Important Work on Native Women Artists
Yurok-Karok Basket Weavers
Notes: "A pioneer in the study of Native American art, [O'Neale] presented the art from the weaver's point of view." This book "remains one of the finest and most comprehensive books devoted to American Indian basketry. In contrast to the typical treatment of tribal arts in her day, which saw them as homogeneous, anonymous, and conservative, O'Neale regarded the weavers as individuals, with personal styles and outlooks and a capacity for innovation." (I'm being lazy here, quoting from the cover of the current edition of this book, published by the Hearst Museum of Anthropology.)
More than 100 photographs of baskets are reproduced in the book, with captions offering commentary from other weavers about the design and execution of the basket. The Yurok and Karuk tribes live in far northwestern California. O'Neale earned her doctorate at UC Berkeley on the strength of this work.
184 pages plus 58 leaves of plates and 32 in-text figures.
University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 32, no. 1.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). A very nice copy of a fragile book. The yapped edges are somewhat worn (but less than in some copies); the title has been neatly inked on the otherwise blank spine, and a previous owner has written their name on the front cover and first leaf.
Publication: Berkeley: University of California Press, 1932.
Item No: #362559
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