Native America Collected

Book excerpt: "I argue for a history of Native American art that is politically informed," Margaret Dubin writes, "and for a criticism of contemporary Native American fine arts that is historically founded." Integrating ethnography, discourse analysis, and social theory in a careful mapping of the Native American art world, this insightful new study explores the landscape of 'intercultural spaces' -- the physical and philosophical arenas in which art collectors, anthropologists, artists, historians, curators, and critics struggle to control the movement and meaning of art objects created by Native Americans. Dubin examines the ideas and interactions involved in contemporary collecting, in particular, to understand how marketplace demands have homogenised Western perceptions of 'authentic' Native American art. In doing so, she reveals the power relations of an art world in which Native American artists work within and against a larger system that seeks to control people by manipulating objects.