A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuñi Culture Growth | Page 2

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.--Zu?i 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 ZU?I CULTURE-GROWTH.
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BY FRANK H. CUSHING.
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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 Zu?i name is _hám′ pon ne_, from ha we, dried brush, sprigs or leaves; and _pó 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 Zu?is 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 _hé sho ta_, a contraction of the now obsolete term, _hé sho ta pon ne_, from _hé sho_, gum, or resin-like; _shó tai e_, leaned or placed together convergingly; and _tá 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 (_hé sho_) and possess a cleavage exactly like that of pi?on-gum and allied substances (also _hé sho_), but some forms of lava are actually known as _á he sho_ or gum-rock. From these considerations inferring that the name _hé 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 _hé 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