Indigenous Studies Commons^™

Piety And Power In Early Sasanian Art, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Sasanian art has long been considered a royal art: An art in service of royalty. Indeed, traditions of kingship in Iran became a paradigm for kingship throughout the world (though not always recognized as such). But the significance and strength of Iranian kingship no doubt led, in part, to scholarly paradigms in which nearly all in historical Iran has been cast in the shadow of kingship. But there are other ways to look at kingship in Iran. This paper explores the representation of royal images in early Sasanian art from a religious perspective, a view perhaps eclipsed by the ever-present …

Knots And Bolts: Design And Technology In The Caucasus, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

In the largest sense, Oriental rugs represent both the social history and manufacturing traditions of their particular cultures and are related to the human needs, economies, and ecological constraints of those societies. Each textile or fragment represents a complex set of human interactions between user and viewer, implying a social response, and between user and maker, sometimes resulting from economic transactions among buyer and seller, lender, merchant, and trader. Suppliers of raw materials and market superintendents or commissioners for fair trade and quality control may also have been involved. The quality and appearance of any given textile results from the …

Bukhara: Traditional Weavings From Pre-Soviet Central Asia, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

In southern regions of what was the Soviet Union lie five independent republics, the populations of which are predominantly Turkic: Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. During the course of the past fifty years, each of these areas has seen increasing industrialization as part of the centralized planning of the Soviet economy. Today, throughout the region. privatization of industry is rapidly occuring. Accompanying these new developments, and as part of the political and economic changes of the last few years, there has been an increasing awareness of ethnic identity and cultural inheritance. This may be expressed through literary and intellectual …

A Kurdish Reed Screen, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

A unique ethnographic monument recently donated to The Textile Museum merits special attention not only for its size (twenty-five feet long and four feet high), but for its important place in the history, use, construction, and decoration of functional textiles.

Designed to enclose space in a nomadic environment. the reed screen may be considered an architectural textile destined for use within the community in which it was made. This distinguishes it from commercial products manufactured for the market, and, indeed, from most other utilitarian textiles, although it shares with carpets and kilims an obvious intent to beautify the environment for …

Elements Of Plane Symmetry In Oriental Carpets, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Historically, in the Islamic world from Spain to Indonesia, two-dimensional repeat patterns have served as primary means for organizing color and space. The ornamentation of architecture may involve the modifications of a two-dimensional pattern in its application to a three-dimensional surface. All of the uses of pattern, appearing as well on ceramics and metalwork, in book illumination, and textiles, rely upon the repetition of complex or simple designs to form overall repeat patterns of apparent complexity and intricacy. Yet within all the visual diversity and within the variability of regional traditions throughout the Islamic world, there is a common visual …

Beyond The Pyramids: Geometry And Design In The Carpets Of Egypt, 1450-1750, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Mamluk carpets present a paradox. For although they are among the most tantalizingly beautiful of all Oriental carpets, they are also the least understood. The answers to such questions as who made them, why they were made and for whom, and how they were used, are virtually unknown. These carpets, produced during the rule of the Mamluk sultans in Egypt in the late 15th century are arguably the finest ever produced anywhere. Mamluk carpets are distinguished from all other carpet-weaving traditions. In part, this distinction derives from the dominance and simplicity of geometric form (#R34.32.1): squares and rectangles, octagons and …

Carpet Condition: A Curator's Perception Of "The Hole", Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Twenty years ago when I set out on the course of a professional life in archaeology, I thought my future lay in ruins. Preparing this paper has given me an opportunity to review my experiences and reassess my perception of condition in general. And, specifically with respect to carpets, it has enabled me to develop a heightened sense of self-awareness and perception of "the hole." I have found upon introspective analysis two key aspects of my own training and experience that have profoundly affected my response as curator to the condition of carpets: The first is a background, prior to …

Visions Of Infinity: Design And Pattern In Oriental Carpets, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

A fascination with color and geometric pattern is expressed in Islamic art. In many areas of the Islamic world, historically from Spain to Indonesia, twodimensional repeat patterns provide the primary means for organizing color and space. Ornamentation of architecture, ceramics, metalwork, book illumination, textiles, and Oriental carpets relies upon the repetition of complex or simple designs, creating overall surface patterns of apparent complexity and intricacy. Patterns may consist of geometric, floral, calligraphic, or figural forms. The majority of patterns in Oriental carpets consist of geometric and stylized floral designs, arranged in a system of repeats within an oblong central field …

