Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch

Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.: Univ of Washington Pr. New. 1991. Hardcover. 0295971142 .*** FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request *** – – *** IN STOCK AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT - FLAWLESS COPY, BRAND NEW, PRISTINE, NEVER OPENED -- REVIEWS: This striking catalogue accompanies a traveling exhibition of boldly designed Kwakiutl ceremonial objects which recently opened at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The potlatch, a festive gathering marked by the lavish distribution of gifts to guests as a sign of the host's status, is central in the tradition of the Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island and the mainland opposite. Ritualistic simulated cannibalism was a feature of some potlatches, which led to the Canadian government's outlawing of the ceremony in 1884. The Kwakiutl continued to potlatch furtively until the ban was rescinded in 1951. Dramatic masks, symbolic wall paintings, headdresses, feast dishes and blankets are among the objects reproduced, together with archival and contemporary photographs attesting to the persistence of the potlatch tradition. Essays by scholars discuss Kwakiutl ritual dance, analyze the social significance of potlatch and reveal how anthropologist Franz Boas, the museum's curator from 1895 to 1905, acquired a wealth of potlatch objects with the help of his chief informant, George Hunt, a half-English, half-Tlingit Native anthropologist who was raised in a Kwakiutl village. (Publishers Weekly) ** This book accompanies an exhibit of the art of the Kwakiutl Indians of Northern Vancouver Island and the mainland at the American Museum of Natural History. The fascination of the potlatch to our acquisitive culture should broaden interest in this book and its excellent text. The quality of the museum's Kwakiutl collection and the expert gathering of its key portions for the exhibition and this book were made possible more than a century ago as Franz Boas and George Hunt began collecting objects from the enduring cultural tradition of the Kwakiutl. It remains their masks, however, that have at once an artistic finesse and a ritual presence that make this book a beautiful catalog of the Kwakiutl. (Library Journal) -- with a bonus offer-- .