Katsina dancer, by Ralph Numkena (Hopi); ca. 1953<BR> Watercolor on paper; 40 x 30 cm.<BR> RMV 6003-92; Lucy Schouten Collection<BR> After World War II the federal government and tribal leaders, including tribal chairman Henry Chee Dodge and elder Jacob Morgan among the Navajos, realized that most Indians lacked the basic skills to participate successfully in American society, and that educational facilities were insufficient and of poor quality. Many Indian children received no education whatsoever and those who attended schools did so irregularly and often dropped-out at an early age, before obtaining official qualifications. Post-war investment in Indian education, such as the Navajo Special Education Program (1946) and the Navajo-Hopi Rehabilitation Plan (1950), led to improvements in BIA boarding and day schools, and in on- and off-reservation public schools. The mission schools struggled as they were excluded from federal funding. The central goal of government-funded education gradually changed from the cross-cultural approach of Roosevelt’s and Collier’s New Deal era, to a stronger emphasis on cultural change by Indian Commissioner Dillon S. Myer in the early 1950s (Ssasz 1974:106-122; DeJong 1993:160-176).<BR> <BR> The relationship and interaction between cultural and personality had become a new focus of anthropological study from the 1930s, with Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Abram Kardiner, Ralph Linton and Clyde Kluckhohn as pioneers. Margaret Mead was one of the first anthropologists to collect Indian children’s drawings in order to study the relationship between culture and personality. However, no standard method of analysis had been developed for this kind of data yet.<BR> <BR> Lucy Schouten became familiar with culture and personality studies during her academic studies at the University of Amsterdam. She was aware of the developmental studies of children’s drawings that related artistic achievement to a developmental sequence through which all children passed. One of the major empirical studies in this field was done by M.C. Schuyten (1904) who developed a uniform system for describing and scoring drawings of juveniles, based on a study of school children in Belgium. The most influential was the developmental sequence proposed by Georges Henri Luquet, based on children’s drawings. In the 1920s University of Minnesota psychologist Florence Goodenough developed a draw-a-man-test to measure juvenile intelligence, thus excluding language as an intervening variable, assuming to make the test applicable across cultures. It was used in studies on Native American children on several occasions. In clinical psychology (children’s) drawings became used as a tool to establish personality and its (dys)functionality, with Machover’s projective draw-a-person-test as the most sophisticated analytical tool since 1950. Such non-verbal tests were assumed to be a valid instrument for cross-cultural research, as child development was assumed to be similar in different societies.<BR> <BR> In the 1920s and 1930s studies of the intelligence of Native Americans were carried out. Many authors pointed to the shortcoming of verbal tests in cross-cultural research and great variations in the outcome of different intelligence tests when applied to the same group. Such conclusions motivated the Bureau of Indian Affairs to commission the University of Chicago to carry out a national study on child development, aimed at improving the education of Indian children. The resultant studies among the Hopis, Navajos, Papagos, Zias and Zunis used a more sophisticated approach to children’s drawings (Havighurst and Neugarten 1955). At the psychology and anthropology departments at the University of Arizona in Tucson Schouten’s plan to study Indian child development on the basis of Indian children’s drawing for her thesis was approved. She collected about 250 drawings, of which about 100 survive. The Katsina Dancer by Ralph Numkena is among the best.<BR> <BR> The Numkenas are a well-known Hopi family, many of whose members became involved in the arts. Paintings by Lewis Numkena (b. 1927) are curated at the Smithsonian Institution. World War II veteran Dawson Numkena is a prominent kachina carver, a pioneer in developing action figures. Dennis Numkena (1941-2010) was an architect, designer and painter. The influence of prehistoric Anasazi architecture is evident in the work of Numkena and Associates that can be found across the Southwest. His artwork is curated in prominent collections, including the Smithsonian. Anthony Numkena (b. 1942) in his early life was an actor who played Indian roles in many Hollywood television series. Caroline Numkena appeared in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Will Numkena is a popular songwriter and performer, mixing Native American and western music traditions.<BR> <BR> Pieter Hovens<BR> National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden; 2015<BR> <BR> David H. DeJong, Promises of the Past: a History of Indian Education; North American Press; Golden, 1993. Robert J. Havighurst and Bernice L. Neugarten, American Indian and White Children: a Socio-psychological Investigation; University of Chicago Press; Chicago, 1955. Margaret Szasz, Education and the American Indian: the Road to Self-Determination, 1928-1973; University of New Mexico Press; Albuquerque, 1974.<BR> <BR> Kachina danser met gedetailleerd blauw masker. Heeft veren als haar en tekens op de wangen. In de handen heeft hij een pluk gras en verder ceremoniele witte kleding aan. Hij lijkt iets uit zijn mond te spugen of te blazen.<BR> <BR> Lucy Schouten studeerde psychologie aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Na haar kandidaatsexamen vervolgde zij in 1951 haar studie aan de University of Arizona in Tucson, daartoe in staat gesteld door een Amerikaanse beurs. In die tijd bestond binnen de psychologie en culturele antropologie belangstelling voor cultureel bepaalde psychologische processen, wat tot uitdrukking kwam in studies naar karakter- en persoonlijkheidsvorming binnen culturen, en naar ethnische en nationale identiteiten. De subdiscipline van psychologische antropologie ontstond daardoor. Schouten verrichte leeronderzoek naar de persoonlijkheidsontwikkeling van Indiaanse kinderen, en nam daartoe psychologische tests af en verzamelde tekeningen op reservaatscholen in de staten Arizona en New Mexico.<BR> <BR> De Indiaanse kindertekeningen kwamen als legaat in het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde terecht. Zij documenteren de visie van Indiaanse schoolkinderen op hun leefomgeving. Daarbij vallen drie dominerende aspecten op: de natuurlijke omgeving, de traditionele levenswijze (woonvormen, kleding, weven en zilversmeden, e.d.), en de confrontatie met de westerse wereld (auto’s, vliegtuigen, e.d.). Onder de Hopis waren niet alle ouders even gelukkig met het feit dat hun kinderen onderwerpen voor hun tekeningen kozen die te maken hadden met het religieuze leven, zoals kachina-geesten. De kwaliteit van de tekeningen verschilt erg, deels als gevolg van leeftijdsverschillen, deels als gevolg van de mate van individuele artistieke aanleg.<BR> <BR> Enkele jaren maakte Lucy Schouten reizen door het Westen van Noord Amerika, bezocht vele reservaten waar zij ook feesten en ceremonies bijwoonde, en werkte bij trading posts. Na haar terugkeer in Nederland studeerde zij in Leiden af in de culturele antropologie. Zij voorzag daarna in haar levensonderhoud door het schrijven van artikelen voor populaire bladen en het geven van publiekslezingen over haar reizen door Europa, de V.S. en Azië, maar vooral ook over Indianen. Daarnaast gaf zij workshops over fotografie.<BR> <BR> PH/mei 2005