Part 4

Other examples of complex rhythms from this region have been given by Dr. Reichard in the essay previously referred to.

In some instances the rhythms are not so distinct, but nevertheless discernible. As an example may serve a neckband consisting of a double string in which beads of various colors are interspersed among red beads in the following order

-r- r--r---r --- r----r---r--r- / / / / | \ \ \ \ -r--r--r- -r---rrr---r----r---r--r-

In Eastern Siberia similar conditions occur.[32]

[32] See W. Jochelson, The Koryak, Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Vol. VI, pp. 688 et seq.; and in the publication previously referred to by Dr. Reichard.

A fairly simple sequence is shown on an embroidered strip (fig. 37 a) consisting in regular sequence of squares followed by three narrow strips; the middle strip is a little wider than the two lateral strips.

A more complex rhythm is shown in figure 37 b. The long fringe which is caught in the seam near the upper border of the embroidery is repeated at regular intervals. An embroidered strip near the upper part of the design is interrupted and the black bars on the central white strip are omitted at these places. A division of the upper row of embroidery, between the sets of fringes, into three parts of unequal length will be noticed. Just under the breaks in this row are two groups of tufts of seal fur, a little wider below than on top, and these are set off more definitely by the arrangement of groups of white lines on the lower two rows.

Still more complex are a number of borders embroidered in colored yarn. In these we may distinguish between the rhythm of form and of color (fig. 38). The arrangement is one combining symmetry with rhythmic complexity. On one of these strips (fig. 38 a) some of the rectangles with rhombic checkerwork have a white background; in these there are two rows of blue or purple diamonds at each end and two rows of red diamonds in the centre (design 1). Other rectangles have a yellow background with red diamonds at the sides and blue ones in the middle (design 2). Besides these there is one with red background and black diamonds (design 3). The colors of the crosses are irregularly arranged. There are four with predominating red and white (design 4) and others with predominating yellow and blue (design 5). The most symmetrical arrangement of this strip requires a yellow rectangle in the middle of the front. One end of the stripe, as shown in the illustration, has three short blue bars on a red background (design 6). The peculiar cut at this end fits into a corresponding cut at the other end and shows that the stripe as it is has been taken from a garment. The general impression of the design is that the rhythm and symmetry of the crosses is subordinated to the symmetry of the rectangles. For this reason I have placed the crosses in the following arrangement in the upper line, the rectangles in the lower line.

Crosses 4 5 5 5 4 5 4 4 5 4 6 Rectangles 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 3 1 Front Back

The embroidery on figure 38 b consists of four distinct elements; a flower with leaves on each side (design 1); one branch with curved leaves (design 2); one branch with terminal flowers (design 3). Besides these there is one other element which occurs only once on the back of the coat. It is marked design 4. The embroidered stripe is not sewed symmetrically to the coat but has evidently been placed in such a way that the arrangement in the front of the coat corresponds to the sequence:—

2 3 2 1 _3_ 1 2 3 2

while the back is occupied by three designs (3). The small design (4) is found on the back. The whole arrangement of the small designs on the back being

2 2 4 2

Another specimen (fig. 38 c) consists of a double leaf design on a plain background alternating with another design consisting of three crosses. This pair of designs occurs in regular succession five times, but under the left arm it is interrupted by the two patterns shown on the right hand side of the figure.

In still another coat (fig. 38 d) we find the same series of designs in symmetrical arrangement on the front and back. The middle is occupied by a cross and the other designs follow as indicated. Under the right arm appears an additional design, consisting of a central cross and rhomboidal fields with central dots; while under the left arm a single field is added differing in color from all the others but related to them in form.

An interesting feature in this series is the overlapping of form and color. This condition appears even more clearly in designs from ancient Peru. I observed the occurrence of this rhythmical form a number of years ago and called the attention of Mr. Charles Mead to the phenomenon.

He described[33] a number of designs of this type which show a rhythmic arrangement of six units, sometimes the same in form but different in color. Sometimes with a double rhythm, one of form and one of color.

[33] Charles W. Mead, Six-Unit design in Ancient Peruvian Cloth, Boas Anniversary Volume, New York 1906, pp. 193 et seq.

Plate IV, fig. 1 represents a border of vicuna wool, consisting of a series of diagonal bars all of the same pattern. The sequence of color is:

1. Bright red (1) with brown (7) dots. 2. Blue (2) with pink (1*) dots. 3. Dull yellow (3) with brown (7) dots. 4. White (4) with pink (1*) & brown (7) dots. 5. Dark green (5) with red (1) dots. 6. Red (1) with green (2) dots.

