Masks and Totems: A Northwest Coast Odyssey

By Edward Malin

Cultural Anthropologist Edward Malin has devoted his life to the study and collection of the stunning art of the Northwest Coast Indians. This is the author's fourth book. It focuses on the ceremonial art and underlying cultural traditions of the Kwakiutl, Haida, and Tlingit tribes he visited in remote coastal villages of BC and Alaska beginning in the late 1940s. During this period, traditional native arts were losing their value--both internally and externally. The book chronicles Malin's early collecting expeditions for the Denver Art Museum (1946-1949) and his ethnographic work as a young graduate student working with Frederica de Laguna. The last chapter includes a detailed and illustrated account of the unfolding of a 1967 "redeeming potlatch," Gwa lem. Malin has a real passion for this native art, both its beauty as an art form and its deeper social, spiritual and cultural meanings. Because of his genuine interest in preserving and understanding their art, Malin was given extraordinary and rare access to places, people, and the spiritual activities of native peoples. This personal account is both historically significant and an essential resource for scholars of native art. Each chapter is illustrated with never before published photographs and the artist's personal drawings of masks and totems.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0615616054
• ISBN13: 9780615616056
• Release Date: March 2012
• Publisher: Edward Malin
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.6" x 8.5"