\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia

OPINIONS & NOTESThe work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, that giantof contemporary structuralist thought, is rootedin the studies of Franz Boas — the prolificpioneering student of the West Coast tribes.In turn Lévi-Strauss's The Way of the Maskshas been widely read. These conjunctions maysuggest a cultural climate in which semipopular,lavishly illustrated studies of North-West Indian art and ceremony proliferate. Abubbling stream of books from Douglas & Mc-Intyre certainly supports the demands of amulti-disciplinary, intellectual inquiry which, atthe same time, has at its heart the need to restoredignity to the everyday and the primitive— that is to the first or originating cultures.Among current titles the most comprehensiveis The Legacy: Tradition and Innovation inNorthwest Coast Indian Art (Douglas & Mc-Intyre, $1595), a reprint of the catalogue ofa 1980 exhibition at the British ColumbiaProvincial Museum. Although its photographsare frequently dulled and slightly blurred (incontrast to the crisp reproduction in The Boxof Daylight, which is something of a companionvolume), the essays clearly and simplydifferentiate the styles of the principal tribes.The book's strongest feature is its showingcontemporary Indian art in the context of itstradition. Other works in this unofficial"series" of large-format books are focused ona particular artist, a particular resource, anda particular ceremony. Bill Holm continues hisevocative explorations of West Coast art inSmoky-Top: The Art and Times of WillieaSeaweed (Douglas & Mclntyre, $29.95),catalogue of the work of one of the most productiveand celebrated of Kwakiutl carvers.The book constantly reminds us of the structuralistview that any human activity is humanthinking. That thought, and thereforecivilization and intelligence, is not necessarilywritten, is given convincing support by Holm'sshowing how carving and masks take theirform from "convoluted and extremely detailednarrative tales" describing the ancestry of eachsocial unit. Seaweed's masks are essential tothe dramatization of these tales, to the definitionof rank and privilege. Holm makes hisown contribution to revealing the complexmythic world by evocatively setting Seaweed'swork in the firelight and smoke and sounds ofthe dance ceremonies, as well as in the labyrinthineenvironment of sea and forest andnaturally carved rock, and in the twentiethcenturyhistory of the West Coast tribes. Holmwrites more than a catalogue; it is a lovingbiography of an impressive artist. In hismeditation on the setting of Seaweed's artHolm shows the intricate relationship to landand sea in Kwakiutl technology. A still fullerunderstanding of the relationship lies in HilaryStewart's study of Seaweed's primary rawmaterial, Cedar: Tree of Life to the NorthwestCoast Indians (Douglas & Mclntyre,$24.95). Again, Indian work in cedar, mostobviously the totem poles, but also the thousandsof practical items which were made fromcedar, is a substitute for the written documentationof the community; Stewart reads thatmaterial history with skilful perception. Herunwritten premise is that we comprehend anyartefact better if we know how it is made.Thus, her book combines an encyclopedia ofcedar, in chapters on the wood, bark, withers,and roots, from whistle to canoe, from towelto fish nets, with meticulous illustrations onhow-to-do-it (Stewart has tried, herself, tomake many of the things she describes ). Thisbook conveys a deep feeling for ecologicalconnections, a recognition that the cedar is aculture and a world in itself, which mustinclude, as Stewart's last chapter shows, thevital spirit of the cedar as well. So careful areStewart's step-by-step instructions that thereader feels like a privileged insider. So toowith Ulli Steltzer's photo essay A Haida Potlatch(Douglas & Mclntyre, $16.95), a recordof Robert Davidson's potlatch, November 6and 7, 1981. Although the photographs areentirely in black and white, and often toodark to show details, the book reveals thestages in preparing and presenting a precious,and often misunderstood, ritual, and thefunny human side of ceremonial seriousness.Comments by dozens of the participants increaseour understanding of the photographs.Perhaps we are most grateful, here, for therecognition expressed by Dorothy Grant that"tradition... is a continuous process," thatthe potlatch has maintained its ancient roots,and yet can adapt to a school auditorium inMasset, a sign of a culture at once living andreviving. The most eloquently worded evidenceof the tradition that is continuous processis the handsome The Raven Steals theLight (Douglas & Mclntyre, $24.95). Twodedicated artists, Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst,re-tell nine of the Haida tales of Raven,complemented by Reid's shadowy and hauntingpencil drawings. These are, simply, thebest versions of Indian tales I have read: theyare colloquial yet poetic,, precise yet spillingoutside their boundaries, accumulating andthen blending into one another. The writers,like Raven, are intelligent yet irreverent. Asis fitting in the oral tradition, each story201