The triangular patterns (Plate IV, fig. 2) have the following sequence:

1. Background white figures red spots dark blue. 2. — dark blue — red — dark yellow. 3. — yellow — red — dark blue. 4. — brown — red — yellow. 5. — light blue — red — dark yellow. 6. — dark yellow — red — light blue.

The quadruple bird head pattern (Plate IV, fig. 3) has the following colors for the background, bird, and bird’s eye:

1. Background pink 1 bird: yellow eye: pink. 2. — yellow 2 — red — yellow. 3. — dark yellow 3 — light yellow — yellow. 4. — dark red 1^a — yellow — pink. 5. — yellow 2^a — dark red — yellow. 6. — dark yellow 3^a — light yellow — light yellow.

A large cloak from Ica is embroidered with designs representing a man with a bow and headdress (fig. 39). The figures are the same all over, except that the position and the objects they hold alternate right and left. The color scheme, however, varies: there are six distinctive types. Considering only the colors of coat, legs and face we may arrange them in the following order:

Coat. Legs. 1. Yellow dark blue 2. purple red 3. red dark blue 4. blue dark yellow 5. black dark blue 6. dark blue black

Face, above. Face, below. 1. dark yellow black 2. yellow white 3. brown dark yellow 4. blue red 5. brown dark yellow 6. dark yellow light yellow

The fifth and sixth type correspond in the rest of their color schemes to the third and second types.

The general arrangement of these types is as follows:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3a 4 1 6 5a 4 1 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 6 5 4 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 6 5 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 6 5 4 1 2 3 4 1 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 6 5 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 6b 5 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 4 1 2 3 4 1 6 5 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 6 5c 4 1 2b 3c 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 6 5 4 1 2 3 4 1

In the actual arrangement there are apparently three mistakes. In the first horizontal line, the two figures marked with the note _a_ have been exchanged. In line six and line eight the two figures marked with the note _b_ have been transposed and in line eight the two figures with the note _c_ have been exchanged. It will be seen that when these transpositions have been effected the diagonal lines running from the first row down to the left, follow a regular alternation of types. Type 6 is clearly related to 2, and type 5 to 3. Since in quite a number of woven garments regular diagonal sequences may be observed, it seems likely that these were particular determinants of the style. There are in all, six different types, but if we imagine the lines continued, it would be found that the same order will occur after twelve lines. The embroidery does not represent a regular six-unit design but is rather a four unit design of two distinct types—1 2 3 4 and 1 6 5 4,—in which the former type is repeated twice and the latter once.

Similar observations may be made on the fabrics illustrated in Reiss and Stübel’s “Necropolis of Ancon”. I have selected a few specimens that illustrate the rhythmic repetition of color. Figure 40[34] represents a band with red background on which are animal figures in the following sequence:

_purple_, yellow, _green_, yellow, _white_, yellow, _green_, yellow

in other words a sequence of eight units consisting of one purple and one white design interrupted by the symmetrical color sequence yellow, green, yellow. The yellow designs are surrounded by a heavy black border.

[34] Reiss and Stübel, Necropolis of Ancon, p. 67 b, fig. 3.

In figure 41[35] we have another band which consists of diagonal patterns framed by red lines except in one place where a black frame is found. As on the preceding specimen the black serves to separate the red and yellow. The design is the same all through, and the order of the elements as follows:

[35] Ibid, p. 67, fig. 6.

yellow red yellow brown yellow black frame black zig-zag red frame red zig-zag red frame

blue-green yellow purple red zig-zag red frame red zig-zag

In other words the essential sequence is yellow, red, yellow, brown, yellow, blue-green, yellow, purple; a series of eight elements.

In figure 42 we find a border of simple interlocking S shaped designs in the order, white, dark blue, light blue, yellow, brown; a series of five elements which are repeated regularly.

Figure 43 represents a part of a design on a poncho in which, from above downward we have a series of six pairs of a fret design in the following arrangement:

green, red yellow, blue white, purple yellow, brown light red, black

the sixth line repeats the color sequence of the first.

Figure 44 is a somewhat complicated design which is not completely shown in the section here represented. The principle of the pattern is illustrated in figure 44_b_. The sequence of color of the S shaped head design is purple, yellow, green, on a red background.

In figure 45 we have a decorative band with the color sequence yellow, green, yellow, green, light yellow, white, yellow, green, yellow; obviously a series of six units. The designs on the background of these colors are all in red.

In figure 46 a border is shown which has the color arrangement, from left to right:

pink—black, red—yellow, light gray—dark gray, black—pink, yellow—red, dark gray—light gray.

