres, and is again nearly encyclopedic, 
including the Indian Arts and Crafts Board; Alaskan 
Native Arts and Crafts Cooperative; Shungnak Jade Proj-
ect; Kivalina Caribou Hood Project; Noorvik Projects and 
Taxco; Canadian Eskimo Art; Designer Craftsmen Train-
ing Project; University Projects, Arts Centers and Native 
Art Shows, and so on-described by the author as a flood 
of academic and subsidized programs since 1965. The 
artists themselves and the technical processes employed 
are partially illustrated in the last thirteen plates of the 
photographic section, but the bulk of the illustrations is 
devoted to objects rather than their creation. 
As noted by Richard ~rove in the Foreword, Dorothy 
Ray is "thoroughly unsentimental . . . she tells us 
exactly where we may see fine collections of Eskimo art of 
the past in museums, and she speaks of young people 
who are 'in the vanguard of the new Alaskan art' "(p.v.). 
Dorothy Ray herself stresses the ceaseless ingenuity of the 
Eskimo craftsmen and the immense variety of their arts; 
she does not bemoan lost genres but expresses her 
"gratitude to the nonnative custom of collecting for 
collecting's sake .... Without the white man's compul-
72 STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION 
sive dedication ... most of the objects ... would not 
have been saved for future generations-Eskimo and 
non-Eskimo alike" (p. x.). Throughout the book souvenirs 
and market art are preponderant; they appeared soon 
after the earliest voyages of discovery and become very 
common from the 1870s on. Professor Ray rightly points 
out that we can understand little of the meaning of 
traditional arts, for they were already moribund by the 
time of the first good accounts, but that we can still 
appreciate them for the goal of perfection and the enjoy-
ment of craftsmanship that the Eskimo creators must have 
borne in mind. 
Market arts, on the other hand, while still demonstrat-
ing the Eskimo characteristics of craftsmanship, ingenuity, 
and humor, are the result of outside demands. The market 
searches for the twin values that the objects must (1) look 
"Eskimo" and (2) be handmade by Eskimos. These forces 
have favored ivory carving over other media, particu larly 
since wood and painting are not automatically deemed 
"Eskimo." Occasionally this has led to the unfortunate 
emphasis merely on the "handmade by Eskimos," such as 
the popularity of Billikens, an introduced form, with little 
attention given to content and quality. The author sensi-
tively discusses some of the ethical problems of what 
"handmade," "Eskimo," and other loaded terms mean, 
and the problems of what the older and younger genera-
tions think Eskimo art should be. She forthrightly comes 
out in favor of artistic quality rather than ethnic purity 
when discussing contemporary genres. She points out that 
the "art industry" has long been extremely important to 
the economy of Eskimo villages, and she estimates that by 
the 1970s some 1500 or more of about 10,000 adults 
are active producers and that many of them have chosen 
their residence on the basis of centers of art production. 
She concludes the text with a chapter entitled "The Past 
and the Future," which stresses the inherent limitations of 
the art market on the Eskimo craftsmen and the relative 
freedom enjoyed by the new breed of subsidized artists in 
the burgeoning modern support and training programs. 
She considers the new arts and artists very important in 
the emerging redefinitions and sustenance of modern 
Eskimo ethnicity in contemporary Alaska, with its vast 
industrial enterprises, higher-education programs, gallop-
ing urbanization, and powerful native corporations. 
in summary the volume is almost "everything you 
wanted to know about North Alaskan Eskimo arts and 
crafts," and it will be sincerely appreciated by collectors 
and scholars for its comprehensiveness, authoritative data 
on collections, and bibliography; its glossary; and its 
useful index. For the reviewer its breadth, sadly, precludes 
it from having the depth of Professor Ray's Artists of 
Tundra and Sea, and its price precludes a higher quality of 
photographs and reproduction. In addition to the minor 
drawbacks mentioned above, one might note that the one 
small map (p. 4) should be larger and include all of the 
place names mentioned in the text, and that there should 
be an explanation of the orthography which appears to 
stem from a number of lay sources. This is an extremely 
useful sourcebook that will undoubtably be treasured for 
many years by Eskimos and whites alike. 
REFERENCES CITED 
Burland, Cottie 
1973 Eskimo Art. New York: Hamlyn. 
Graburn, Nelson H. H. (ed.) 
