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ANTHROPOLOGY OF ART
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Split Representation in the Art of Asia and America
CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGISTS seem to be somewhat reluctant to undertake comparative studies of primitive art. We can easily understand their reasons. Until now, studies of this nature have tended almost exclusively to demonstrate cultural contacts, diffusion phenomena, and borrowings. The discovery of a decorative detail or an unusual pattern in two different parts of the world, regardless of the geographical distance between them and an often considerable historical gap, brought enthusiastic proclamations about common origin and the unquestionable existence of prehistoric relationships between cultures which could not be compared in other respects. Leaving aside some fruitful discoveries, we know to what abuses this hurried search for analogies "at any cost" has led. To save us from these errors, experts in material culture even now need to define the specific characteristics which distinguish a trait, trait complex, or style that may be subject to multiple independent recurrences from one whose nature and characteristics exclude the possibility of repetition without borrowing.
It is, therefore, with some hesitation that I propose to contribute several documents to a hotly and legitimately debated body of materials. This voluminous collection involves the Northwest Coast of America, China, Siberia, New Zealand, and perhaps even India and Persia. What is more, the documents belong to entirely different periods: the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for Alaska; the first to second millennia B.C. for China; the prehistoric era for the Amur region; and a period stretching from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century for New Zealand. A more difficult case could hardly be conceived. I have mentioned elsewhere 1 the almost insuperable obstacles generated by the hypothesis of preColumbian contacts between Alaska and New Zealand. The problem is perhaps simpler when one compares Siberia and China with North America: Distances are more reasonable and one need overcome only the obstacle of one or two millenia. Even in this case, however, and whatever the intuitive convictions which irresistibly sway the mind, what an immense marshalling of facts becomes necessary! For his ingenious and brilliant work, C. Hentze can be called the "scrap-collector" of Americanism, pulling his evidence together from fragments gathered from the most diverse cultures and often mounting insignificant details for exhibition. Instead of justifying the intuitive feeling of connectedness, his analysis dissolves it; nothing among these membra disjecta poetae appears to justify the deep sense of affinity which' familiarity with both arts had so strongly elicited.
And yet, it is impossible not to be struck by the analogies presented by Northwest Coast and ancient Chinese art. These analogies derive not so much from the external aspect of the objects as from the fundamental principles which an analysis of both arts yields. This work was undertaken by Leonhard Adam, whose conclusions I shall summarize here. The two arts proceed by means of: (1) intense stylization; (2) schematization or symbolism, expressed by emphasizing characteristic features or adding significant attributes (thus, in Northwest Coast art, the beaver is portrayed by the small log which it holds between its paws); (3) depiction of the body by "split representation"; (4) dislocation of details, which are arbitrarily isolated from the whole; (5) representation of one individual shown in front view with two profiles; (6) highly elaborate symmetry, which often involves asymmetric details; (7) illogical transformation of details into new elements (thus, a paw becomes a beak, an eye motif is used to represent a joint, or vice-versa); (8) finally, intellectual rather than intuitive representation, where the skeleton or internal organs take precedence over the representation of the body (a technique which is equally striking in northern Australia. These techniques are not characteristic solely of Northwest Coast art. As Leonhard Adam writes, "The various technological and artistic principles displayed in both China and North West America are almost entirely identical."
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Bibliography: Structural Anthropology. Claire Jacobson - transltr, Claude Lévi-Strauss - author, Brooke Grundfest Schoepf - transltr, New York, 1963