Today I checked out the following website: http://www.dream-catchers.org/. In this website the dream catcher is represented. The question is, is dream catcher a piece of art or is it and ethnographic object? Well, I would say it is an ethnographic object because it is made and used by man and is studied and documented by people to be interpreted for human culture. However the website states that "dream catchers are arts and crafts of the Native American people."
The dream catcher is traditional to the Native Americans. Its purpose is to protect the sleeping individual from "bad" or negative dreams, and allows the positive dreams to come through. These positive dreams slip through the hole in the center of the dream catcher, gliding down the feathers to the person sleeping below. The negative dreams get caught in the web and are destroyed by the rays of sunlight. The dream catcher has the element of the hoop, a tradition of the Native Americans which has the highest esteem symbolizing strength and unity.
I believe that the intended audience of this gallery is adults ranging from young to older. However I also think this gallery is intended for adults to learn about the dream catcher and then teach it to the younger children, because it includes a section on how to make dream catchers for kids.
Although all dream catcher look relatively the same, it seems that they can be made with slightly different objects. For example the feathers can now be "craft" feathers (so those that come in pink, green, yellow colors) and instead of using a wood that is bent into a circle a Styrofoam plate can be used...at least when making a dream catcher for children.
PICTURE:http://greenlanternpress.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dreamcatcher-legend.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment