Frank Hamilton Cushing - A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuni Culture Growth.
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Frank Hamilton Cushing >> A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuni Culture Growth.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION----BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
* * * * *
A STUDY
of
PUEBLO POTTERY
AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF
ZUNI CULTURE GROWTH.
BY
FRANK HAMILTON CUSHING.
CONTENTS.
Habitations affected by environment 473
Rectangular forms developed from circular 475
Flat and terraced roofs developed from sloping mesa-sites 477
Added stories developed from limitations of cliff-house sites 479
Communal pueblos developed from congregation of cliff-house tribes 480
Pottery affected by environment 482
Anticipated by basketry 483
Suggested by clay-lined basketry 485
Influenced by local minerals 493
Influenced by materials and methods used in burning 495
Evolution of forms 497
Evolution of decoration 506
Decorative symbolism 510
ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. Page.
490.--A Navajo hut or hogan 473
491.--Perspective view of earliest or Round-house structures of
lava 474
492.--Plan of same 475
493.--Section of same 475
494.--Evolution of rectangular forms in primitive architecture 476
495.--Section illustrating evolution of flat roof and terrace 477
496.--Perspective view of a typical solitary-house 478
497.--Plan of a typical solitary-house 478
498.--Typical cliff-dwelling 479
499.--Typical terraced-pueblo--communal type 480
500.--Ancient gourd-vessel encased in wicker 483
501.--Havasupai roasting-tray, with clay lining 484
502.--Zuni roasting-tray of earthenware 485
503.--Havasupai boiling-basket 486
504.--Sketch illustrating the first stage in manufacture of latter 486
505.--Sketch illustrating the second stage in manufacture of latter 486
506.--Sketch illustrating the third stage in manufacture of latter 486
507.--Typical example of basket decoration 487
508.--Typical example of basket decoration 487
509.--Typical example of basket decoration 487
510.--Terraced lozenge decoration or "Double-splint-stitch-form."
(Shu k'u tu lia tsi nan) 488
511.--Terraced lozenge decoration or "Double-splint-stitch-form."
(Shu k'u tu lia tsi nan) 488
512.--Double-splint-stitch, from which same was elaborated 488
513.--Double-splint-stitch, from which same was elaborated 488
514.--Diagonal parallel-line decoration. (Shu k'ish pa tsi nan) 488
515.--Study of splints at neck of unfinished basket illustrating
evolution of latter 489
516.--Example of indented decoration on corrugated ware 490
517.--Example of indented decoration on corrugated ware 490
518.--Cooking pot of spirally built or corrugated ware, showing
conical projections near rim 490
519.--The same, illustrating modification of latter 491
520.--Wicker water-bottle, showing double loops for suspension 491
521.--Water-bottle of corrugated ware, showing double handle 492
522.--The same, showing also plain bottom 492
523.--Food trencher or bowl of impervious wicker-work 497
524.--Latter inverted, as used in forming bowls 497
525.--Ancient bowl of corrugated ware, showing comparative
shallowness 498
526.--Basket-bowl as base-mold for large vessels 499
527.--Clay nucleus illustrating beginning of a vessel 499
528.--The same shaped to form the base of a vessel 499
529.--The same as first placed in base-mold, showing beginning of
spiral building 500
530.--First form of vessel 500
531.--Secondary form in mold, showing origin of spheroidal type of
jar 501
532.--Scrapers or trowels of gourd and earthen-ware for smoothing
pottery 501
533.--Finished form of a vessel in mold, showing amount of
contraction in drying 501
534.--Profile of olla or modern water-jar 502
535.--Base of same, showing circular indentation at bottom 502
536.--Section of same, showing central concavity and circular
depression 502
537.--"Milkmaid's boss," or annular mat of wicker for supporting
round vessels on the head in carrying 503
538.--Use of annular mat illustrated 503
539.--Section of incipient vessel in convex-bottomed basket-mold 504
540.--Section of same as supported on annular mat and wad of soft
substance, for drying 504
541.--Modern base-mold as made from the bottom of water jar 504
542.--Example of Pueblo painted-ornamentation illustrating
decorative value of open spaces 506
543 and 544.--Amazonian basket-decorations, illustrating evolution
of the above characteristic 507
545.--Bowl, showing open or unjoined space in lines near rim 510
546.--Water-jar, showing open or unjoined space in lines near rim 510
547.--Conical or flat-bellied canteen 512
548 and 549.--The same, compared with human mammary gland 513
550.--Double-lobed or hunter canteen (Me' wi k'i lik ton ne),
showing teat-like projections and open spaces of contiguous
lines 514
551.--Native painting of deer, showing space-line from mouth to
heart 515
552.--Native painting of sea serpent, showing space-line from mouth
to heart 515
553.--The fret of basket decoration 516
554.--The fret of pottery decoration 516
555.--Scroll as evolved from fret in pottery decoration 516
556.--Ancient Pueblo "medicine-jar" 517
557.--Decoration of above compared with modern Moki rain symbol 517
558.--Zuni prayer-meal bowl illustrating symbolism in form and
decoration 518
559.--Native paintings of sacred butterfly 519
560.--Native painting of sacred migratory "summer bird" 519
561.--Rectangular or Iroquois type of earthen vessel 519
562.--Kidney-shaped type of vessel of Nicaragua 520
563.--Iroquois bark vessel, showing angles of juncture 520
564.--Porcupine quill decoration on bark vessel, for comparison
with Fig. 561 521
~~~
* * * * *
A STUDY OF PUEBLO POTTERY AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF
ZUNI CULTURE-GROWTH.
* * * * *
BY FRANK H. CUSHING.
* * * * *
HABITATIONS AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT.
It is conceded that the peculiarities of a culture-status are due
chiefly to the necessities encountered during its development. In this
sense the Pueblo phase of life was, like the Egyptian, the product of
a desert environment. Given that a tribe or stock of people is weak,
they will be encroached upon by neighboring stronger tribes, and
driven to new surroundings if not subdued. Such we may believe was the
influence which led the ancestors of the Pueblo tribes to adopt an
almost waterless area for their habitat.
It is apparent at least that they entered the country wherein their
remains occur while comparatively a rude people, and worked out there
almost wholly their incipient civilization. Of this there is important
linguistic evidence.
[Illustration: FIG. 490.--A Navajo hut.]
A Navajo hogan, or hut, is a beehive-shaped or conical structure (see
Fig. 490) of sticks and turf or earth, sometimes even of stones
chinked with mud. Yet its modern Zuni name is _ham' pon ne_, from _ha
we_, dried brush, sprigs or leaves; and _po an ne_, covering, shelter
or roof (_po a_ to place over and _ne_ the nominal suffix); which,
interpreted, signifies a "brush or leaf shelter." This leads to the
inference that the temporary shelter with which the Zunis were
acquainted when they formulated the name here given, presumably in
their earliest condition, was in shape like the Navajo hogan, but in
_material_, of brush or like perishable substance.
The archaic name for a building or walled inclosure is _he sho ta_, a
contraction of the now obsolete term, _he sho ta pon ne_, from _he
sho_, gum, or resin-like; _sho tai e_, leaned or placed together
convergingly; and _ta po an ne_, a roof of wood or a roof supported by
wood.
[Illustration: FIG. 491.--Perspective view of earliest or Round-house
structure of lava.]
The meaning of all this would be obscure did not the oldest remains of
the Pueblos occur in the almost inaccessible lava wastes bordering the
southwestern deserts and intersecting them and were not the houses of
these ruins built on the plan of shelters, round (see Figs. 491, 492,
493), rather than rectangular. Furthermore, not only does the
lava-rock of which their walls have been rudely constructed resemble
natural asphaltum (_he sho_) and possess a cleavage exactly like that
of pinon-gum and allied substances (also _he sho_), but some forms of
lava are actually known as _a he sho_ or gum-rock. From these
considerations inferring that the name _he sho ta pon ne_ derivatively
signifies something like "a gum-rock shelter with roof supports of
wood," we may also infer that the Pueblos on their coming into the
desert regions dispossessed earlier inhabitants or that they chose the
lava-wastes the better to secure themselves from invasion; moreover
that the oldest form of building known to them was therefore an
inclosure of lava-stones, whence the application of the contraction
_he sho ta_, and its restriction to mean a walled inclosure.
