Ancient Art of the Amur Region [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONhis book is dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Soviet Far East, principally the Amur area ' and the Primorye (Maritime) territory. It sets out to describe the artistic treasures left by the distant ancestors of the Nanai, Olcha, and Nivkh peoples and to show how the modern culture of these nations has developed from their ancient traditions. It is genuinely remarkable that vhat were, in the not so distant past, small and backward nations should have possessed such creative power. Everyone who has come into contact with the art of the Lower Amur has been impressed by its creators' vivid originality and inexhaustible wealth of imagination. Researchers into the culture of the Amur tribes wrote enthusiastically about the works of these unknown craftsmen. Academician Leopold Schrenck, one of the first Russian researchers in the ethnography of the Far East, published a superb collection of artefacts which enables us to place the Nanai (Gold, as they were then called), Nivkh, and Olcha craftsmen of the first half of the nineteenth century among the greatest artists known to world ethnography. Richard Maack, another Russian investigator of the Far East at this time, was equally impressed by their work. Finally, Berthold Laufer, an outstanding nineteenth-century American ethnographer and sinologist, published a study specifically devoted to the traditional art of the Lower Amur.Anyone who has studied the books of Schrenck, Maack, and Laufer, and another Russian ethnographer, Ivan Lopatin, has shared with them that feeling of elation which is aroused by all contact with the really beautiful. The nameless wood-carvers and sculptors of the Amur transformed into works of art the most everyday objectsplates for cutting fish, or the birch-bark or wickerwork boxes in which the women kept the implements of their heavy and exhausting domestic labor. A simple auger- or a knife-handle became in their hands priceless treasures. The clothes of the Amur tribesmade not only of fur, but of such an unusual material, to us, as carefully treated fish-skin were copiously decorated with intricate colored patterns. These peoples reached the heights of skill in religious art, which formerly played the main part in their spiritual life. The objects of the primitively naive shaman ritual are most expressive. The fantastic, brightly colored masks personify the menacing and benevolent spirits, on whose disposition man's life was constantly dependent. Their mood is echoed by the ritual garments of the shamansthe intermediaries between the world of people and the world of spirits. Even modern connoisseurs of art are fascinated by the expressive power of these sculptured idols. Still more striking is the decoration of their buildings, including the burial huts, whose main function was to make the future life of their kinsmen in the buni (lower earth) as rich and even beautiful as possiblehence the luxurious decoration of the gables and walls of these huts. Their own houses were thought of as living beings: they were given eyes and inside was placed the spirit of the dwelling, its master^the dzhulinmost often presented in a female guise, that of the Mother-goddess. In the mind of the Nanai and Nivkh, boats too were living beingsthey also had eyes, the windows of the soul.Shamanism, with its ritual dances and drum music, has long since disappeared. The customs of the tribal patriarchy are forgotten. The smoky communal dwelling with rows of bunks has been replaced by light spacious homes. The people's everyday life has radically changed. But the ancient art and its traditions continue to live, and they find a new stimulus in the social demands of contemporary life. While carefully preserving their artistic inheritance, the peoples of the Amur are constantly enriching their culture.There can hardly be any other place in the world where the art of the distant past is so closely interwoven with contemporary life, ancient culture with modern, and where, as a result, the connections between past and present can so easily be traced. As far as distant antiquity is concerned, the petroglyphs of the Amur and Ussuri have always aroused especial interest. Everyone who sees these Far-Eastern petroglyphs for the first time feels that he is encountering something unusual and unexpected. For more than a hundred years the petroglyphs of the Lower Amur and the Ussuri have attracted the attention of researchers attempting to solve the riddleTO