Incorporating Culture
How Indigenous People Are Reshaping the Northwest Coast Art Industry
Description
Fragments of culture often become commodities when the tourism and heritage business showcases local artistic and cultural practice. But what happens when local communities become more involved in this cultural marketplace? Incorporating Culture examines how Indigenous artists and entrepreneurs are cultivating more equitable relationships with the companies that reproduce their designs on everyday objects. Moving beyond the assumption that cultural commodification is necessarily exploitative, Solen Roth illustrates the processes by which Indigenous people have been asserting control over the Northwest Coast art industry, reshaping it to reflect Indigenous models of property, relationships, and economics.
Awards
- Commended, Council for Museum Anthropology Book Award, Council for Museum Anthropology 2020
- Short-listed, Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize, UBC Library 2019
- Short-listed, Society for Economic Anthropology Book Prize, Society for Economic Anthropology 2020
- Winner, K.D. Srivastava Prize for Excellence in Scholarly Publishing, UBC Press 2019
Reviews
Incorporating Culture: How Indigenous People are Reshapingthe Northwest Coast Art Industry takes a fresh look at Northwest Coast art through the exploration of economic, legal, and social issues.
(published Fall 2020)
- Carolyn Butler-Palmer
[Incorporating Culture] will resonate with those interested in the confluence of Indigenous artware and tourist souvenir markets throughout the world. [...] All readers will benefit from time spent with this well-told story of cultural adaptation and change, particularly because it refutes notions of Indigenous erasure and, instead, emphasises Indigenous resiliency.
- Thomas McIlwraith