[Illustration: FIG. 492.--Plan of Pueblo structure of lava.]
[Illustration: FIG. 493.--Section of Pueblo structure of lava.]
RECTANGULAR FORMS DEVELOPED FROM CIRCULAR.
It may be well in this connection to cite a theory entertained by Mr.
Victor Mindeleff, of the Bureau of Ethnology, whose wide experience
among the southwestern ruins entitles his judgment to high
consideration. In his opinion the rectangular form of architecture,
which succeeds the type under discussion, must have been evolved from
the circular form by the bringing together, within a limited area, of
many houses. This would result in causing the wall of one circular
structure to encroach upon that of another, suggesting the partition
instead of the double wall. This partition would naturally be built
straight as a twofold measure of economy. Supposing three such houses
to be contiguous to a central one, each separated from the latter by a
straight wall, it may be seen that (as in the accompanying plan) the
three sides of a square are already formed, suggesting the
parallelogramic as a convenient style of sequent architecture.
[Illustration: FIG. 494.--Evolution of rectangular forms in primitive
architecture.]
All this, I need scarcely add, agrees not only with my own
observations in the field but with the kind of linguistic research
above recorded. It would also apparently explain the occurrence of the
circular semisubterranean _ki wi tsi we_, or estufas. These being
sacred have retained the pristine form long after the adoption of a
modified type of structure for ordinary or secular purposes, according
to the well known law of survival in ceremonial appurtenances.
In a majority of the lava ruins (for example those occurring near
Prescott, Arizona), I have observed that the sloping sides rather than
the level tops of _mesa_ headlands have been chosen by the ancients as
building-sites. Here, the rude, square type of building prevails, not,
however, to the entire exclusion of the circular type, which, is
represented by loosely constructed walls, always on the _outskirts_ of
the main ruins. The rectangular rooms are, as a rule, built row above
row. Some of the houses in the upper rows give evidence of having
overlapped others below. (See section, Fig. 495.)
FLAT AND TERRACED ROOFS DEVELOPED FROM SLOPING MESA-SITES.
We cannot fail to take notice of the indications which this brings
before us.
(1) It is quite probable that the overlapping resulted from an
increase in the numbers of the ancient builders relative to available
area, this, as in the first instance, leading to a further massing
together of the houses. (2) It suggested the employment of rafters and
the formation of the _flat_ roof, as a means of supplying a level
entrance way and floor to rooms which, built above and to the rear of
a first line of houses, yet extended partially over the latter. (3)
This is I think the earliest form of the terrace.
[Illustration: FIG. 495.--Section illustrating evolution of flat roof
and terrace]
It is therefore not surprising that the flat roof of to-day is named
_te k'os kwin ne_, from _te_, space, region, extension, _k'os kwi e_,
to cut off in the sense of closing or shutting in from one side, and
_kwin ne_, place of. Nor is it remarkable that no type of ruin in the
Southwest _seems_ to connect these first terraced towns with the later
not only terraced but also literally cellular buildings, which must be
regarded nevertheless as developed from them. The reason for this will
become evident on further examination.
[Illustration: FIG. 496.--Perspective view of a typical solitary
house.]
[Illustration: FIG. 497.--Plan of a typical solitary house.]
The modern name for house is _k'ia kwin ne_, from _k'ia we_, water,
and _kwin ne_, place of, literally "watering place;" which is evidence
that the first properly so called houses known to the Pueblos were
solitary and built near springs, pools, streams, or well-places. The
universal occurrence of the vestiges of single houses throughout the
less forbidding tracts of the Pueblo country (see Figs. 496 and 497)
leads to this inference and to the supposition that the necessity for
protection being at last overcome, the denizens of the lava-fields,
where planting was well-nigh impossible, descended, building wherever
conditions favored the horticulture which gradually came to be their
chief means of support. As irrigation was not known until long
afterwards, arable areas were limited, hence they were compelled to
divide into families or small clans, each occupying a single house.