In this specimen there is a systematic inversion of color values; what is light in the first set of three is dark in the second three. This tendency is quite marked in a considerable number of cases. We have for instance, a series of

white, red, yellow;—gray, pink, yellow,

where the white corresponds to the dark gray and the red to the light pink.

The tendency to this repetition of colors is shown very clearly in Mexican codices. For example in the Codex Nuttall, p. 82 (fig. 47), we find in the figure in the left hand lower corner a base in which stepped triangles are used with the sequence: yellow, red, black, yellow, purple, reddish brown. On the same page, the feather fringes on the coats of the figures represented are in the same order. Quite a number of feather dresses may be found in which the same order is preserved, as for instance on page 81 of the same Codex. The order in which these colors are given runs sometimes from left to right; sometimes from right to left, as for instance in the feather dress of the lowest left hand figure, page 81. Sometimes a different set of colors is used. On the feather headdress of a figure, page 75, we find the order:

white, red, yellow, blue, purple, brown, white, purple, yellow, blue, red, brown (twice),

and the latter order is repeated in figures found on page 67 in the left hand lower corner on a base; in reverse order on page 67 on a feather coat and also on page 62 in stripes on the figures in the lower right hand corner. It seems that in this codex the order of colors is quite definitely fixed.

Remarkable rhythmic repetitions are found also on bead work from the Zambesi. On quite a number of specimens the following order of colors is regularly repeated:

_Black_ white red yellow _green_ yellow red white. Or written in another way: _Green_ yellow red white _black_ white red yellow.

These occur on a belt, a woman’s apron, a necklace, and on two mats[36]. In a number of places blue is substituted for green, and brown for red.

[36] Muller et Snelleman, L’industrie des Caffres dans le sud-est de l’Afrique. Pl. XIX figs. 3, 5, 7. Pl. XXIV figs. 1, 2.

The rhythmic repetition and symmetry appears most clearly when we substitute numbers for colors. I designate

White 1, Red 2, Yellow 3, Brown 3′, Blue 4, Green 4′, Black 5.

According to the description of the belt first mentioned, as given by the authors, there is a regular repetition in the following order:

1 2 3 | _4_ | 3´ 2 1 | _5_ | 1 2 3 | _4´_ | 3 2 1 | _5_ | 1 2 3 |4´|

The same order is found on the handle of an axe which is decorated with colored zig-zag lines[37].

[37] _Ibid._, plate XI, fig. 1.

On a pouch[38] there is a lower field arranged in rows of diamonds, followed by a middle field consisting of zig-zag bands, and an upper field consisting again of diamonds.

[38] _Ibid._, plate XXIV, fig. 3.

In this the order is from below upward

2 1 _5_ 1 2 3 _4_ 3 2 | 4 3 5 1 5 3 5 1 | diamonds zig-zags 2 3 _4_ 3 2 diamonds.

Like symmetry, rhythmic repetition runs generally on horizontal levels, right and left, although not quite as preponderantly as symmetry.

Piling up of identical or similar forms occurs in nature as often as lateral symmetry. Plants with their vertical succession of leaves, branches of trees, piles of stones, ranges of mountains rising behind one another, may suggest vertical arrangements of similar elements. However, much more common are repetitions in horizontal bands; of simple arrangements of single strokes in rows; and of complicated successions of series of varied figures that recur in regular order (fig. 48, Plate V).

It follows from what has been said before that the forms here discussed are not expressive of specific emotional states and in this sense significant.

This conclusion may be corroborated by a further examination of decorative forms.

We have already indicated that the artistic value of an object is not due to the form alone, but that the method of manufacture gives to the surface an artistic quality, either through its smoothness or through a patterning that results from the technical processes employed. However, the treatment of the surface is not controlled solely by technical processes. We may observe that in the art products of people the world over other elements occur that are due to the attempt to emphasize the form.

The application of marginal patterns is one of the most common methods employed for this purpose. In many cases these are technically determined. When, for instance, a woven basket is finished off, it is necessary to fasten the loose strands and this leads generally to a change of form and surface pattern in the rim. The strands may be turned down, wrapped and sewed together, they may be braided, or woven together and left standing as a fringe. In a bark basket the rim must be strengthened by a band, to prevent splitting of the bark, and the band and the sewing set off the rim from the body. A thin metal disk may have to be strengthened by rolling in the outer rim.

