Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper / Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256

CONVENTIONALIZING.

The course of conventionalizing is noticeable in pictographs as well as in gesture-signs, on the one hand, and, on the other, as it appears in all forms of graphic art. The analysis of such conventions in form could be pursued at great length with regard to the pictographs now known in the same manner as has been done with success by Dr. Harrison Allen in his work “An analysis of the Life-form in Art,” Philadelphia, 1875. Some suggestions may be obtained from the present paper, especially from examples given under the headings of Ideographs, page 219, and Homomorphs and Symmorphs, page 239. See also conventionalized sign for Ponka in Winter Count No. I for 1778-79, on page 131, and for Mandan in the same count for 1783-84, on the same page; also the conventional sign for Cheyenne, Figure 78, page 173; also the device for starvation, Figure 144, page 220, as conventionalized in Figure 145, page 221. The limits of this paper will only allow of submitting in addition the following conventionalized forms of the human figure, in some cases being merely marks arbitrarily used to represent humanity:

Fig. 186.

Figure 186 signifies men among the Arikara. The characters are used in connection with horse-shoes, to denote “mounted men.” In other pictographs such spots or dots are merely numerical.

Fig. 187.

Figure 187 is drawn by the KiatÉxamut branch of the Innuits for man. It is an abbreviated form and rare.

Fig. 188.

Figure 188, drawn by the Blackfeet, signifies “Man—dead.” This is from a pictograph in Wind River Mountains. See Jones’s Northwestern Wyoming, etc., op. cit.

Fig. 189.

Figure 189 is the KiatÉxamut Innuit drawing for man. This figure is armless; generally represents the person addressed.

Fig. 190.

Figure 190 is also a KiatÉxamut Innuit drawing for man. The figure makes the gesture for negation.

Fig. 191.

Figure 191, from a Californian pictograph, is a man, also gesturing negation.

Fig. 192.

Figure 192 is another Californian pictograph for man, making the same gesture.

Fig. 193.

Figure 193, from Schoolcraft, I, Pl. 59, No. 91, is the Ojibwa “symbol” for disabled man.

Fig. 194.

Figure 194 is the KiatÉxamut Innuit drawing for Shaman.

Fig. 195.

Figure 195, used by the KiatÉxamut Innuit, represents man supplicating.

The five figures, 196 to 200, are reproduced from Schoolcraft, Vol. I, Pl. 58, opp. p. 408. The Numbers attached are those given by that author:

Fig. 196.

Figure 196, No. 6, is the Ojibwa representative figure for man.

Fig. 197.

Figure 197, No. 10, is used by the Ojibwa to denote a spirit or man enlightened from on high, having the head of the sun.

Fig. 198.

Figure 198, No. 20, is drawn by the Ojibwa for a “wabeno” or Shaman.

Fig. 199.

Figure 199, No. 30, is the Ojibwa “symbol” for an evil or one-sided “meda” or higher grade Shaman.

Fig. 200.

Figure 200, No. 29, is the Ojibwa general “symbol” for a meda.

Fig. 201.

Figure 201 is drawn by the Hidatsa for man.

Fig. 202.

Figure 202, from Schoolcraft, I, Pl. 58, No. 3, is an Ojibwa drawing of a headless body.

Fig. 203.

Figure 203, from Schoolcraft, I, Pl. 58, No. 2, is another Ojibwa figure for a headless body, perhaps female.

Fig. 204.

Figure 204, contributed by Mr. Gilbert Thompson, is a drawing for man, made by the Moki in Arizona.

Fig. 205.

Figure 205, reproduced from Schoolcraft, I, Pl. 64, opposite page 424, is a drawing from the banks of the River Yenesei, Siberia, by Von Strahlenberg, in his historical and geographical description of the northern and eastern parts of Europe, Asia, etc. London, 1738.

The similarity to characters on Figure 185 is obvious.

Fig. 206.

Figure 206, also from Strahlenberg, and quoted in Schoolcraft, Vol. I, Pl. 66, Fig. 4, opp. p. 342, was found in Siberia, and is identical with the character which, according to Schoolcraft, is drawn by the Ojibwa to represent speed and the power of superior knowledge by exaltation to the regions of the air, being, in his opinion, a combination of bird and man.

It is to be noticed that some Ojibwa recently examined regard the character merely as a human figure with outstretched arms, and fringes pendant therefrom. It has, also, a strong resemblance to some of the figures in the Dakota Winter Counts (those for 1854-’55 and 1866-’67, pages 121 and 124, respectively), in which there is no attempt understood to signify any thing more than a war-dress.

Fig. 207.

Figure 207, according to Schoolcraft, Vol. I, Pl. 58, No. 58, is the Ojibwa drawing symbolic for an American.

Clyx.com