Indian, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the designs on their
pottery have some symbolical meaning. Whether this symbolism is in any
sense religious, or is merely the symbolism of conventionalization of
design, is an open question.[53] It is probable that vessels made before
the time when pottery became to some extent an article of commerce
between the Indian and the tourist, bore designs of symbolical meaning.
It may be that the vessels made today for their own use also have such
meanings, but there is every reason to believe that much of the ware now
turned out by the San Ildefonso potters for sale to tourists bears
designs of no special meaning.
It is true that through bitter experience, the Indians have learned to
guard carefully their religious and secular philosophy, and it would
require many years of study, living with them, to gain an intimate
knowledge of their beliefs. If, however, there are definite meanings
associated with the designs upon commercial pottery, the inhabitants of
San Ildefonso have become past masters of the art of concealment.
An attempt to obtain some idea of the general reason why vessels are
decorated and of what was taking place in the mind of the painter while
at work, proved wholly fruitless. Inquiries as to the meaning of whole
designs, figures, and elements met with three kinds of response. One
family, who have enjoyed considerable contact with investigators of
Indian customs, were ready and eager with explanations of the meanings
of various elements. They could not, however, explain the meaning of the
entire design upon any vessel. Other potters met the inquiry with a
frank statement of ignorance, such as “I don’t know”, or “Ask the men,
the women don’t know”. A third group exhibited great uncertainty. These
people would usually translate the questions into Tewa for the benefit
of the rest of the Indians present. Then, after much laughter and
discussion, the potter would sometimes offer a meaning, at other times
say nothing. One old man explained with great gusto that the design
which he had just finished upon a small globular olla represented four
small clouds sailing across the sky, one behind the other, from west to
east. His manner was very similar to that which one of us might adopt in
telling an improbable yarn to a particularly guileless listener.
Some potters gave meanings for whole figures. Another potter, however,
composed her figures as the work advanced, evidently with no clear idea,
when she began it, of the ultimate form of the figures and therefore
probably with no idea in regard to their meaning. It has been suggested
that minor variation in similar figures on the same vessel have some
meaning. The more probable explanation would seem to be that these
variations are due to the lack of a visible pattern. At one time a
potter was distinctly annoyed because she noticed, after completing a
figure, that she had filled the wrong part of a small detail.
It is equally fallacious to lay too great importance upon alternating
figures in a panel design. For example, one potter in filling the areas
in a four-panel decoration filled the same areas in the first and third
panels, and different areas in the second. When she began to fill the
areas of the fourth panel in the same way as the first and third, her
attention was called to the areas in the second, the order of which she
obviously considered a mistake. The result was that the fourth panel was
filled as the second had been, thus giving the vessel a panel-design
with alternating figures.
The fact that in excavations no two vessels have ever been found with
identical designs has been attributed to something in the Indian’s way
of thinking. Yet one potter at San Ildefonso placed upon one
constricted-mouthed bowl out of a group of vessels a design identical
with that on a bowl of the same shape in the previous group made.
Among older pots the “line-break”, a small space left in the horizontal
enclosing-line at the lip of the vessel, is a constant element. At San
Ildefonso its use has become almost obsolete but one of the informants
did employ it. Careful questioning on the subject with another potter as
interpreter, brought out the fact that the line-break is called a
“door”, through which a spirit may enter or depart. Persistent
questioning in regard to the nature of the spirit caused an animated
discussion among those present. The potter was clearly puzzled by the
questions. Then, after a single sentence by her, the Indians all laughed
heartily. Finally, the interpreter stated that the potter had said, in
effect, that if the door was going to cause all that trouble she would
close it. The matter was finally settled by the interpreter, who pointed
out a passage in the advertising pamphlet of a Santa Fe curio-dealer
which explained that the line-break was a passage through which the
spirits of the dead might pass.
The ready answers given by some potters in response to inquiries as to
the meaning of elements of a design, seem to show that the elements are
actually conventionalized symbols of definite objects. In one instance
the potter, on noticing a dance-costume lying on the bed, pointed out
certain parts of it, and then drew the elements representing those
parts. Other potters simply deny all knowledge of the meaning of
elements. Still others by their hesitancy, seem to grope for a
plausible meaning and offer the first which occurs to them. Whether the
elements do represent definite objects or not, it nevertheless remains a
fact that the meanings given cause apparent contradictions. To elements
essentially the same widely different meanings are often given and,
conversely, the same idea or object
[Illustration: FIG. 11. Elements of design commonly used by the potters
of San Ildefonso.]
is often represented by entirely different elements. This is also true
of more complex figures.
