Nordwest Amerikanische Indianerkunst by Leonhard Adam (review)

REVIEWS OF BOOKS 363 compensatingadvantagesfrom civilization. Mr. Barbeau'sbookfosters suchsympathy, whichgrowsasonecomesto understandbetter aboriginal psychology. The illustrations are interesting. The artist, Mr. W. Langdon Kihn, hasevidently thought of his sitters (all the portraits are authentic) in termsof design,and frequently the native costumeand the pattern it makesare morecharacteristicthan the native head,a-lthough the result is harmonious. The reproductionsin colour are excellent. It is a comment on Mr. Barbeau's text of the vanishing race that not a few of theseaborigineshave no Indian names. DUNCAN CAM?BELL Sco• Nordwest Amerikanische Indianerkunst. Von LEONHARD ADAM. Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth & Co. 1923. Pp. 44; 48 illustrations. Tins monograph is the seventeenth volume of the "Orbis Pictus" collection,dealingwith variousnational arts. Like all the booksof this series,it is well printed, and the illustrationsare excellent. Herr Adam has set himself a difficult task. His work is not intended for the student; on the other hand, the subject is so remote for the ordinary reader that it could only be made comprehensible by a very lucid text. Here Herr Adam has failed, for he is often obscureeven to the student. He is not free from the faults of the German "Kunsthistoriker ". Aside from this, he has devoted too much attention to the ethnographicalsideof the question, and not enoughto the artistic sideper se,which,we take it, is the main objectof this collection. Herr Adamiswellacquainted with hissubject,thoughnothingshows that he has been in actual touch with the North West Amerind and his art on the spot. Indeed, the fact that all the plates,with the exception of two (10 and 38), are reproductionsfrom specimensin the Berlin Ethnographical Museum seemsto prove this. For this reason the illustrations give only a very incompleteview of this branch of native art. At the same time, the plates, especially Nos. 1, 3, 4, 18, 21, 25, 27-9, 32-5, and 41, are excellently chosen,intensely interesting, and instructive. It is a pity that suchan important sectionof Amerind art and culture as basketry has been wholly neglected. On page 6, the author draws attention to the disastrouseffect contact with Europeans hashad on native art. He speakslucidly about the relation of Amerind art to totemism, though hisinterpretation,. of totemism is toonarrow (pp. 9-13). He is wrong in inferring (p. 10) that only animals can becometotems. The spirit of almost anything may becomea totem. "Die grimmigste I