Artistic exchange between North American and Mesoamerican cultures

¶ … Americas

Relation between the Art of North America and Meso-America

Different cultures across the world practice and develop a diverse, unique range of art, inspired by demography, living conditions, environment, and a slew of other such factors. This is why when two foreign cultures interact; it brings about a great influence on each other's cultural arts. This is evident, for instance, with the Meso-American and North American arts. The art in North America is mainly evident in its innate beauty. In the modern world, it replete in its architectural, economic, and political austerity. The case is quite different for the Mesoamerican cultural art, as it lacks diversity. For this reason, we can conclude that the Mesoamericans have acquired the plan, design and execution, as well as some of their cultural values from the North American art. Hence, the archaeological study conducted in the past century on Mesoamerica has mainly focused on the post-Formative changes in the Mayan region and Central Highlands. Nevertheless, Northern American art is broader than that of Mesoamerica, in the areas of farming, modern commercial, urban, and industrial cultures. Ethnographers have made these orphaned cultures part of a general culture known as "Middle America," in order to emphasize its difference from the central Mesoamerican region. Middle America comprises all the southern U.S. cultures along with those in the region bordering Columbia. The indigenous Mesoamericans identify more with their rural community than their clans. This is because, following the Conquest, there was a show of disregard by superior community to their identity as Indians. The superiors moved further into the parish, in order to avoid being influenced, overwhelmed and corrupted by the insatiable colonial system. Even linguistic classification is wholly diversified among the contemporary commentators on art (Miller, 2010).

Exchange of Artistic Influences

Use of Textile

Patricia Anawalt studied the clothing of pre-Hispanic Mesoamericans. She came up with a model to explain the simple Pan-Mesoamerican female and male clothing patterns in terms of categorization and construction and classification of attire. She gathered information from every source available, such as paintings and sculptures, painted codices or books, archives of explorers from Spain, travelers, priests, and from the few available archaeological textiles. This model has been found significant for forming a hypothesis on the pre-Columbian textiles used in Mesoamerican regions, such as the Guatemala highlands, which has little visual sources compared to those in Mexico. The Andean and Mesoamerican clothing systems were taken up both by women and men. Women were the predominant Pre-Columbian weavers. As we have previously seen, under the rule of the Spanish people, men became the treadle-loom weavers. According to Janet Catherine Berlo, men learnt Spanish through interaction with those people. Women did not learn the language as they stayed home weaving cloth and textiles on blackstrap looms (Schevill, Janet Catherine Berlo, & Edward B. Dwyer, 1996).

The most famous indigenous North American art is that of weaving Navajo Indian rugs and blankets. The wool rugs are expensive and remarkable wool rugs, and continue to be woven using a design traditional in southwest USA and Mexico, much before the Europeans arrived: kneeling in front of a vertical frame loom made of wood, and weaving threads of different color together, by means of a shuttle to for large-scale geometric patterns. Initially, these blankets, along with others from Southwest India, were woven with threads that were hand-spun and made of cotton. However, they began to use wool when the Spanish came to the region with domestic sheep. The Navajo rugs and blankets may be the best known North American weavings, but there are also other indigenous weaving traditions. The art of finger-weaving has been significant continent-wide for a long time, and clothing, blankets and tapestries are still woven through this art in several tribes. Among the best examples of such weavings are the Tlingit people's chilkat blankets. Seminole patchwork and sashes are also significant arts by the Indians. There is a more current tradition; star blankets or quilts. They came from the tribes of Sioux (Dakota, Assiniboine/Nakoda and Dakota) and were taught to the people of the Great Plains. The indigenous American people borrowed the art of quilting from Europeans, among other arts. They made it a unique part of their cultural arts. To make star quilts, one needs to put together a variety of diamonds made of cloth in the form of a morning star that has eight points, as it was the traditional Sioux star design. Blankets were woven from quilted, beaded, and painted buffalo skin, before star quilts were invented. The buffaloes were killed in large numbers, became almost extinct, leading to the end of this art. However, a few artists of the Plains tribe continue to use buffalo hides to make blankets and robes. The buffaloes used are those in captivity (Native American Rugs, Blankets, and Quilts, n.d.).

Writer's Thoughts

Artifacts & Architecture

Maya architecture has been existence for many millenniums. It is just as rare and unique as others, such as the Roman and Greek architecture. The amazing stepped pyramids that existed during and before the Terminal Pre-classic time is the most noticeable Mayan creation and most dramatic. The architecture was deduced from Mesoamerican architecture; hence, they were based on complex carved stone that helped form a stair-step plan. The pyramids were dedicated each to a divinity, and their peaks acted as shrines. It was during the peak of the cultures of Maya that the areas of their centers of their bureaucratic, religious, and business power became fascinating cities, such as Uxmal, Itza, Tikal, and Chichen (Mayan Art and Architecture, n.d.)

Artifacts from Inca were made out of precious metals such as gold. The Empire of Inca was large, prosperous, and productive, which spread from Southwest America, across the Mountains of Andes. The people of Inca had experience in crafts. They designed crafts such as pottery, masks, tapestries, jewelry, baskets, and musical instruments (The Inca way of life, n.d.). Inca architecture depicts an inclination for duality and integrated the natural setting, but also dominated it and came up with an impressive combination of natural and geometrical forms (Cartwright, 2014).

Aztec architecture was mainly based on religion, astronomy, and cosmology. The big cities showed their values, which was significant in knowing their culture and history well, and their impact on construction and building (Aztec Architecture, n.d.).

Native North American Culture

Household and family were the simplest social units, and had similar functionality. Households were flexible in terms of population, and typically comprised extended families. An extended family is made up of a marital pair, children, and those others in blood relations. The social structures of the Inuit engaged in partnerships; a useful framework, for men to network and bring about relationships, full of trust by means of extra-kin alliances. Men came up with trade interactions with others across many ecological regions or benefited from inheritance (The Native People of North America, n.d.).

Interesting Features about Native North American Art

North American art has reflected their environment, culture, and lifestyle since time immemorial. Most current tribes produce their crafts and sell them. They act as jewelry for everyone, and are also their means of livelihood. The very first North American art has been dated to around 11,000 BC. In Florida, a bone carving of a mammoth was found. The people's lifestyles and areas of residence influenced the many tribes of North America (Native American Indian Art Facts, n.d.).