The traces of these solitary farm-houses show that they were at first
single-storied. The name of an upper room indicates how the idea of
the second or third story was developed, as it is _osh ten u thlan_,
from _osh ten_, a shallow cave, or rock-shelter, and _u thla nai e_,
placed around, embracing, inclusive of. This goes to show that it was
not until after the building of the first small farm-houses (which
gave the name to houses) that the caves or rock-shelters of the
cliffs were occupied. If predatory border-tribes, tempted by the
food-stores of the horticultural farm-house builders, made incursions
on the latter, they would find them, scattered as they were, an easy
prey.
ADDED STORIES FOR CLIFF DWELLINGS DEVELOPED FROM LIMITATIONS OF
CLIFF-HOUSE SITES.
[Illustration: FIG. 498.--A typical cliff-dwelling.]
This condition of things would drive the people to seek security in
the neighboring cliffs of fertile canons, where not only might they
build their dwelling places in the numerous rock-shelters, but they
could also cultivate their crops in comparative safety along the
limited tracts which these eyries overlooked. The narrow foothold
afforded by many of these elevated cliff-shelves or shelters would
force the fugitives to construct house over house; that is, build a
second or upper story around the roof of the cavern. What more
natural than that this upper room should take a name most descriptive
of its situation--as that portion built around the cavern-shelter or
_osh ten_--or that, when the intervention of peace made return to the
abandoned farms of the plains or a change of condition possible, the
idea of the second story should be carried along and the name first
applied to it survive, even to the present day? That the upper story
took its name from the rock-shelter may be further illustrated. The
word _osh ten_ comes from _o sho nan te_, the condition of being
dusky, dank, or mildewy; clearly descriptive of a cavern, but not of
the most open, best lighted, and driest room in a Pueblo house.
To continue, we may see how the necessity for protection would drive
the petty clans more and more to the cliffs, how the latter at every
available point would ultimately come to be occupied, and thus how the
"_Cliff-dwelling_" (see Fig. 498), was confined to no one section but
was as universal as the farm-house type of architecture itself, so
widespread, in fact, that it has been heretofore regarded as the
monument of a great, now extinct _race_ of people!
COMMUNAL PUEBLOS DEVELOPED FROM CONGREGATION OF CLIFF-HOUSE TRIBES.
[Illustration: FIG. 499.--Typical terraced communal pueblo.]
We may see, finally, how at last the canons proved too limited and in
other ways undesirable for occupation, the result of which was the
confederation of the scattered cliff-dwelling clans, and the
construction, first on the overhanging cliff-tops, then on _mesas_,
and farther and farther away, of great, many-storied towns, any one of
which was named, in consequence of the bringing together in it of many
houses and clans, _thlu el lon ne_, from _thlu a_, many springing up,
and _el lon a_, that which stands, or those which stand; in other
words, "many built standing together." This cannot be regarded as
referring to the simple fact that a village is necessarily composed of
many houses standing together. The name for any other village than a
communal pueblo is _ti na kwin ne_, from _ti na_--many sitting around,
and _kwin ne_, place of. This term is applied by the Zunis to all
villages save their own and those of ourselves, which latter they
regard as Pueblos, in their acceptation of the above native word.
Here, then, in strict accordance with, the teachings of myth,
folk-lore and tradition, I have used the linguistic argument as
briefest and most convincing in indicating the probable sequence of
architectural types in the evolution of the Pueblo; from the brush
lodge, of which only the name survives, to the recent and present
terraced, many-storied, communal structures, which we may find
throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and contiguous parts of the
neighboring Territories.[1]
[1] See for confirmation the last Annual Report to the
Archaeological Institute of America, by Adolph F. Bandelier, one
of the most indefatigable explorers and careful students of early
Spanish history in America.
POTTERY AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT.
There is no other section of the United States where the potter's art
was so extensively practiced, or where it reached such a degree of
perfection, as within the limits of these ancient Pueblo regions. To
this statement not even the prolific valleys of the Mississippi and
its tributaries form an exception.
