Katsina: Commodified and Appropriated Images of Hopi Supernaturals

Rating:
Summary: Too Much Information
Review: Looking for a book which contains images of some of today's best katsina dolls? They're here. How about a book on T-shirts, cheap posters and napkin holders? Toss in plastic cups, billboards and tin buttons and you begin to see the intent of this book. Editor Pearlstone has gathered the best and the worst images of katsinam over the years. Wherever and whenever a katsina image has been used, examples are included. Fine carvings and jewelry are represented. A number of Hopi and non-Hopi artists are profiled. To me, the inclusion of so much dime store junk detracted from what is otherwise an extremely well researched volume. This, however, is the editor's intent ... to commodify EVERY example of the katsina in past and present society. One of her objectives was to illustrate how non-Native society has continued to use the katsina image in so many (inappropriate) ways. A book for every collectors' library? I wouldn't recommend this one.