Archetypal images in Haida art

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Haida, a First People of British Columbia, evolved over 3000 years an art form which is rich in archetypal images. Most Northwest Coast anthropologists study only the form of Haida art, but Wilson Duff and George MacDonald have pursued its meaning using terms that echo analytical psychology. In this paper, I argue that the structure of shamanic cosmology and Haida moieties parallel the distinction in the human psyche which Marie-Louise von Franz called the Unconscious Above and the Unconscious Below. The ‘marriage of opposites’, the reconciliation of Logos and Eros, Duff saw symbolized in Haida art by the Copper, which I call the ‘Haida Anthropos’. Using this parallel with the chthonic and the celestial, I then amplify the myth of ‘Eagle Chain and Giant Clam’ as it was portrayed in two argillite totem poles, which I argue show the peripeteia and lysis of the myth.