Like few of his contemporaries, Norman Feder helped shape the study of American Indian art. In a career spanning four decades as hobbyist craftsman, author, curator, and editor, Feder contributed to the theoretical and methodological foundation of a discipline about to emerge from the narrow interests of museum anthropologists and devoted amateurs into public prominence and widespread appreciation.
Feder entered the field without the benefit of academic training, but with a profound firsthand knowledge of the importance of techniques for an understanding of Native American visual forms of expression. Among his lasting contributions is the explicit recognition of the historical nature of these art forms, of the resulting significance of documented collections and information contained in early drawings and photographs for a placement of artifact styles in time and space, and of the usefulness of studies of artifact types or genres in Native American art.
In this volume a group of American, Canadian, and European anthropologists, art historians, and collectors explore topics relating to Feder’s far-ranging interests in Native American art and shed light on his background and achievements. Essays by Arthur C. Einhorn, Joyce Herold, Tilly Laskey, Roanne P. Goldfein, Christian F. Feest, Steven C. Brown, Colin F. Taylor, Bill Holm, Arni Brownstone, Imre Nagy, Molly Lee, Marvin Cohodas, Ruth B. Phillips, Sally McLendon, William C. Sturtevant, and Sylvia S. Kasprycki deal with works from different regions, time periods, and traditional forms of expression of Native North America.