HAIDA MONUMENTAL ART: Villages of the Queen...

HAIDA MONUMENTAL ART: Villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands by George F. MacDonald (University of Washington Press: $29.95; 248 pp., paperback original). The Haida of northwestern Canada carved some of the most elaborate examples of the sculptures generally referred to as “totem poles.” MacDonald’s book, which represents the culmination of three decades of research, explains the symbolism of these highly stylized human and animal carvings. Of the 500 poles in the plates, only 50 have been moved to museums; the remaining 450 are slowly decaying in the Pacific rain forests.