COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Navajo Textiles: Autonomy and the Marketplace
Creator:
Caldwell, Dayna L.
Subject:
Thesis (M.A.) -- Art History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
"This essay calls attention to the relationship between consumerism and Navajo weaving processes, past and present. In so doing, it combats the belief in the 'vanishing Indian'; addresses negative stereotypes concerning Native Americans in general, and the Navajo weaving tradition in particular; and most importantly, gives voice to contemporary Navajo weavers, placing them at the center of a debate about Native American art. Since the nineteenth century, both the textiles and their weavers have been branded as representatives of 'Indianness,' a concept that would appear to reinscribe the original colonial injury, according to American Indian Studies scholar Jodi Byrd. Based on interviews in the field with nine Navajo weavers near Sanders, Arizona, I discovered, on the contrary, that it is an identity upon which Navajo weavers depend for their economic livelihood and in no way restricts their autonomy as artists. In the following pages, it will become evident that Navajo weavers sustain autonomy today through the perpetuity of their voices in their woven creations."
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia : Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2013-01
Format:
PDF : 72 pages, color illustrations