1976 Ethnic and Tourist Arts: Cultural Expressions from the Fourth 
World . Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 
Ray, Dorothy jean 
1961 Artists of the Tundra and the Sea. Seattle: University of 
Washington Press. 
Ritchie, Carson I. 
1974 The Eskimo and His Art. New York: St. Martins. 
Roch, E. (with j. D. Furneau and L. Rosshandler) 
197 5 Arts of the Eskimo: Prints. Barre, Mass.: Barre Pub I ishers. 
Swinton, George 
1972 Sculpture of the Eskimo. Greenwich, Conn.: New York 
Graphic Society. 
Evidence. Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan. Santa Cruz, CA: 
Clatworthy Colorvues, 1977. 72 pp., photographs. 
$12.95 (cloth). 
Reviewed by Drew Moniot 
Temple University 
Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, 
seems proven when we're shown a photograph of it. [Sontag, 1977 :5] 
Susan Sontag's remarks capture the essence of the 
photographs contained in Evidence. Her words provide a 
unifying theme which permeates what might otherwise 
appear to be a random potpourri of images: 
-A strange configuration of four human footprints, left in the 
dirt-covered surface of what might be cement patio flats. A pencil 
placed parallel to one of the prints in the foreground. 
-A sizable pile or bank of rocks, retained by a huge net of wire mesh. 
Between these opening and closing images in the book, 
others depict: 
-a space-suited figure apparently executing a push-up on a car-
peted office floor. 
-nine men with I. D . cards attached to their lapels, standing along 
the crest of a hill, trying to appear casual for their group portrait. 
-a white parachute extending horizontally above the ground, its 
shrouds attached to the top of a utility pole. 
-a 1960-model Thunderbird with flames pouring out from its 
burning interior. 
-a towering column of dust created by an explosion just ahead in 
the dirt road which stretches on into an expanse of Korean-
looking terrain. 
According to a release which accompanied a review 
copy of the book, Evidence began as an exhibition of 89 
photographs retrieved from the files of government and 
industry offices and displayed at the San Francisco 
Museum of Modern Art last spring. The release goes on to 
say: "The exhibition and book are the results of Mandel 
and Sultan's intensive three-year investigation of over 2 
REVIEWS AND DISCUSSION 73 


Ray: Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska

ScholarlyCommons@Penn

Studies in Visual Communication Volume 5 Issue 1 Fall 1978 Article 12 1978 Ray: Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska Nelson H. H. Graburn University of California, Berkeley Recommended Citation Graburn, N. H. (1978). Ray: Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska. 5 (1), 72-73. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol5/iss1/12 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol5/iss1/12 For more information, please contact repository@pobox.upenn.edu. Ray: Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska This reviews and discussion is available in Studies in Visual Communication: https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol5/iss1/12 approach to visual studies of society and to studies of visuals. Nevertheless, the authors have done a service in bring-ing out a workbook-manual which will orient under-graduates, and instructors who have not yet consid-ered ways of doing such studies, to the possibilities of a visual sociology. Although limited and not strong in its presentation of the potentials for original research using photography, this publication will provide a good introduc-tion for the intended audience. Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska. Dorothy Jean Ray. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977. x + 298 pp., 307 black-and-white photo-graphs. $29.95 (cloth). Reviewed by Nelson H. H. Craburn University of California, Berkeley This encyclopedic work is the latest of Dorothy Jean Ray's many works on Alaskan Eskimo arts and may represent the culmination of her decades of research in northern and western Alaska. It is also the latest of a number of recent volumes on the historical and contem-porary arts of the Eskimo (Burland 1973; Ritchie 1974; Roch 1975; Swinton 1972) and is a major contribution to the important trend to take seriously the nontraditional arts of native peoples (Graburn 1976). Though the book was published in connection with an exhibition shown at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, in May 1977, it is more nearly an encyclopedia than a catalog, in that it attempts to describe and comment on the significance of all the genres or arts and crafts of the North Alaskan Eskimo in historical and recent times. This is a large volume, with an 11 by 81!2 inch format, wide margins, and plentiful illustrations, as befits the breadth of the subject matter surveyed. In spite of the imbalance between text (69 pages) and illustrations (176 pages), which is partially redressed by the extensive captions placed next to