Like few of his contemporaries, Norman Feder helped shape the study of
American Indian art. In a career spanning four decades as hobbyist
craftsman, author, curator, and editor, Feder contributed to the
theoretical and methodological foundation of a discipline about to
emerge from the narrow interests of museum anthropologists and devoted
amateurs into public prominence and widespread appreciation.
Feder entered the field without the benefit of academic training, but
with a profound firsthand knowledge of the importance of techniques for
an understanding of Native American visual forms of expression. Among
his lasting contributions is the explicit recognition of the historical
nature of these art forms, of the resulting significance of documented
collections and information contained in early drawings and photographs
for a placement of artifact styles in time and space, and of the
usefulness of studies of artifact types or genres in Native American
art.
In this volume a group of American, Canadian, and European
anthropologists, art historians, and collectors explore topics relating
to Feder's far-ranging interests in Native American art and shed light
on his background and achievements. Essays by Arthur C. Einhorn, Joyce
Herold, Tilly Laskey, Roanne P. Goldfein, Christian F. Feest, Steven C.
Brown, Colin F. Taylor, Bill Holm, Arni Brownstone, Imre Nagy, Molly
Lee, Marvin Cohodas, Ruth B. Phillips, Sally McLendon, William C.
Sturtevant, and Sylvia S. Kasprycki deal with works from different
regions, time periods, and traditional forms of expression of Native
North America.
