Tattoo Traditions of Turtle Island
*The event has already taken place on this date: Sat, 10/08/2016
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For thousands of years, astonishingly rich and diverse forms of tattooing have been produced by the Indigenous peoples of North America. Long neglected by anthropologists and art historians, tattooing was a time-honored traditional practice that expressed the patterns of tribal social organization and religion, while also channeling worlds inhabited by deities, spirits, and the ancestors.
Join author, archeologist and researcher Lars Krutak to explore the many facets and forms of indigenous body marking across every cultural region of North America. You'll learn what kind of knowledge is transmitted through ancient and contemporary forms of Native North American tattooing, and how tattoos relate to beauty, power, spirituality, medicine, and identity.
Joining Krutak will be Michael Galban (Washoe/Paiute), interpretive programs assistant/curator at the Seneca Art & Culture Center, who will present a look at tattoo traditions among the Northeastern Woodland peoples, exploring pre-1800s sources such as imagery, written accounts, and archeology.
Krutak’s book “Tattoo Traditions of Native North America” is the first on this subject, and breaks new ground on a tradition that nearly disappeared in the 20th century until its rebirth in recent decades. Limited copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing in the Ganondagan gift shop. Krutak worked as a repatriation research specialist at the National Museum of the American Indian, and as an archaeologist in the repatriation office of the National Museum of Natural History, where he currently is a research associate in the anthropology department.
In 2002, Krutak embarked on a world tour devoted to recording the lives, stories, and experiences of tattooed people around the globe. He has worked as an anthropological consultant for three National Geographic television documentaries, and is the technical advisor for one of the world’s largest and most popular tattoo websites, http://www.vanishingtattoo.com. In 2003, Krutak was a co-recipient of the American Book Award in Literature.
Admission to this event is $8/general public; $5/Friends of Ganondagan members. Tickets are available at the door at the Seneca Art & Culture Center, 7000 County Road 41, Victor. This event is made possible by the generous support of Rochester Area Community Foundation.
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