Cannibal Culture: Art, Appropriation, and the Commodification of Difference

Description

In Arizona a family buys a Navajo-style blanket to be used on the guest-room bed; across the country in New York| opera patrons weep during the death scene of Madam Butterfly. These seemingly unrelated events intertwine in this examination of the ways in which Western art and commerce co-opt and trivialize American Indian art and imagery. Raising questions about how people travel| what they buy| and how they determine cultural merit| the author discusses topics ranging from 19th-century paintings of Arabic marauders to the current fascination with New Age shamanism| advertising images| and books and films such as The Sheltering Sky.