The Continuum Encyclopedia of Native Art: Worldview, Symbolism and Culture in Africa, Oceania and Native North America.

Hope B. Werness

The Continuum International Publishing Group, New York, 2000. 360 pp., 874 entries, 550 line drawings, 14 maps, bibliography, index. $50 hardcover.

Hope Werness, art historian and artist, should be congratulated for taking on the enormous task of compiling an encyclopedia covering the arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native North America. While her decision to combine these regions could be questioned, as well as her complete neglect of North Africa and Ethiopia, I will instead focus on her methodological approach, which closely follows the work of Carl Schuster and Edmund Carpenter.

Schuster and Carpenter, authors of Patterns That Connect: Social Symbolism in Ancient and Tribal Art (1996), propose that certain basic visual patterns can be found universally and that these universal patterns tend to relate to concepts of genealogy and descent. Furthermore, they suggest that the global distribution of these patterns points to a common prehistoric origin existing prior to widespread migration, and they downplay ideas of independent invention and cultural diffusion. Although Werness distances herself from a Jungian version of universal archetypes and sidesteps general claims of cultural diffusion, she remains a bit vague regarding her own methodology, essentially aligning herself with Schuster and Carpenter by default. While her exploration of universal patterns and archetypes is the most interesting aspect of the text, it is also what serves to weaken it, as she tends to stress similarity at the expense of unique differences, innovation, and individuality.

As expected, the author provides succinct and reliable information suited to an encyclopedia format; however, individual entries sometimes lack critical depth. For example, one of the more extensive entries, Basketry (pp. 29-31), presents only Native North American examples, completely ignoring basketry from Africa and the Pacific Islands. Another example of the text's narrow scope is the entry for Hawaiian feather cloaks, 'Ahu `Ula (pp. 5-6); it relies almost entirely on research by Tom Cummins ("Kinshape: The Design of the Hawaiian Feather Cloak," Art History, vol. 7, no. 1, 1984), who focuses on color symbolism and the crescent shape as symbol. Yet one of the most significant aspects of Hawaiian cloaks is the entanglement of chanting prayers into the netted cape during its construction, which serves to protect the sacred wearer (Adrienne Kaeppler, "Hawaiian Art and Society: Traditions and Transformations," in Transformations of Polynesian Culture, edited by Antony Hooper and Judith Huntsman, 1985). By focusing too tightly on symbols and archetypes, Werness sometimes neglects artistic process and unique aspects of cultural significance. The brevity of many of the entries is also frustrating, as the "`nuggets' of information" (p. vi) are sometimes too concise to be useful. At its most severe, some of the entries seem more appropriate for a dictionary than an encyclopedia.

Regarding the format of this encyclopedia, of greatest significance is the thematic index that contains eight general headings relating to larger concerns that would otherwise be difficult to track. For example, the index heading Animals lists a variety of species, as well as supernatural animals such as Rainbow Snake, and their relevant entries, so that a look under Owl will lead the reader to the following entries: Bembe, Birds, Hako, Pawnee, Pipes, Wandjina. In addition to Animals, the other thematic categories are Art, Artifacts and Techniques, Artists, Deity Archetypes, Geographical Subdivisions and Native Cultures, The Human Body, Natural Phenomena and Materials, and Miscellaneous.

This encyclopedia also offers charts which for the most part are useful, clear, and informative. There are some minor exceptions, such as the one found under Sign Systems, Asante Adinkra (p. 273), in which the visual "signs" do not clearly relate to the provided "explanations." Line drawings fill the pages and adequately illustrate most of the entries, but unfortunately the maps, both large generalized maps and focused regional ones, are scattered throughout the text, making them a bit difficult to locate for general reference. Finally, since most entries contain multiple cross listings, it would be easier if page headers were provided to indicate where the reader is (alphabetically speaking) while chasing them.

The author's ambitious attempt to cover three very large and diverse regions, combined with the restrictions of an encyclopedia format, has created a publication with limited value for an academic audience, as ideas are never allowed to develop, and linked phrases lead only to more sound bites. Werness's unique approach to the arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native North America through an examination of universal symbols and archetypes stands as her greatest contribution, and readers with some knowledge of these cultures will benefit from the thematic index that provides some textual cohesion. In the end, it may be artists who will most benefit from this publication, using it as a source for formal and conceptual inspiration. It almost feels as if Hope Werness the art historian was writing for Hope Werness the artist.

TERI L. SOWELL is a lecturer in African and Pacific Islander art history at the University of California at San Diego and San Diego State University. She received her Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1999.