The elements illustrated in figure 11, give examples of the type of idea
or object said to be represented, and incidentally illustrate some of
the contradictions spoken of above. Numbers 1 and 6 both refer to hills.
On the other hand, No. 7 is a mountain, although it bears little
resemblance to the “hills”. It resembles more closely No. 2 which one
informant described as a pueblo and another as a kiva. The same regular
zigzag appears in No. 12, which represents a tablita, or dance mask,
with small feathers tied to the points of the zigzags. No. 17, in which
the zigzag also appears, represents kiva-steps. Nos. 11 and 16 represent
feathers, and No. 21 is a bunch of feathers on the end of a dance-pole.
But No. 22 represents the poles of the kiva-ladder, and No. 3 is rain,
which is falling a long way off. No. 10 represents fringed woolen
armlets, and yet there is as close a resemblance between Nos. 3 and 10,
as there is between Nos. 14 and 19, both of which represent the tassels
on a man’s dance-belt. No. 8 is called rain-water, but a single spiral,
as in No. 25, is a buffalo horn. The dots of No. 13 represent rain-drops
in dust, but in No. 21 the dots are markings on feathers, and in No. 15
they represent a procession of bugs on the rib of a leaf. No. 18
represents water dripping through a hole in the roof and making a small
cup-like depression in the floor, represented by a semicircle, or a
whole circle with a dot in the centre of it; but No. 23, which is also a
triangle, is called a leaf, as is also the case with No. 15. And yet No.
4 is also a leaf, although if placed horizontally it more closely
resembles the clouds represented in No. 5. But No. 9 is also a cloud,
this time a big black cloud with an open space in it through which a
small cloud may be seen. Nos. 20 and 24 represent respectively the sun
and a star.
In the light of the small amount of material obtained on the subject of
symbolism, all that can be said is that the evidence is purely negative.
If the elements do represent definite ideas and objects, which seems to
the writer improbable, the meanings are so deeply hidden that only an
intensive specialized study will result in an acceptable solution.
MEANING OF ELEMENTS
(M.--Maria. A.--Antonita)
1--“hillside”, M.
2--“pueblo”, M.; “kiva”, A.
3--“rain falling far away”, A.
4--“leaf”, M.
5--“clouds”, M.; A.
6--“hill”, M.
7--“mountain”, M.
8--“rainwater”, A.
9--“black cloud with open space through which one can see a small cloud”, A.
10--“fringed woolen dance armlets”, M.
11--“feather”, M.
12--“tableta (wooden headdress) with feathers on points”, M.
13--“rain-drops on dust”, A.
14--“tassel on man’s dance-belt”, M.
15--“leaf with bugs on it”, M.
16--“feather”, M.
17--“kiva-steps, the two small points fireplaces”, A.
18--“water dripping through holes in roof and making holes in dirt floor”, M.
19--“tassel on man’s dance-belt”, M.
20--“sun”, A.
21--“feathers on dance-pole, spots are markings on feathers”, M.
22--“ladder-poles”, A.
23--“leaf”, M.
24--“star”, A.
25--“buffalo horn”, A.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BINNS, C. F.
1910. The potter’s craft. New York, 1910.
HARRINGTON, J. P.
1916. The ethnogeography of the Tewa Indians. _Twenty-ninth Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology._ Washington, 1916.
1916, a. Ethnobotany of the Tewa Indians (In collaboration with W.
W. Robbins and B. Friere-Marreco). _Bulletin 55, Bureau of American
Ethnology._ Washington, 1916.
HOLMES, W. H.
1886. Pottery of the ancient Pueblos. _Fourth Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology_, pp. 257-360. Washington, 1886.
KIDDER, A. V.
1924. An introduction to the study of Southwestern archaeology,
with a preliminary account of the excavations at Pecos. _Papers of
the Phillips Academy Southwestern Expedition_, no. 1. New Haven,
1924.
KIDDER, M. A. and A. V.
1917. Notes on the pottery of Pecos. _American Anthropologist_,
n.s., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 325-360. Lancaster, 1917.
STEVENSON, J.
1883. Illustrated catalogue of the collections obtained from the
Indians of New Mexico and Arizona in 1879. _Second Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 307-465. Washington, 1883.
1884. Illustrated catalogue of the collections obtained from the
pueblos of Zuñi, New Mexico, and Wolpi, Arizona, in 1881. _Third
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 511-594. Washington, 1884.
STEVENSON, M. C.
1904. The Zuñi Indians, their mythology, esoteric fraternities, and
ceremonies. _Twenty-third Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology._ Washington, 1904.
