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How a professional Native artist creates a sustainable career is the driving question of Dr. Marilyn Norcini’s economic study of Santa Clara Pueblo artist, Pablita Velarde (1916-2006).
“When you attend the Santa Fe Indian Market, do you ever walk past the booths thinking of the artists as self-employed business men and women? Probably not. And are you aware that the price you paid for the Native basket or pottery is a revenue stream for the artist family’s yearly income – providing a household with money for food, clothing, housing and gas?”
Velarde was a New Deal public artist who transitioned into a professional artist during the second half of the twentieth century. For fifty years, Velarde owned and operated a successful home business in Albuquerque by making and selling her visual and literary works. After a divorce in the late 1950s, Velarde solely supported herself and her two children from her artworks, books and crafts.
Dr. Norcini presents a unique approach to writing an artist biography – by focusing on the practical economic aspects of making a living as a Native artist. Although Pablita modestly dismissed the idea that she was a competent businesswoman, quantitative financial data prove otherwise. Research from diverse primary and secondary sources builds a financial picture of a Native artist’s business practices – a pattern of wholesale and retail sales, marketing strategies, pricing, several product lines, and a signature line of “earth paintings.” With hard work, talent and business savvy, Velarde created a personal “brand” as a full-time, professional Native artist and businesswoman.
The presentation is free and open to the public, advanced registration is encouraged. A reception to meet Dr. Norcini will follow her talk.
Patricia Crown, Leslie Spier Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, and Weatherhead fellow at SAR
Archaeologists acknowledge the importance of ritual a thousand years ago in Chaco Canyon, including calling it a “location of high devotional expression.” Yet, while pilgrimage, feasting, potlatch-style redistribution have all been suggested as possible ritual activity, the precise nature of the rituals enacted in the Canyon remains elusive. Patricia Crown spent two decades documenting the role of cylinder jars in ritualized drinking events in Pueblo Bonito. Drinking rituals are common throughout the world, most often involving consumption of alcohol or caffeinated drinks, including coffee, tea, and cacao. Drinking rituals often reinforce existing social structures, but also provide important opportunities for competition among factions. They are also tied to economic and political systems. What does the use of cylinder jars a millennium ago in Chaco tell us about the ritual, economic, and political life of the inhabitants of Pueblo Bonito? And why did their use end abruptly with destruction of the vessels and the rooms in which they were stored?
This event is free and open to the public. The presentation will take place in the Eric S. Dobkin Boardroom on the SAR campus. Advanced registration is encouraged.
Rashmi Sadana, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University and Weatherhead fellow at SAR
Rashmi Sadana, Weatherhead fellow, SAR
What happens when a hyper-modern, state-of-the-art metro rail system gets built on top of and underneath an ancient and modern Indian megacity? Delhi’s new metro system is not just a new way to get around but is also a new set of public places spread over two hundred miles of urban space. With eight lines and 250 stations, the metro has re-framed everyday life for millions and re-painted the urban landscape. Rashmi Sadana has spent the last ten years studying the social impact of the Delhi Metro and the contradictions of what it means to be a world-class city amid social progress and deep inequality. Using an ethnographic approach, Sadana analyzes how the Metro is a vehicle for class, caste, and gendered mobility from the perspective of planners, architects, politicians, officials, and commuters. This presentation reveals the politics of urban development as Delhi-ites step onto the trains and into a new social reality.
This event is free and open to the public. The presentation will take place in the Eric S. Dobkin Boardroom on the SAR campus. Advanced registration is encouraged.
C.J. Avlarez, Assistant Professor, Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, University of Texas, Austin, and Mellon fellow at SAR
C.J. Alvarez, Mellon fellow, SAR
This talk offers preliminary answers to three big questions based on both archival research and oral histories: 1) What is desert history? The answer varies depending on whether you ask a scientist or humanist. Alvarez will outline a few ways he believes different disciplines can usefully speak to one another, and why environmental historians have often ignored arid lands. 2) What can we learn from desert dwellers? The dominant narratives about drylands have been produced by romantics, developers, and colonial governments, almost none of whom came from deserts themselves. To counter this, Alvarez will explain his commitment to writing biographies of desert people. 3) Where does the U.S.-Mexico border fit in? The international divide passes through the Chihuahuan Desert, but political borders have the effect of emphasizing difference. An environmental lens, Alvarez argues, reveals important but often obscured similarities between the United States and Mexico.
This event is free and open to the public. The presentation will take place in the Eric S. Dobkin Boardroom on the SAR campus. Advanced registration is encouraged.
Davina Two Bears, PhD candidate, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, and Mellon fellow at SAR
Davina Two Bears, Anne Ray fellow, SAR
Navajo historic archaeological sites may seem to receive little attention by Southwest archaeologists; however, as Diné (Navajo) archaeologists enter the discipline of anthropology, they are beginning to research topics and places of significance to the Diné people. The Old Leupp Boarding School (OLBS), a Federal Indian boarding school located on the southwest corner of the Navajo Reservation, in operation from 1909-1942, is just such a place. Although hundreds of Diné children attended the OLBS in the early twentieth century, its history is absent from the literature of Navajo studies. Motivated by her maternal grandparents’ stories of attending the OLBS in the past, Davina Two Bears incorporates non-destructive decolonizing research methods to document and examine the history of the OLBS and the oral history of Diné survivance within the context of this Federal Indian boarding school. Through oral history interviews with Navajo elders, who attended the OLBS in the 1930’s and 1940’s, and a critical examination of historic documents and photographs, Two Bears pieces together the history of the OLBS and narratives of Diné survivance, resistance and resilience in the face of assimilation. She notes that she researches her heritage for the benefit of her Diné people, as well as the education of all Americans.
This event is free and open to the public. The presentation will take place in the Eric S. Dobkin Boardroom on the SAR campus. Advanced registration is encouraged.
Fátima Suárez, PhD candidate, Department of Sociology University of California, Santa Barbara, and Mellon fellow at SAR
“I’m here because I know that I can contribute a little bit to [your study],” said Cesar, a 71 year-old Chicano activist, “and I’m proud of you.”
Fátima Suárez, Mellon fellow, SAR
Fátima Suárez presents on her conversations with 60 Latino fathers in California about what fatherhood means to them, and what significance it plays in their lives. In contrast to widespread academic information about women interviewing men, Suárez suggests that participants did not perceive her as a threat to their masculinity nor did they patronize her. She states that she found Latino fathers conceptualized the interview setting as an extension of their fathering and perceived the interview as an opportunity to support a Latina in her schooling, which they may or may not have been able to do with their own children. Suárez will speak about her research and the possible implications of the data for Latinx studies and for society as a whole.
This event is free and open to the public. The presentation will take place in the Eric S. Dobkin Boardroom on the SAR campus. Advanced registration is encouraged.