Christopher Columbus Native Americas Analysis

disregard of representing different people and cultures to a Western society. Women are sculpted holding flowers and appearing serene and unaffected as women were supposed be. In the sculpture, they are taking care of children which shows the belief that women must be motherly and calm. In the center plaque, perhaps one of the most troubling aspects, is Christopher Columbus. The decision to place him in the center of the sculpture, indicates the importance of his presence and may signify that he is the ideal example of what people should try to be, the opposite of savage as it were. The entirety of the piece is an example of the white-centric beliefs surround Native Americans. To say they were savage before colonization is to place America …show more content…
It was made by a Navajo woman and it represents harmony and vitality, taking on a life of its own, a concept the Navajo referred to as hózhó. According to the tombstone, women used plants to dye the yarn and it would take hours of work just to gather the plants needed, let alone spinning yarn to make wool. The tombstone of the weaving relative to that of the Progress Vase is short and fails to make any connection between the goals of the exhibit and the purpose of the hozho. It seems the exhibition was made to display European depictions of Native Americans with only the barest representation of actual Native American art and even less information about their perspectives on the dialogue the MFA was trying to …show more content…
Several Tlingit artifacts are displayed, including a glass piece titled Raven Steals the Moon. It is a contemporary piece made in 2002 by Preston Singletary, a Tlingit artist. The glass is a two-toned contrast between red and black, and it represents a Tlingit story in the traditional style of their art. The story is that of Raven stealing the moon. In Tlingit culture, Raven is often a central character of their myths and legends, due to the fact one of the clans of Tlingit is the Raven Clan. In the story of Raven stealing the moon, Raven brings light to the world by stealing a box containing the sun, moon and stars, essentially beginning all of time. The piece in the MFA shows the typical representation of Raven which is a more geometric representation of a real animal rather than naturalistic. However, the lack of naturalism is purposeful and a hallmark of that particular Native American art. The shape of the glass is representative of a bird's beak curving and becoming narrower at the end. It is a simple piece that allows the audience to focus on the story it is representing rather than the artwork itself. Along these lines, the MFA chose to include the story of Raven on the tombstone of the glass piece to give the audience context and perhaps more appreciation of the story being told through