For the Mojave people of California and Nevada, pottery
was a gift of
their culture hero, Mastamho, in the earliest times. It was so important
that ceramic forms had special names in the language of the spirits.
In the
nineteenth century, the Mojave began to create new figurative forms
that
reflected their traditional life and beliefs. Today, Mojave ceramic
pieces
have gone from being found on Salvation Army shelves for fifty cents
or a
dollar to pieces worth twenty to thirty thousand dollars in galleries.
J. L.
Furst explores the antecedents, significance, and named and unnamed
potters
in the context of Mojave history and belief. She is the author of the
first
and only book on Mojave ceramics, Mojave Pottery/Mojave People: the
Dillingham Collection of Mojave Ceramics (School of American Research
Press,
2001.) She is co-author of North American Indian Art (Rizzoli, 1982)
and
also is author of Natural History of the Soul (Yale, 1995.)
She has
written numerous articles on Aztec and Mixtec art and ideology.
Dr. Furst is full professor of art history at Moore
College of Art and
Design in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is a consultant scholar in
the
American section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology
and Archaeology.