The Early Years of Native American Art History: The Politics of Scholarship and Collecting

This collection of essays deals with the development of Native Americanart history as a discipline rather than with particular art works orartists. It focuses on the early anthropologists, museum curators,dealers, and collectors, and on the multiple levels of understandingand misunderstanding, appropriation and reappropriation whichcharacterized their transactions. The essays examine major figures, artforms, institutions, and events of the early years when Native Americanartworks were first collected, studied, and displayed.