On examining a large and varied collection of this pottery, one would
naturally regard it either as the product of four distinct peoples or
as belonging to four different eras, with an inclination to the
chronologic division.
When we see the reasonable probability that the architecture, the
primeval arts and industries, and the culture of the Pueblos are
mainly indigenous to the desert and semi-desert regions of North
America, we are in the way towards an understanding of the origin and
remarkable degree of development in the ceramic art.
In these regions water not only occurs in small quantities, but is
obtainable only at points separated by great distances, hence to the
Pueblos the first necessity of life is the transportation and
preservation of water. The skins and paunches of animals could be used
in the effort to meet this want with but small success, as the heat
and aridity of the atmosphere would in a short time render water thus
kept unfit for use, and the membranes once empty would be liable to
destruction by drying. So far as language indicates the character of
the earliest water vessels which to any extent met the requirements of
the Zuni ancestry, they were tubes of wood or sections of canes. The
latter, in ritualistic recitation, are said to have been the
receptacles that the creation-priests filled with the sacred water
from the ocean of the cave-wombs of earth, whence men and creatures
were born, and the name for one of these cane water vessels is _sho
tom me_, from _sho e_, cane or canes, and _tom me_, a wooden tube.
Yet, although in the extreme western borders of the deserts, which
were probably the first penetrated by the Pueblos, the cane grows to
great size and in abundance along the two rivers of that country, its
use, if ever extensive, must have speedily given way to the use of
gourds, which grew luxuriantly at these places and were of better
shapes and of larger capacity. The name of the gourd as a vessel is
_shop tom me_, from _sho e_, canes, _po pon nai e_, bladder-shaped,
and _tom me_, a wooden tube; a seeming derivation (with the exception
of the interpolated sound significant of form) from _sho tom me_. The
gourd itself is called _mo thla a_, "hard fruit." The inference is
that when used as a vessel, and called _shopi tom me_, it must have
been named after an older form of vessel, instead of after the plant
or fruit which produced it.
While the gourd was large and convenient in form, it was difficult of
transportation owing to its fragility. To overcome this it was encased
in a coarse sort of wicker-work, composed of fibrous yucca leaves or
of flexible splints. Of this we have evidence in a series of
gourd-vessels among the Zunis, into which the sacred water is said to
have been transferred from the tubes, and a pair of which one of the
priests, who came east with me two years ago, brought from New Mexico
to Boston in his hands--so precious were they considered as
relics--for the purpose of replenishing them with water from the
Atlantic. These vessels are encased rudely but strongly in a meshing
of splints (see Fig. 500), and while I do not positively claim that
they have been piously preserved since the time of the universal use
of gourds as water-vessels by the ancestry of this people, they are
nevertheless of considerable antiquity. Their origin is attributed to
the priest-gods, and they show that it must have once been a common
practice to encase gourds, as above described, in osiery.
[Illustration: FIG. 500.--Gourd vessel enclosed in wicker.]
POTTERY ANTICIPATED BY BASKETRY.
This crude beginning of the wicker-art in connection with
water-vessels points toward the development of the wonderful
water-tight basketry of the southwest, explaining, too, the
resemblance of many of its typical forms to the shapes of
gourd-vessels. Were we uncertain of this, we might again turn to
language, which designates the impervious wicker water-receptacle of
whatever outline as _tom ma_, an evident derivation from the
restricted use of the word _tom me_ in connection with gourd or cane
vessels, since a basket of any other kind is called _tsi i le_.
It is readily conceivable that water-tight osiery, once known, however
difficult of manufacture, would displace the general use of
gourd-vessels. While the growth of the gourd was restricted to limited
areas, the materials for basketry were everywhere at hand. Not only
so, but basket-vessels were far stronger and more durable, hence more
readily transported full of water, to any distance. By virtue of their
rough surfaces, any leakage in such vessels was instantly stopped by a
daubing of pitch or mineral asphaltum, coated externally with sand or
coarse clay to harden it and overcome its adhesiveness.
