Art of the Northwest Coast

 

Tlingit Clan House

The idea of animal symbols relating to family lineage and name is part of the iconography of the art.  The exteriors of many of the plank houses are decorated with recognizable animals, such as ravens, eagles, frogs, bears, etc.  The use of animal symbols relates to the naming and status of the individuals who use the structure.  The central pillars of the house, the poles carved with totemic symbols or crests, is a stacking or combining of lineage and naming.  Sometimes, the doorways are portals that are metaphors for birth or transformation. 

Both the Tlingit Clan House and the Tlingit Grizzly Bear House Partition Screen, are a part of or a work of decorative architecture.  The clan house is made of planked and carved wood which is then painted.  The facade (front or facing) of the building is decorated with stylized anthropomorphic (human) and zoomorphic (animal like) forms

The decorations are sometimes enhanced by incising or carving lines around the forms in a type of relief sculpture.  Relief sculpture is when the features are attached or engaged with the surface they are carved from.  In this case the relief is very low (bass relief) and doesn’t project much from the surface.

The features and animal’s anatomy are unrealistic. They are not naturalistic even though they are based on animals and forms found in nature.  They look a bit like a cartoon depiction and are stylized in a way that was invented by the cultures that produced them.

The stylized and outlined renderings or design of these forms, according to art historian Marilyn Stokstad, consists of "two basic elements: the ovoid, a slightly bent rectangle with rounded corners, and the formline, a continuous shape-defining line."  The ovoid form is a stylized in a geometric fashion.  The formline could also be referred to as a contour line.  Both the partition and the facade of the clan house are symmetrical.  The doorway is at the center of the design. 

Tlingit, Grizzly Bear House, c 1840 cedar paint and human hair

Another shared element of art from the Northwest Coast is that there are images of faces and animals combined or placed within the bodies and forms of the largest creatures.  In the Grizzly Bear Partition, there are faces within the hands, eyes, and nose of the bear.  It is possible that this compounding of images is related to lineage in the same way that the stacking of crest animals in the poles is a kind of “family tree.”  It may also be related to the ideas of the spirit or soul of the animal being anthropomorphic or made up of another creature inside another.  Like the pine needle inside the Princess.  There are also shaman or priests who believe that they can transform or wear the body of an animal and travel about in it. 

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The house may be a symbol of transformation or birth.  In the case of the Grizzly Bear screen the doorway is place where a vagina is located.  Moving through the doorway is then a symbol of birth.  Some houses openings are painted to look like the mouths of animals and or birds.  Some are even hinged beaks.  The houses then consume or eat the person who enters the structure.  These kinds of visual metaphors of consumption are part of the Raven story.  At one point the princess consumes the Raven as a pine needle and then gives birth to him.  After the Raven steals the planets and releases them, he escapes from the King’s house and is reborn and transformed into a black bird. 

The totem poles and compound imagery of the partition and facade represent the history of the clan.  Each image represents the lineage of the clan that uses the house.  Each of the animals is associated with a society, family, or grouping.

Houses such as the one above were communal dwellings.  The screen at left was used to divide the chief's living area from the rest of the community.  Houses were also used as ceremonial centers in which special festivals such as the Potlatch and Hamatsa ceremonies were held.  The Potlatch was an elaborate feasting, dancing, and gathering that lasted for several days.  Often dancing societies, each with its own crests and dances, would perform and reenact important stories or histories central to the culture.  Gifts were exchanged and dances were performed.  The most powerful individuals were the ones who gave the feast and in some ways the festival was an elaborate way in which the participants battled in an economic fashion.  In 1885, the federal government enacted a law prohibiting the Potlatch, claiming that the Kwakwaka'wakw were harming themselves economically.

During the Potlach ceremonies, there are dancers who wear masks and costumes that depict supernatural creatures and reenact the stories that are associated with them.  The function of these performance and story telling is a way of unifying the culture the culture, keeping ideas alive, communicating cultural values.  They also entertain.  Two characters, Bakwas and his wife Dzunukwa are probably cautionary tales similar to ghost stories like La Llorona in Mexico.  La Llorona is a story that warns kids to stay home at night and keeps them away from water where they might drown.  In the case of Bakwas and Dzunukwa, the two are also ghosts.  They might have the benefit of communicating “stranger danger” to children and to warn children against wandering too far from home, accepting food from strangers and keeping them from places where the children could easily drown.

For all the videos in order with a textbook and study guides please visit: https://www.kenneymencher.com/courses