Carpets And History, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

The story of Western trade with Persia in textiles and carpets casts a fascinating light on the exciting, sometimes turbulent history of the centuries following Europe's Age of Exploration. The intense commercial and political rivalries of European mercantile expansion during the 400-year period from about 1500 to 1900 is revealed both by official historical documents - treaties, royal decrees and contracts - and by more personal ones, such as the reports of traveling merchants. Through the details of production and trade that these documents contain, we can view textiles and carpets as key commodities in the international marketplace. They played …

An Introduction To Oriental Carpets: The Arthur D. Jenkins Collection, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Oriental carpets have long fascinated the American public. Rich colors and attractive designs, as well as lush pile and renowned durability have given them a well-deserved reputation as beautiful and useful floor-coverings. Handmade products of far distant lands, their complicated patterns also evoke the romance of luxury and the Orient in days of yore. Yet Oriental carpets also represent both social history and manufacturing traditions related to the human needs, economy, and ecological constraints of their cultural origins.

Arthur D. Jenkins, an American collector of Oriental carpets, was intrigued by the social origins of rugs. Early in his collecting career, …

Omaha Language Preservation In The Macy, Nebraska Public School, Catherine Rudin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

A native language renewal program at the Macy, Nebraska Public School is described that is designed to preserve Omaha, a native American Indian language that is only a generation away from extinction. At the time of this research, only about 100 fluent Omaha speakers lived on the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska. The language and culture program, instituted in 1970, has employed various instruction techniques and methodologies, including immersion, memorization of words and phrases, and publication of student-authored stories in English and Omaha. The program has suffered from a lack of consistency; frequent changes in funding, personnel, and curriculum; and a …

Dragons, Blossoms, Sunbursts: Textile Arts Of The Caucasus, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Rugs from the Caucasus have long been appreciated in Europe and America. Widely known for their bright colors and bold designs, Caucasian rugs have attracted collectors for nearly a century. These rugs, produced in towns and villages, reflect regional design traditions which were amalgamated from diverse sources.

Although embroideries and flatweaves (rugs without pile) from the Caucasus are less well known in the West, their designs are no less bold nor their colors less striking. Produced as a domestic art, they were destined for home use and local commerce. The richness of patterns in these textile arts is in part …

"Introduction" To Content And Context Of Visual Arts In The Islamic World: Papers From A Colloquium In Memory Of Richard Ettinghausen, Carol Bier, Priscilla P. Soucek

Textile Research Works

The edited papers presented in this memorial volume offer tribute to Richard Ettinghausen, scholar, teacher, curator and friend, a great man who affected within his own lifetime the study of Islamic art throughout the Western world. Through the high caliber of his scholarship and his discerning connoisseurship, he had a profound effect on the intellectual development of those whom he touched through his manifold activities, whether in publications, formal lectures, or an informal sharing of his knowledge. In recognition of his many achievements he received in 1976 "Pour le Merite," the highest civil decoration awarded by the Federal Republic of …

Woven From The Soul, Spun From The Heart, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Textiles are luxuries and necessities. They are artifacts as well as primary sources which contain a wealth of information about the society that produced them Materials and color represent products available for textile production; structure gives evidence of levels of technological achievement. Patterns illustrate belief and values, frequently offering insight into daily life. The mingling of motifs expresses a kinship of ideas. Textiles, above all, illustrate a culture's freshness and vitality, its flexibility and adaptation to change.

Meaning and Metaphor: Cultural themes occur in both Persian poetry and the textile arts. Hunting, falconry, bird-and-flower studies were popular subjects for poetry, …

Beating A Dead Horse: Reply To Levy’S Comments, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The author reponds with a rebuttal to comments made by Jerrold E. Levy concerning his paper "Ecological Aspcets of Equestrian Adaptations in Aboriginal North America" which was published in American Anthropologist, volume 85, pages 562-591.