1915. Ethnobotany of the Zuñi Indians. _Thirtieth Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology_, pp. 31-102. Washington, 1915.
WOOTON, E. O. AND STANDLEY, PAUL C.
1915. Flora of New Mexico. _Contributions from the United States
National Herbarium_, Vol. 19. Washington 1915.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A brief history of Pecos, and a description of the work so far
done at the site, are contained in “An Introduction to the Study of
Southwestern Archaeology, with a Preliminary Account of the Excavations
at Pecos”, by A. V. Kidder; No. 1 of the present series.
[2] Kidder, 1924.
[3] Kidder, M. A. and A. V., 1917, p. 330.
[4] A searching study of San Ildefonso decoration has been made by
K. M. Chapman of Santa Fe. When this is published it will throw much
light on the morphology of Pueblo design, and upon the relation of San
Ildefonso symbolism to that of other Rio Grande pueblos.
[5] A vocabulary of the Tewa terms for clays, paints, and other
ingredients; articles of paraphernalia; types of pottery; processes of
pottery making, etc., was recorded by Dr. Guthe, and is available at
Andover for consultation.
[6] See Harrington, 1916, Map 19, point 63. Under the nearby point (60;
p. 314) he says: “Clay ... is obtained at this place; just where could
not be learned.”
[7] Stevenson, to whom with Mrs. Stevenson we are indebted for
practically our only comparative material, wrote in 1879 of Zuñi: “The
clay mostly used by the Zuñians in the manufacture of pottery is a
dark, bluish, carbonaceous clayey shale found in layers usually near
the tops of the mesas” (1883, p. 329). Later, Mrs. Stevenson described
at some length the ceremony of securing pottery clay (1904, p. 374).
Among the San Ildefonso Indians of today there is no outward evidence
of any such ceremony.
[8] At Zuñi the ingredients are ground and mixed, and the clay is
kneaded on a stone slab. (See pl. 28, facing p. 76.)
[9] Stevenson said, in speaking of Zuñi pottery making: “This
carbonaceous clay is first mixed with water and kneaded as a baker
kneads dough until it reaches the proper consistency” (1883, p. 329).
Mrs. Stevenson describes the preparation of clay at Zuñi as follows:
“The clay is ground to a powder and mixed with a small quantity of
pulverized pottery, fragments of the latter being carefully hoarded for
this purpose. The powder thus compounded is mixed with water enough
to make a pasty mass, which is kneaded like dough. The more care
taken in pulverizing the material and the more time spent in working
it, the finer becomes the paste. When the mass reaches such a state
of consistency that the fingers can no longer detect the presence of
gritty particles, it is still more delicately tested with the tongue,
and when found to be satisfactory it is placed in a vessel and covered
with a cloth, where it will retain the moisture until wanted for use”
(1904, p. 374-5).
[10] Stevenson (1883, p. 329) says: “With this (clay), crushed
volcanic lava is sometimes mixed; but the Zuñians more frequently
pulverize fragments of broken pottery, which have been preserved for
this purpose. This seems to prevent explosion, cracking, or fracture
by rendering the paste sufficiently porous to allow the heat to pass
through without injurious effect.” And again: “The clays used by the
Santa Clara Indians are of a brick-red color, containing an admixture
of very fine sand, which, no doubt, prevents cracking in burning, and
hence dispenses with the necessity of using lava or pottery fragments,
as is the custom of the Indians of the western pueblos” (1883, p. 331).
Binns, in “The Potter’s Craft”, describing the preparation of clay,
says, “If the clay prove very sandy it must be washed, ... but all
the sand should not be removed. Clay with no sand in it will be apt
to crack in drying and burning. Clay with too much sand will be short
and brittle in working. If the clay is very smooth and shows no sand,
a little fine builder’s sand may be added with advantage, a definite
proportion being used and recorded” (1910, p. 40).
[11] Stevenson, in his catalogue of Zuñi collections, enumerated
“_Tierra amarilla_, or yellow micaceous clay, of which the Rio Grande
Indians make many varieties of vessels” (1883, p. 368).
[12] Harrington, in speaking of a clay-pit near the village of Las
Truchas, writes: “It is said that at this place the best red pottery
clay known to the Tewa is obtained. It is pebbly, but makes very strong
dishes, and it is used especially for ollas. It is said that Tewa of
various pueblos visit this place frequently and carry away the clay.
The clay deposit is a mile or two southeast of Truchas town” (1916, p.
