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Native American Art: North America
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In Native American belief, the universe is a sphere having the sky world above and the watery underworld below, with the terrestrial disk of the earth dividing them. The earth is divided into four quadrants by the cardinal directions north, south, east, and west. The human task on earth is to keep the upper world and the underworld in balance.
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Native American music is almost entirely monophonic, but there are notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often includes drumming and/or the playing of rattles or other percussion instruments but little other instrumentation. Flutes and whistles made of wood, cane, or bone are ... played, generally by individuals, but in former times also by large ensembles (as noted by Spanish conquistador de Soto). The tuning of these flutes is not precise and depends on the length of the wood used and the hand span of the intended player, but the finger holes are most often around a whole step apart and, at least in Northern California, a flute was not used if it turned out to have an interval close to a half step.
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Scholars have grouped Native Americans into distinct culture areas on the basis of geographic boundaries, common languages, similar practices, and shared beliefs. This article discusses five principal areas in which art was created: the East, Plains, Southwest, Northwest Coast, and Arctic. Native Americans have their own ideas about their group memberships and histories, and these views may not be the same as those developed by nonnatives.
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