"Preface" To Vision And Refuge: Essays On The Literature Of The Great Plains, Frederick C. Luebke

Department of History: Faculty Publications

SEVEN OF THE EIGHT ESSAYS in this volume were prepared originally for the first and second annual symposia sponsored by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Those by Barbara Meldrum, John Milton, Paul Reigstad, and Bernice Slote were presented at the conference on "The Cultural Heritage of the Plains," held in April 1977; the essays by Chester Fontenot, Tomas Rivera, and Dorothy Burton Skardal were prepared for the symposium on "Ethnicity on the Great Plains," held a year later. The contribution by Paul Olson was written especially for this volume. Selected essays from the 1977 and 1978 …

Black Elk Speaks As Epic And Ritual Attempt To Reverse History, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Modern Siouan storytellers make a distinction in speaking of the difference between bedtime and sacred stories. Moreover, Lakota masters of the sacred arts are inveterate constructors of figural or allegorical systems. They interpret, apply, and reapply the iconological resources of their culture through ritual, myth, storytelling, symbolic action, and clothing. This Sioux symbolic tradition is one context in which John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks (1932) must be understood. Conceptualizing it as an epic may assist both Western and non-Western readers to clarify the uses to which a culture's symbol system may be put in mediating conflicting values, especially those …

The Work Of Al-Hasan B. Muhammad, Die Engraver At Isbahan And Al-Muhammadiyya, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Four Buyid coins in the collection of t he American Numismatic Society, struck between 358-68 H. /A.D. 968-79 at two mints in Jibal province, illustrate a phenomenon unique in the history of Islamic coinage. They concern the status of a die engraver named al-Hasan b. Muhammad. A silver dirham bearing his signature was first noted by George C. Miles and published in 1938. It was at that time the only Islamic coin known to bear the signature of a die engraver. More recently, four additional coins have been located which shed more light upon the career of this artisan. His …

The Book Of The Pawnee: Pawnee Stories For Study And Enjoyment, Marge Critcher, Carolyn Boyum, Patti Huff, Paul A. Olson, Rosemary Bergstrom

Department of English: Faculty Publications

I. Meeting the Pawnee ............................... 1

II. Pawnee Beliefs .................................. . 3

The Pawnee Creation Story ...................... 3

The Boy Who Was Sacrificed ..................... 8

III. Pawnee Hero Stories ............................. 14

Lone Chief ................................. 14

Little Warrior's Counsel. ................ . . . .... 27

IV. Pawnee Folk Tales ............................... 30

The Snake Brother ........................... 30

Mosquitoes ................................. 37

V. Boy Stories .................................... 39

The Boy Who Talked with Lightning .............. 39

The Boy and the Wonderful Robe ............... .42

The Boys, the Thunderbird, and the Water Monster .. 50

VI. Coyote Stories .................................. 54

Coyote and the Blind Buffalo ................... …

A Few Great Stories Of The Santee People, Edna Peniska, Paul Robertson, Robert Frerichs, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Told by Many Nineteenth Century Santee and by Edna Peniska and Paul Robertson of the Modern Santee.

Gathered and Edited by Robert Frerichs and Paul A. Olson.

The fact that every known culture and civilization has acquired some sort of set of sacred stories is important. The eleven sacred stories in this work have multiple purposes. They possess a value as sheer entertainment; they also tell truths and lessons which explain the meaning of existence. Thus the Santee listener could fmd his place in the world and achieve an inner harmony through hearing stories. The characters in these stories are …

The Hollow Of Echoes, Kathleen Danker, Felix White Sr.

Department of English: Faculty Publications

The Hollow of Echoes is the result of collaboration between Mr. Felix White, Sr. and myself. Mr. White, who resides in Winnebago, Nebraska, is knowledgeable in many areas of traditional Winnebago culture including language, history, legends and law. During the spring of 1973, he recounted to me a number of Winnebago legends of which I made recordings. I have incorporated these legends into a fictional account of a present-day Winnebago grandfather using the stories to instruct his grandchildren in traditional ways of viewing situations they encounter in their daily lives. Almost all of the views of the grandfather in the …

Aboriginal Exploitation Of Marine Food Resources, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Anthropological interest in human exploitation of resources has increased considerably during the last decade. Archaeological and ethnological literature concerning man's utilization of the world's oceans is relatively abundant and there are now several on-going anthropological research programs, e.g., Aleutian Islands, Pacific Northwest Coast, California, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Southern Africa which focus primarily on maritime adaptations. The purpose of this study is threefold: (1) to suggest that anthropological assumptions regarding marine food resources and their use are inadequate; (2) to examine marine ecosystems with respect to structure and dynamics, primary productivity, ecological efficiencies, distributional and quantitative …

The Bryas Palace Of Theophilus, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

According to the Continuation of the chronicles of Theophanes the Bryas palace of Theophilus (829-842) was built in imitation of an Arab palace. The present inquiry into its Islamic source offers a new interpretation of the Bryas palace within the context of Middle Byzantine secular architecture and the development of court ceremonial. ::?revious studies have concentrated upon locating Bryas in efforts to determine the extent of Islamic impact on the architecture of Byzantium. The most recent attempt, put forth by Dr. Semavi Eyice, tentatively links the unexcavated ruins at KUyUkyal!, a suburb of Istanbul, with the literary description of Bryas …