the photographs, this is not a "coffee table" book as it might first appear. Though the book is adequately illustrated, the photographs are all black and white and not spectacular, nor is the paper on which they are reproduced of high quality. Furthermore, as the author explains in the "Note about the Photo-graphs," many of them were taken purely for the record under "home-made" conditions with ancient equipment. More than a small proportion of the plates lack definition either through having unsuitable backgrounds or through being out of focus. It should be added that a few of the institutionally produced photographs (e.g., #237 from the Smithsonian Institution) also suffer from the same faults, whereas some of the very oldest photo-graphs (e.g., #296 by Lomen, 1903) are superb, as are the line drawings (taken from Choris 1822, and others) which illustrate the oldest material culture. The book is for the serious collector and scholar interested in all aspects of Alaska Eskimo material culture. The contents cover the area from St. Michael north around to the Canadian border, roughly the lnupik-speaking area, plus St. Lawrence Island (included because of its historical and stylistic affinities), and the time span is from 1778 to the present. After a short Foreword (by Richard Grove), the very brief Preface and Chapter I cover the historical and cultural contexts of Eskimo art. The bulk of the text comprises Chapter II on Traditional Art and Chapter Ill on Market Art. These sections are organized by material and genre, in approximately chronological order, allotting a page or so to each type. The breadth of the study will become obvious to the readers from the fol-lowing lists: (1) Traditional Art includes Wood; Masks, Sculpture; Ivory; Charms, Amulets, Dolls, Decorated Utilitarian Objects; Baleen; Flint; Stone; Jade; Charms; Mythological Creatures: Painting and Engraving; Body and Face Painting, Tattooing, Rock Painting; Modified Engraving; Ice, Frost, Feathers and Decoys: Clay Pots, Mud Decoys, Rock inuksuks, Ice Models; Sewing: Ceremonial and Vanity, Traded Skins, Clothing, Orna-ment, Coiffure, Ptarmigan Quill Work; Weaving, Basketry: Grass, Birchbark. (2) Market Arts comprise Ivory Carvings; Wood Carvings; Other Materials: Bone, Baleen, Whale and Elephant Ivory; Stone; Soapstone Carving, Fakes; The Billiken; New Engraving; Figurines; Ivory Jewelry; Erotic Objects: Walrus Penis; Baleen Baskets; Bentwood Buckets, Horn Ladles and Dolls; Siberian-style Pipes; Caribou Jaw-Model Sleds; Skin Masks; Cloth and Fur Products; Drawings, Clothing, Soft Dolls, Appliqued Skin and Felt Pictures, and Stitchery. Each of the above is described in an authoritative fashion, with attention to history, outside influences, and materials, in sections ranging in length from a paragraph to two pages. Each section in turn is well illustrated in the many photographs with long explanatory captions; in fact, the plates illustrate well over 600 objects. The last part of Chapter Ill is devoted to Projects and Programs rather than genres, and is again nearly encyclopedic, including the Indian Arts and Crafts Board; Alaskan Native Arts and Crafts Cooperative; Shungnak Jade Proj-ect; Kivalina Caribou Hood Project; Noorvik Projects and Taxco; Canadian Eskimo Art; Designer Craftsmen Train-ing Project; University Projects, Arts Centers and Native Art Shows, and so on-described by the author as a flood of academic and subsidized programs since 1965. The artists themselves and the technical processes employed are partially illustrated in the last thirteen plates of the photographic section, but the bulk of the illustrations is devoted to objects rather than their creation. As noted by Richard ~rove in the Foreword, Dorothy Ray is "thoroughly unsentimental . . . she tells us exactly where we may see fine collections of Eskimo art of the past in museums, and she speaks of young people who are 'in the vanguard of the new Alaskan art' "(p.v.). Dorothy Ray herself stresses the ceaseless ingenuity of the Eskimo craftsmen and the immense variety of their arts; she does not bemoan lost genres but expresses her "gratitude to the nonnative custom of collecting for collecting's sake .... Without the white man's compul-72 STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION sive dedication ... most of the objects ... would not have been saved for future generations-Eskimo and non-Eskimo alike" (p. x.). Throughout the book souvenirs and market art are preponderant; they appeared soon after the earliest voyages of discovery and become very common from the 1870s on. Professor Ray rightly points out that we can understand little of the meaning of traditional arts, for they were already moribund by the time of the first good accounts, but that we can still appreciate them for the goal of perfection and the enjoy-ment of craftsmanship that the Eskimo creators must have borne in mind. Market arts, on the other hand, while still demonstrat-ing the Eskimo characteristics of craftsmanship, ingenuity, and