Boas, Franz: Primitive art (Oslo , Leipzig [u.a.], 1927)

182

Style

blankets of the Tlingit which are copied by the women from pattern
boards made by the men do we find the typical symbolic style.
I might also refer to the contrast between the pictographic repre-
sentations of the Indians of the Plains and their ornamental art, if
it were not for the fact that their pictography never rises to the
dignity of an art.
The cases might be considerably increased in which a difference
of style is found in different types of technique, or in different parts
of the population. Birchbark baskets of the interior of British
Columbia have their own style of border decoration and their sides
are often covered with pictographic designs. Coiled baskets from
the same district have geometrical surface patterns. Central American
painted pottery differs in style from other types in which painting
is not used, but in which plastic ornamentation is applied. New
Zealand borders of woven mattings have geometric style and lack
patterns that might be considered derived from the elaborate spiral
decoration that characterizes Maori carving (Plate VIII).
Such differences in style are, however, not by any means the
rule. As has been stated before, we find much more commonly
”(p. 154) that the most highly developed art is liable to impose its
style upon other industries and that mat weaving and basketry have
been particularly influential in developing new forms and powerful
in imposing them upon other fields.