History of Art: Arts of Africa, Oceania and Native North America

This course is a general introduction to some of the many indigenous art traditions around the world, with emphasis placed upon traditional arts created for use in small-scale communities from the Americas, South Pacific region, and Africa. Diverse art forms covered will include sculpture, painting, performance, ceramics, textiles, and architecture from antiquity through the colonial period to the present. Topics addressing the religious, cultural, social, economic, and political contexts of the art, as well as the impact of colonialism and representations of indigenous arts in museums, will be explored. The course facilitates the comparison of arts from indigenous peoples to other world art traditions and assesses the contributions of indigenous arts in a global context.