Lecture: the Totem Pole June 1, 2010

Art historian Aldona Jonaitis will present her book The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History, which reconstructs the intercultural history of the art form in its myriad manifestations from the eighteenth century to the present. Jonaitis's books focuses on the totem pole's spread from the Northwest Coast to world's fairs and global theme parks, its integration with the history of tourism and its transformation into a signifier of place, the role of governments, museums, and anthropologists in collecting and restoring poles, and the part that these carvings have continuously played in Native struggles for control of their cultures and their lands.