The birchbark basketry of western North America and of Siberia presents an excellent example of a marginal pattern originating through technical necessity and regularity of motor habits. Necessary protection of the rim is obtained by sewing on a hoop. The grain of the bark runs parallel to the rim and if the stitches were all passing through the same grain the whole rim of the basket would tear off. It is therefore necessary to make the holding stitches of different lengths. This is done in the most effective way by beginning with a short stitch which passes through the bark immediately under the strengthening hoop, by making the next stitch a little longer and the following still longer. In this way the distance from the first short stitch has become long enough to permit a repetition of the new short stitch and by continuing in this way a marginal pattern of right triangles develops. The same result may be attained by alternating a few short stitches with a few long ones. From this results a different type of pattern. The same method is used by the Golds of southeastern Siberia (fig. 49[39]).

[39] See for a fuller description the remarks by F. Boas in James Teit “The Shuswap”, Publications of the Jesup North Pacific expedition, Volume II, page 478-487.

In woodwork, pottery and in most kinds of metal work these technical motives are not present. Nevertheless marginal patterns are widely distributed, although they cannot be explained on the basis of technical considerations. It would be quite arbitrary to claim that all these marginal patterns were primarily suggested in those types of technique in which a distinctive treatment of the margin is a necessity, for these are relatively few in number and of highly specialized character, while rim patterns are well nigh universal. It is instructive to observe that in coiled pottery the whole body of the vessel is generally polished off and that sometimes the impressions of the modelling fingers are left on the rim. There is no technical, compelling reason that requires this mode of treatment, but it is intelligible as an attempt to emphasize the form. Examples of this mode of treatment are very numerous. Rows of small pellets, moulded rims or incised lines along the rim of pots (fig. 50), small marginal curves along the rim of bronze disks, lines accompanying the rims of flat dishes and spoons such as are used by the Alaskan Eskimo, incised lines on the rim of a soapstone pot of the Hudson Bay Eskimo, and on their ivory combs (fig. 51), the spur line decoration of all the Eskimo tribes (see fig. 78, p. 86), the jutting out of the rims of dishes from Oceania, or on pots from ancient Europe are of this kind. As F. Adama van Scheltema has justly pointed out, we cannot reduce this world-wide tendency to any other ultimate cause than to a feeling for form, in other words, to an esthetic impulse that prompts man to emphasize the form of the object that he has made.

In a number of cases the form is not so much accentuated as rather set off, closed in and separated from the surrounding space by a formal limitation, a marginal line, thickening of the rim or a sharp crest, by which means the individualization of the object is attained. Quite often these limiting bands develop into decorative fields and serve the double purpose of limitation and of decoration. They may attain an individuality of their own.

When the surface itself is decorated, these lines or ornamental bands serve the additional purpose of limiting and closing the decorative field. Examples of this kind are very numerous. We find them in borders of our rugs, in architectural decoration, when the corners and roof lines of a building are formed by ornamental stone work, in book binding,—in short in practically all forms of modern decorative art, but no less in primitive art. Blankets of the Alaskan Indians (see figs. 269 et seq., pp. 259 et seq.), bronze work of ancient Scandinavia, prehistoric pottery of Europe and of Central America, gable boards of New Zealand houses, belts from New Guinea, baskets from British Guinea (fig. 81, p. 90) and wooden cups from the Congo region illustrate this tendency (fig. 52).

There are, however, many cases in which the decoration is so closely adapted to the form of the object that the stimulus for developing a closing outline is not felt. The decoration of the field appears as a picture fitted into the object. In still other cases the smooth, undecorated marginal field serves as a border setting off the central ornamented area. In basketry with radial decoration, we find often a lack of border designs and a tendency to let the ornament run right up to the rim where it seems cut off.

Another characteristic trait of decorative art must be mentioned. Not only is the general form emphasized and limited, but its natural divisions are determining elements in the application of decorative patterns and bring it about that the decoration is arranged in distinct fields. This is very apparent in pottery in which a neck is set off from a body or in which the body is divided by a sharp angle into an upper and a lower part. Such types are found in prehistoric European art as well as in America (fig. 53).

On pouches of American Indians (fig. 54) body and flap are treated as separate units. In moccasins, the uppers form a field separate from the rim (fig. 55). In clothing, the patterns on collars, pockets or sleeves are often considered as separate units. Wissler has called attention to the influence of the structure of garments upon their decoration[40].

[40] Clark Wissler, Structural Basis to the Decoration of Costumes among the Plains Indians, Anthrop. Papers Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. 17, pp. 93 et seq.

The tripartite division of the decorative field of Alaskan woven blankets is determined by the position of the blanket. The wider middle field is on the back of the wearer, the narrower, lateral fields are in front of the body (see figs. 269 et seq., pp. 259 et seq.).