We have seen that as the bronze implement replaced the neolithic celt,
so the lashing of the latter became a skeuomorphic decoration on the
former. As tapa replaced matting the conditioned ornamentation of the
early fabric was transmitted to a material which in itself imposed few
artistic limitations. The same also with pottery when it was derived
from or suggested by baskets; basketry impressed itself on the clay,
literally or figuratively as the case may be, and thenceforward pots
were doomed to basket-like ornamentation until the possibilities of
clay worked out the freedom of the pot from the limitations of the
basket. In all the above we have a continuity in function, and it is
not very surprising that indications of structure stubbornly persisted.
Everywhere the human mind has become accustomed to certain local
patterns, designs, and structures. These are bound up with the sacred
associations of family and religion, with the green memories of
childhood, and have become as it were indented into the consciousness
of the individual. To many minds new designs are unvalued; they awaken
no sympathy, they are devoid of associations; like alien plants, they
pine away and die.
The pleasure which people take in beauty prompts them to ornament
almost everything which admits of decoration, and it is the old
patterns and designs which are most frequently copied. So it comes
about that these are scattered with an impartial hand, and often
without any regard to appropriateness. By inappropriateness I do not
wish to imply that the ornament may not be suitable, but merely that
it has no meaning so far as the decorated object is concerned. As
a rule the decorative art of the less advanced peoples is far more
appropriate[48] than that of civilised. We may not have the clue, but
the more we do know the more suitable do we find the decoration to
be. The symbols of religious ceremonies are usually depicted on the
utensils employed in that rite; the transference of such symbols to
purely secular objects would clearly be inappropriate decoration. Our
knowledge of the precise use of objects in ethnological collections,
and the significance of their form and decoration is in many cases
so imperfect that we are not in a position to criticise their
appropriateness; but we have only to look around us at the objects of
everyday life to see that ornamentation is quite as often inappropriate
as appropriate. It will afford continual pleasure to attempt to trace
the skeuomorphic (or “technical,” as it is sometimes called) origin
of many patterns which have wandered far, and have at last found
themselves in strange company.
[48] A remarkable example of inappropriate skeuomorphic
decoration occurs among some of the tribes of Central Brazil,
where the small triangular covering of the women is copied and
made into patterns (Fig. 52) on various objects, some being on
the bark tablets which run as a frieze round a chief’s house
(pp. 97, 175).