Excavations At Korucutepe, Turkey. Part Ii: The Fortification Wall, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Excavations at Korucutepe have brought to light a fortification wall of a type common in Anatolia during the second millennium B.c. The wall had been exposed in places by bulldozing operations for a government farm. Excavation revealed a plan consisting of a curtain wall with a double stone foundation (see fig. 7). Square towers project at intervals where the direction of the wall changes. Adjacent to two of the towers is a passageway, one on the south side of the mound, one on the northeast, leading out from the city. There is no indication of any cross walls, or casemates, …

The Interior Department, War Department And Indian Policy, 1865–1887, Henry George Waltmann

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The present study focuses upon a significant, but neglected, aspect of Indian history — the inter-relation between the War and Interior departments and Indian policy. Some analysts have briefly mentioned the difficulty entailed in not having a clear understanding of which branch of government should act upon the tribes. “A cardinal error of the government," one prominent historian observes, "lay in tolerating a vague division of authority over the Indians between the war and interior department." Those primarily concerned with the Army's campaigns against hostile tribes have also mentioned the interdepartmental problem. "The Indian Bureau," one author states with obvious …

Report On Historical Investigation Of Wounded Knee Battlefield Site, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, Merrill J. Mattes

United States National Park Service: Publications

In April 1952, the National Park Service was requested by Representative E. Y. Berry of South Dakota, to consider the possibility of giving national recognition to Wounded Knee Battlefield, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. Limited Date on the battlefield was presented on April 22 to the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments. The Board asked that a field investigation and report be made by the Service to secure more comprehensive data. The Region Two office was requested to conduct this investigation by a note appended to Mr. Tolson's letter of May 9 …

Ash Hollow Cave: A Study Of Stratigraphic Sequence In The Central Great Plains, John L. Champe

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

The Great Plains has been an important laboratory for anthropological research since the latter part of the nineteenth century. Much of the early work was ethnological in character, a consequence, perhaps, of the late preservation of tribal life in the area. These early studies, however, cover a wide range and include subjects as diverse as tribal ethnographies, special studies in ethnobotany, and distributional analyses of Sun Dance traits. Although many of the earlier studies stressed historical sequences, a definite swing away from this position soon developed. By the middle of the nineteen-twenties, in fact, investigators became so preoccupied with distributional …

The Direct-Historical Approach In Pawnee Archeology (With Six Plates), Waldo R. Wedel, Jade Robison , Depositor

Nebraska State Historical Society: Transactions and Reports

The direct-historical approach in archaeology assumes the existence of an analogous relationship between historic accounts and prehistoric data, serving to establish cultural identity under the basis of cultural continuity. In this article, Dr. Waldo Wedel uses the direct-historical approach to review some preliminary findings of archaeological investigations undertaken as part of an early effort to study the Pawnee culture of eastern Nebraska. The University of Nebraska Archeological Survey was established in 1929, led by Dr. W. D. Strong, in an attempt to better understand prehistoric Pawnee culture. Previous evidence existed in the form of A. T. Hill’s artifact collection and …

Political Organization Of The Plains Indians, With Special Reference To The Council, Maurice Greer Smith

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

Next to sociological field work, ... there are within this branch of study no other investigations so urgently needed as monographs on some definite class of social phenomena or institutions among a certain group of related tribes. A comparative treatment of some social institution as it exists throughout the uncivilized races of the world undoubtedly has value .... But at the same time a comparative study suffers from defects which seem wellnigh inseparable from the prosecution of so great a task. A social institution is not an isolated phenomenon, but is closely connected with a variety of facts. It is …

Report Of Department Of Archeology, Nebraska State Historical Society, For 1903 And 1904, Elmer Ellsworth Blackman, Jade Robison

Nebraska State Historical Society: Transactions and Reports

In this document, E. E. Blackman, the State Archeologist, reports to the Nebraska State Historical Society regarding recently completed work in the field of archeology. Blackman first reports on his 1903 archeological explorations and lecture presentations. Fieldwork emphasized an investigation of flint quarries and geological formations across the central and eastern parts of the state of Nebraska. In the same year, Blackman set out on an expedition along the Blue River, with the hopes of gathering additional relics from previously excavated sites as well as from those yet to be investigated. Of primary importance was artifact collection and interpretation. Although …