340). This may be the claypit referred to by the informant, although
the clay, while pebbly, is by no means red.
[13] Stevenson, writing of the Zuñi, said of their white slip: “A paint
or solution is then made, either of a fine white calcareous earth,
consisting mainly of carbonate of lime, or of a milk-white indurated
clay, almost wholly insoluble in acids, and apparently derived from
decomposed feldspar with a small proportion of mica” (1883, p. 329).
Mrs. Stevenson, in a later publication, said: “A white clay is
dissolved in water and then made into cones which are dried in the sun.
When required for use these cones are rubbed to powder on a stone,
again mixed with water, and applied in a liquid state to the object”
(1904, p. 375).
[14] Harrington mentions this bed as “a deposit of bright red paint
situated about two miles east of Santa Fe, the informants think north
of Santa Fe Creek, in high land a few hundred yards from that creek.
This paint was used for body painting. It is said that Jicarilla Apache
still go to the deposit to get this paint and sometimes sell it to
the Tewa” (1916, p. 354). Stevenson is speaking of the black ware of
Santa Clara and other Rio Grande pueblos, mentions “a solution of very
fine ochre-colored clay” (1883, p. 331), which was probably this same
substance. Mrs. Stevenson also mentions “red ochre” (1904, p. 375).
[15] Stevenson, writing of the Zuñis in 1881, said: “The material used
to produce the red or brown colors is a yellowish impure clay, colored
from oxide of iron; indeed it is mainly clay, but contains some sand
and a very small amount of carbonate of lime”; it “is generally found
in a hard, stony condition, and is ground in a small stone mortar ...
and mixed with water so as to form a thin solution” (1883, p. 330).
Mrs. Stevenson added later: “Ferruginous clays which on heating burn to
yellow, red, or brown are employed for decorating” (1904, p. 375).
[16] _Peritoma serrulatum_ (Pursh); synonyms: _Cleome serrulata_, and
_Cleome integrifolia_; (Wooton and Standley, 1915, p. 290). Stevenson
wrote: “It is said that among the Cochiti, Santa Clara, and some
other pueblos a vegetable matter is employed to produce some of their
decorative designs; this, however, I was unable to verify, though
some of the Indians assured me of the fact, and furnished me a bunch
of the plant, which Dr. Vasey, of the Agricultural Department, found
to be _Cleome integrifolia_, a plant common throughout the Western
Territories” (1883, p. 331). Again, “That of the decorated class is
ornamented with the juice of _Cleome integrifolia_, which is fixed to
the ware in the process of burning” (loc. cit., p. 430). Harrington
writes: “This is a very important plant to the Tewa, inasmuch as black
paint for pottery decoration is made from it. Large quantities of young
plants are collected, usually in July. The plants are boiled well in
water; the woody parts are then removed and the decoction is again
allowed to boil until it becomes thick and attains a black color. This
thick fluid is poured on a board to dry and soon becomes hardened. It
may be kept in hard cakes for an indefinite period. When needed these
are soaked in hot water until of the consistency needed for paint.
Guaco is also used as a food. The hardened cakes are soaked in hot
water, and then fried in grease. The finely ground plants are mixed
with water and the liquid is drunk as a remedy for stomach disorders;
or sometimes fresh plants wrapped in a cloth are applied to the
abdomen” (1916, a, pp. 58, 59). (It should be noted that the accounts
obtained by the writer from the informants of San Ildefonso do not
agree in detail with the one given by Harrington.) Mrs. Stevenson wrote
of Zuñi: “Water from boiled _Cleome serrulata_ (Mexican name waco)
is mixed with black pigment (a manganiferous clay containing organic
matter) in decorating pottery” (1904, p. 375); and in more detail: “The
entire plant, minus the root, is boiled for a considerable time, and
the water in which it is cooked is allowed to evaporate. The firm paste
secured from precipitation is used in conjunction with a black mineral
paint for decorating pottery” (1915, p. 92).
[17] Stevenson, in 1879, saw the Rio Grande Pueblo potters use
“coarsely broken dried manure obtained from the corrals”, and added
that for the polished black ware “another application of fuel, finely
pulverized, is made” (1883, p. 331).
[18] Stevenson, in 1879, observed at Zuñi that “the bottoms of old
water jars and bowls form stands for the articles while being worked by
the potter. The bowls are filled with sand when objects of a globular
form are to be made” (1883, p. 329). At Pojuaque (a Tewa pueblo near
San Ildefonso, now nearly extinct) he collected two “pottery moulds for
bottoms of vessels” (loc. cit. p. 439). Mrs. Stevenson also noticed
these olla bottoms at Zuñi (1904, p. 374).