humor, are the result of outside demands. The market searches for the twin values that the objects must (1) look "Eskimo" and (2) be handmade by Eskimos. These forces have favored ivory carving over other media, particu larly since wood and painting are not automatically deemed "Eskimo." Occasionally this has led to the unfortunate emphasis merely on the "handmade by Eskimos," such as the popularity of Billikens, an introduced form, with little attention given to content and quality. The author sensi-tively discusses some of the ethical problems of what "handmade," "Eskimo," and other loaded terms mean, and the problems of what the older and younger genera-tions think Eskimo art should be. She forthrightly comes out in favor of artistic quality rather than ethnic purity when discussing contemporary genres. She points out that the "art industry" has long been extremely important to the economy of Eskimo villages, and she estimates that by the 1970s some 1500 or more of about 10,000 adults are active producers and that many of them have chosen their residence on the basis of centers of art production. She concludes the text with a chapter entitled "The Past and the Future," which stresses the inherent limitations of the art market on the Eskimo craftsmen and the relative freedom enjoyed by the new breed of subsidized artists in the burgeoning modern support and training programs. She considers the new arts and artists very important in the emerging redefinitions and sustenance of modern Eskimo ethnicity in contemporary Alaska, with its vast industrial enterprises, higher-education programs, gallop-ing urbanization, and powerful native corporations. in summary the volume is almost "everything you wanted to know about North Alaskan Eskimo arts and crafts," and it will be sincerely appreciated by collectors and scholars for its comprehensiveness, authoritative data on collections, and bibliography; its glossary; and its useful index. For the reviewer its breadth, sadly, precludes it from having the depth of Professor Ray's Artists of Tundra and Sea, and its price precludes a higher quality of photographs and reproduction. In addition to the minor drawbacks mentioned above, one might note that the one small map (p. 4) should be larger and include all of the place names mentioned in the text, and that there should be an explanation of the orthography which appears to stem from a number of lay sources. This is an extremely useful sourcebook that will undoubtably be treasured for many years by Eskimos and whites alike. REFERENCES CITED Burland, Cottie 1973 Eskimo Art. New York: Hamlyn. Graburn, Nelson H. H. (ed.) 1976 Ethnic and Tourist Arts: Cultural Expressions from the Fourth World . Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Ray, Dorothy jean 1961 Artists of the Tundra and the Sea. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Ritchie, Carson I. 1974 The Eskimo and His Art. New York: St. Martins. Roch, E. (with j. D. Furneau and L. Rosshandler) 197 5 Arts of the Eskimo: Prints. Barre, Mass.: Barre Pub I ishers. Swinton, George 1972 Sculpture of the Eskimo. Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society. Evidence. Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan. Santa Cruz, CA: Clatworthy Colorvues, 1977. 72 pp., photographs. $12.95 (cloth). Reviewed by Drew Moniot Temple University Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we're shown a photograph of it. [Sontag, 1977 :5] Susan Sontag's remarks capture the essence of the photographs contained in Evidence. Her words provide a unifying theme which permeates what might otherwise appear to be a random potpourri of images: -A strange configuration of four human footprints, left in the dirt-covered surface of what might be cement patio flats. A pencil placed parallel to one of the prints in the foreground. -A sizable pile or bank of rocks, retained by a huge net of wire mesh. Between these opening and closing images in the book, others depict: -a space-suited figure apparently executing a push-up on a car-peted office floor. -nine men with I. D . cards attached to their lapels, standing along the crest of a hill, trying to appear casual for their group portrait. -a white parachute extending horizontally above the ground, its shrouds attached to the top of a utility pole. -a 1960-model Thunderbird with flames pouring out from its burning interior. -a towering column of dust created by an explosion just ahead in the dirt road which stretches on into an expanse of Korean-looking terrain. According to a release which accompanied a review copy of the book, Evidence began as an exhibition of 89 photographs retrieved from the files of government and industry offices and displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last spring. The release goes on to say: "The exhibition and book are the results of Mandel and Sultan's intensive three-year investigation of over 2 REVIEWS AND DISCUSSION 73 

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