A study of Pueblo pottery as illustrative of Zuni culture-growth

Fig.526.—Basket-bowl-base-form for large vessels 499 527.—Clay cores illustrating the beginning of vessels 499 528.—Same shaped to form the base of a vessel 499 529.—Same as first placed in bottom form, showing the beginning of a spiral. A Navajo hogan, or hut, is a beehive or conical structure (see Fig. 190) of sticks and turf or earth, sometimes even of stone. The archaic name for a building or walled inclosnre is he sho ta, a contraction of the now obsolete term, he sho tapontie, from heso, gum or resin-like; sh6 tai e, leaning or placed together converging; and tapoan ne, a roof of wood or a roof supported by wood.

From these considerations inferring that namehesho tapon ne derived means something like "a gum rock shelter with wooden roof supports," we can also infer that. This would result in the wall of one circular structure impinging on the wall of another, suggesting the dividing wall rather than the double wall. In a majority of the lava ruins (for example, those occurring near Preseott,-Arizona), I have observed that the sloping sides instead of the levels of the mesa headland have been chosen by the ancients as building sites.

Here the rough, square type of building predominates, but not to the exclusion of all the circular type, which is represented by loosely built walls, always on the periphery of the main center. Some of the houses in the upper rows show that they overlap the others below.

HABITATIONS AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. 477

FLAT AND TERRACED ROOFS DEVELOPED FROM SLOPING MESA-SITES

478 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH

HABITATIONS AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. 479

ADDED STORIES FOR CLIFF DWELLINGS DEVELOPED FROM LIMI- TATIONS OF CLIFF-HOUSE SITES

480 PUEBLO TOTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH

COMMUNAL PUEBLOS DEVELOPED FROM CONGREGATION OF CLIFF- HOUSE TRIBES

CU8HING] HABITATIONS AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. 481

POTTERY AFFECTED BT ENVIRONMENT

POTTERY AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. 483

POTTERY ANTICIPATED BY BASKETRY

484 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH

The operator, quickly squatting down, grasps the tray on opposite sides, and by a quick spiraling movement up and down succeeds in keeping the coals and seeds constantly in place and turning, as they dance one after the other round and round the tray , while blowing or breathing. the embers with each breath to keep them free of ash and glowing at their hottest.

POTTERY SUGGESTED BY CLAY-LINED BASKETRY

POTTERY AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. 489

490 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH

To add another link to this chain of connection between the coiled cooking basket and the spirally constructed cooking pot, the names of the two types.

POTTERY INFLUENCED BY LOCAL MINERALS

POTTERY INFLUENCED BY MATERIALS AND METHODS USED IN BURNING

EVOLUTION OF FORMS

500 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH

501a basket bowl with sand, where the clay is managed in the manner described above a basket bowl with sand, where the clay is managed in the manner described above and the shape of the vessel is continued upwards by spiral building.

502 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH

By absorption, it will dry so quickly that it will crack, especially when it contracts against the convexity in the center of the basket's bottom. so that this form can be supported. in an upright position until dry, it would naturally be placed on one of the cane rings. As a result, the weight of the plastic container would push the still soft bottom against the central carriage (Fig. 540,a) and the.

504 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH

Thus, I have gathered a few conjectures and suggestions regarding the origins of Southwestern pottery and the evolution of its main features.

EVOLUTION OF DECORATION

CUSHING.] EVOLUTION OF DECORATION. 507

508 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUN1 CULTURE-GROWTH

Therefore, by another easy step, clay unmixed with a grit tempering agent, made into a paste with water, and applied with a little thickly to the half-dried pot. The vessel thus prepared, when burned, always assumed a creamy, pure white, reddish-brown, or other color, depending on the quality or type of clay used in making the paste with which it was smoothed or washed. Thus it was, as is evident from the sequence of early remains in the south-west, that first the white and black varieties of pottery were made, then the red and black, and later with white and black decoration.

In these earliest types of painted pottery the angular decorations of corrugated cardboard or basketry were repeated or elaborated in the most extreme manner, although in some examples the suggestion of the curved ornament already appeared.

DECORATIVE SYMBOLISM

I refer here to this mental bias because it both influenced the decoration of pottery and was itself influenced by it. The sound of a pot breaking or suddenly bursting into flames is the cry of this creature as it escapes or separates from the vessel. The creature thus incited, they thought, would surely strive to get out, and in so doing would break the vessel.

The vessel holds the water; the source of life accompanies the water, hence the abode is in the container with the water. Finally, the vessel is supposed to contain the precious resource, regardless of the water—like wells. If the surrounding lines were closed inside the eating bowl, outside the water jar, there would be no outlet for this invisible source of life or for its influence or breath.

Why, however, it may be asked, should the source of life or its influence be provided with paths by which to pass from the ark. It would be a natural course of this trouble to leave loose ends, which indeed it often did. When color rather than incising or embossing was done as a decorative agent, the lines or bands would be left unconnected in the imitation.

512 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH

It is likely that the theme was initially left open at the top (Fig. 549,a) rather than at the top (Fig. 549,&); but because it can leak if the openings are so low, this is the case. Due to the persistence of conservative reasoning, which is a characteristic mental feature of the sedentary Pueblo, other types of canteen, of later origin, retained not only the name root of this primordial form, but also the functions attributed to it. For example, the me' wi lei lik ton ne (see Figure 550) is so named after mewe, mammaries,i1(1Viletole', connected by a neck, ento'm me.

514 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZUN[ CULTIIRE-GHOWTH

From this long and complicated examination of one element in the symbolism of Pueblo ceramic decoration we get an idea of how many. others, not so striking, yet equally curious, have grown up; however they can be explained. Much wonder has been expressed that the Pueblos, so advanced in pottery decoration, did not attempt to make more representations of natural objects. We must not forget that the original corner models that the Pueblo had, on the basis of which he developed his art, left him with an extremely conventional conception of things. The way he interprets relationships and personifies phenomena and even functions has led to his images becoming unclear.

In fact, in the decoration of certain classes of his pottery he has attempted to reproduce almost everything and every phenomenon in nature that he considers sacred or mysterious. For certain other classes he has developed, in an imitative manner, many typical ornaments which now have no special symbolism, but which once had a certain meaning; and finally, he sometimes delegated certain meanings to designs that initially had no meaning except as decorative devices, and then used them according to this interpretation in his attempts to delineate natural objects, their phenomena and functions. Those who have visited the Southwest and ridden over the broad, arid plains in late autumn or early spring have been amazed to find, through no visible intervention, on the sand perfect concentric circles and scrolls or volutes meters long and so regular as if they were drawn. by a skilled artist.

CUSHING.J DECORATIVE SYMBOLISM. 519 shows us that certain types of decoration have once been confined to

520 PUEBLO POTTERY AND ZONI CULTURE-GROWTH