Art, nature, and religion in the central Andes : themes and variations from prehistory to present / Mary Strong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strong, Mary, 1947-

Series:

Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long series in Latin American and Latino art and culture

Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long series in Latin American and Latin art and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indian art--Andes Region.

Indian art.

Indians of South America--Andes Region--Religion.

Indians of South America.

History.

Andes Region.

Religion.

Indians of South America--Andes Region--History.

Indians of South America--Andes Region--Social life and customs.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

x, 356 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2012.

Summary:

From prehistory to the present, the Indigenous peoples of the Andes have used a visual symbol system-that is, art-to express their sense of the sacred and its immanence in the natural world. Many visual motifs that originated prior to the Incas still appear in Andean art today, despite the onslaught of cultural disruption that native Andeans have endured over several centuries. Indeed, art has always been a unifying power through which Andeans maintain their spirituality, pride, and culture while resisting the oppression of the dominant society.

In this book, Mary Strong takes a significantly new approach to Andean art that links prehistoric to contemporary forms through an ethnographic understanding of Indigenous Andean culture. In the first part of the book, she provides a broad historical survey of Andean art that explores how Andean religious concepts have been, expressed in art and how artists have responded to cultural encounters and impositions, ranging s from invasion and conquest to international labor migration and the Internet. In the second part, Strong looks at eight contemporary art types-the scissors dance (danza de tijeras), home altars (retablos), carved gourds (mates), ceramics (cerámica), painted boards (tablas), weavings (textiles), tinware (hojalatería), and Huamanga stone carvings (piedra de Huamanga). She includes prehistoric and historic information about each art form, its religious meaning, the natural environment and sociopolitical processes that help to shape its expression, and how it is constructed or performed by today's artists, many of whom are quoted in the book. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Themes 15

Chapter 1 Pre-Columbian Andeans 17

Chapter 2 Andean Thinking 59

Part II Variations 95

Chapter 3 The Spanish Colonial Period 97

Chapter 4 Globalization Today 130

Part III Andean Arts Today 163

Chapter 5 The Scissors Dance (La Danza de las Tijeras) 165

Chapter 6 Home Altars (Retablos) 195

Chapter 7 Carved Gourds (Mates) 219

Chapter 8 Ceramics (Cerámica) 242

Chapter 9 Painted Boards (Tablas de Sarhua) 263

Chapter 10 Weavings (Textiles) 279

Chapter 11 Tinware (Hojalateráa) and Huamanga Stone Carving (Piedra de Huamanga) 305.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780292735712

0292735715

9780292735729

0292735723

OCLC:

757718134