[19] Harrington writes: “Variously shaped section of gourd are used by
women to smooth and shape pottery in the making” (1916, a, p. 102).
Stevenson, in 1879, noted at Zuñi “a small trowel fashioned from a
piece of gourd or fragment of pottery, the only tool employed in the
manufacture of pottery” (1883, p. 329). Mrs. Stevenson also speaks of
these trowels (1904, p. 374).
[20] Stevenson, in speaking of the making of pottery at Santa Clara,
mentions “the process of polishing--with smooth, fine-grained stones”,
(1883, p. 331). In his catalogue of stone objects collected at Zuñi
in 1881, he differentiates between “small stones used in polishing
pottery”, “small stones used in polishing unburned vessels”, and the
“small polisher for glazing and smoothing pottery”, giving three
different Indian names for the three kinds. He does not, however,
explain the difference (1884, pp. 525, 526). He also catalogues
“fifteen rubbing or smoothing stones for pottery” obtained at Walpi
(1884, p. 587). Mrs. Stevenson remarked: “Polishing stones are used to
finish the surface” of vessels at Zuñi (1904, p. 375).
[21] Stevenson, in 1879 at Zuñi, noted that the paint was applied to
pottery “with brushes made of the leaves of the yucca. These brushes
are made of flat pieces of the leaf, which are stripped off and bruised
at one end, and are of different sizes adapted to the coarse or fine
lines the artist may wish to draw” (1883, p. 330). Mrs. Stevenson
wrote, again of Zuñi: “_Yucca glauca_ Nutt. Soapweed.... The brushes
employed for decorating pottery are made from the leaves of this plant,
which, for this purpose, are cut the proper lengths and fringed at one
end” (1915, p. 82).
[22] Mrs. Stevenson says the Zuñis used a “rabbit skin mop” (1904, p.
375).
[23] Mrs. Stevenson wrote of Zuñi: “The pieces to be fired are placed
upon stones to raise them a few inches from the ground”, implying the
absence of a grate (1904, p. 376).
[24] I use the words “very skillfully” advisedly. Repeated attempts
on my part to imitate the process resulted in rolls of exceedingly
variable diameter. At Zuñi the roll is made by the apparently simpler
and more efficient method of rolling the clay back and forth on a flat
stone slab with one hand (see pl. 29, a).
[25] Zuñi potters apply the roll to the outside instead of the inside
of the growing vessel wall; otherwise the handling of the roll is
exactly as at San Ildefonso (see pl. 29, b).
[26] Throughout this report, the puki is spoken of as moving
“clockwise” or “counterclockwise” and the sectors worked in are
referred to the numerals on the face of the clock, as, “the
six-to-eight-o’clock sector”. The point of view taken is that of the
potter with “six o’clock” referring to that part of the bowl nearest
her.
[27] The “rim” of an unfinished vessel means the upper edge of the last
roll added to it.
[28] See, however, pl. 29. b; the Zuñi potter in this case has not
obliterated the preceding rolls.
[29] Stevenson, 1883, p. 331.
[30] M. C. Stevenson, 1904, p. 375.
[31] Binns, 1910, pp. 69-71.
[32] The process is identical at Zuñi, see pl. 30, a.
[33] From the earliest periods Southwestern pottery has been made in
more or less the manner just described, that is, by the addition of
successive rings of clay. During prehistoric times, however, there
was developed a ware usually known as “corrugated”, in the building
of which the roll was so lengthened as to become a spiral coil. The
roll of paste forming the coil was very thin, averaging a little
over one-quarter of an inch in diameter; and it was applied to the
outside of the temporary rim, as at Zuñi (see pl. 29, b), instead
of to the inside, as at San Ildefonso. Furthermore, the junctions
between the coils were not obliterated on the exterior of the vessel,
thus producing a ridged or corrugated effect. Corrugated pottery was
principally used for cooking pots (see Holmes, 1886, p. 273).
[34] One informant stated that these bowls, both with and without the
terraces, were formerly, and are still, used to hold sacred meal.
[35] The two-mouthed vase is rarely made at San Ildefonso. It is a type
more commonly produced by the potters of Santa Clara.
[36] Potsherds from pre-Spanish ruins show that handles have been
applied to vessels in the ways described above for many centuries. The
lug-type of handle, which is frequently found in ancient pottery, is
no longer made at San Ildefonso. The probabilities are, however, that
these lugs were welded to the exterior of the vessel, as in the first
method described, rather than riveted on as in the second method.