referencebooks (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} referencebooks) wrote,@ 2006-05-22 16:04:00 |
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| Entry tags: | jewelry, native american studies |
Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry
Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry: A Guide to History, People, and Terms
By Paula Baxter with Allison Bird-Romero.
Published by Oryx Press, 2000.
This is a 7" by 10" hardcover book running to 242 pages including the bibliography and subject and author indexes, plus maps, a classified list of entries, a preface, acknowledgments, and a long introduction.
Native American jewelry is among the most narrow subject areas that one might find treated in a dedicated encyclopedia. Spend a little time with the book, though, and it becomes evident that the subject is rich enough to warrant such a treatment. For a sense of what is covered, here is the full list of items in the "A" sequence:
- abalone
- agate
- Aleut See Inuit, Inupiat, and Aleut Jewelry
- alloy
- Anasazi
- animal tracks
- annealing
- Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association (ATADA)
- Apache mountan spirit dancer (gan)
- appliqué
- argillite
- arrowheads, arrows
- Atsidi Chon
- Atsidi Sani
- avanyu See Water Serpent
- awl
- azurite
As you can see, there are entries for materials, cultural groups, tools, organizations, specific jewelrymakers, and other topics. Among the entries listed above, the shortest is two inches of text (in one column on a two-column page) and the longest is about a page. There are some black and white illustrations in the book, but not a tremendous number.
This book is well-written and informative. It makes a useful reference resource for anyone studying Native American jewelry, but makes an equally useful and a very interesting introduction to Native American Studies, because of the many peripheral and contextual issues that it discusses.
