Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Artistic Depictions of Native Americans. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 12 page paper analyzes how Native Americans were depicted in photography and in other art forms in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The reasons for those depictions are discussed in terms of the idea of the noble savage, the other, and the self. Bibliography lists 15 sources.
Page Count:
12 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPnaStereotypes.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
misunderstandings, injustices and even malice. Stereotyping has been another common occurrence characterizing the relationship between Native America and the dominant culture. One of the more prevalent stereotypes
in the early interaction between the cultures was of the Native Americans as savage beasts who observed no spiritual or moral constraint. At the same time, however, Europeans were
infatuated by Native Americans and tended to depict them accordingly in much of their art. Thus was created the so-called "Noble Savage". Painters like Charles Bird King
and others were eager to capitalize on the European infatuation with Native America (Cosentino, 1990). They solicited Native Americans into their studios and depicted them in ways that were
best suited for their audiences taste (Cosentino, 1990). Artists like George Catlin took this infatuation a step further and traveled to where Native Americans lived to capture them in
all of their, real or artificially imparted, glory (Masters, 2005). Catlin too took significant artistic liberty with his subjects (Masters, 2005). Never-the-less, he produced paintings that continue to
captivate the viewer even today. As potentially misleading as some of the paintings of the time may be, photographs might be contended to be even more misleading. The
infatuation with Native Americans is, however, particularly obvious when one considers the photographs that were taken of these people during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Unfortunately, as was
the case with many other artistic renditions of these subjects, many of these photographs are not accurate historical depictions of a people but instead are stereotypical representations of what the
particular photographer thought a Native American should be. To illustrate the pervasiveness of stereotyping in the nineteenth and early twentieth century photographs of Native Americans one can consider
...