MEMOIR ESSAY SERIES

“I was fascinated by their mystery and by the fact that I could be the first person to study some of these things. And it was all material that was unknown to most people,” said Pasztory.

In fact this area was ¾ of the world that we studied. That consisted of all of Africa, all of Oceania from New Guinea to Easter Islands, all of North American Indian and the Amazon region of South America as well as pre-Columbian art which was kind of attached to primitive which included Mexico, Guatemala, Central America and the Andean regions. So when I went to graduate school, I decided to study “primitive” art. “I became interested in this field when I was taking an anthropology class at Barnard and we were told to write on some piece of primitive art and sent to some galleries. Pasztory has published extensively in the field of pre-Columbian art, including the first art historical manuscripts on Teotihuacan and the Aztecs. She is a Lisa and Bernard Selz Professor Emerita of Pre-Columbian Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. Pasztory is an art historian, specializing in Teotihuacan, Aztec, and Art Theory, as well as being a writer. Her book tells us more about these fascinating cultures that lived in harmony with nature.

MEMOIR ESSAY SERIES

It comes at a time when PBS is doing a series on Native Americans. Professor Esther Pasztory‘s new book, Exile Space: Encountering Ancient and Modern America in Memoir, Essay, and Fiction is her 14th book, and her most personal.

Memoir essay