cover image A Wealth of Thought: Franz Boas on Native American Art

A Wealth of Thought: Franz Boas on Native American Art

Franz Boaz. University of Washington Press, $37.95 (365pp) ISBN 978-0-295-97384-5

The plight of the rain forests of the Amazon basin is well known, yet the people who live there, and their decorative arts, are relatively anonymous. Arts of the Amazon, edited by art historian Barbara Braun with text by anthropologist Peter G. Roe, addresses this gap with a collection of 192 illustrations, most in color, displaying fine basketry, masks, ceramic sculpture and vibrant feather-work headdresses, armbands and more. (Thames & Hudson, $19.95 ISBN 0-500-27824-5) In September, A Wealth of Art: Franz Boas on Native American Art, edited by Aldona Jonaitis, gathers work by the man often called the father of American anthropology. Boas (1858-1942) spent his long career with the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, and among his many achievements were groundbreaking studies of so-called primitive art. The 14 essays collected, written by Boas between 1889 and 1916, demonstrate the theoretical development that culminated in his classic, Primitive Art (1927). (Univ. of Washington, $24.95 ISBN 0-295-97384-6; cloth $50 -97325-0)