FORM AND DESIGN IN SANTO DOMINGAN POTTERY 57 



and Central America reveal the potter's decorative art already past 

 its beginning stages, and indicates an early differentiation from the 

 Antillean unpainted pottery. Differentiation in earthenware pro- 

 duction is synchronous with environmental peculiarities pertaining 

 either to the physical surroundings or the spirit world with which 

 the native potter has surrounded himself ; similarities and identities 

 in earthenware forms and designs appearing in proportion to the 

 amount and type of general culture prevailing in the areas com- 

 pared. In determining this quantum, common culture origins and 

 degree of development, rather than tribal or culture migrations, are 

 predominant. 



Analogues may be found in design features and motives, in group- 

 ings, and in execution. 



West Indian decorative designs are complicated groupings of 

 applied and incised figures. The incised figures, again, are group- 

 ings of curved and straight lines, broken or continuous. Angular, 

 rectilinear, curvilinear, concentric, Crosshatch, punctate figures, all 

 characteristic of Santo Domingan design, never proceed beyond the 

 geometric, are never representative, symbolic, or ideographic, but 

 are designed to till in between spaced life motives in high relief. 



Local South American pottery developments, as pyriform fu- 

 neral urns ; painted designs covering the entire outer surface walls ; 

 or tangas, those peculiar triangular-shaped earthenware girdle 

 plates worn by aboriginal females in Amazonia; red painted ware 

 from the Lesser Antilles, or even from the south coast of Porto 

 Rico ; free-standing supports or legs of Panaman bowls and braziers ; 

 loop handles ; red slip or paint ; polychrome designs ; flat or rounded 

 I)ottom; spouts; and details of modeling or shaping such as coiling, 

 stamping, or indenting — all these are original local developments in 

 form and design and subject to repeated invention. Identity in 

 origin is, however, most likely in the case of certain other features 

 of pottery form and design, such as the circular earthenware grid- 

 dle; molded figurine heads applied bilaterally near the lip of the 

 vessel ; forms of eye, nose, and mouth modeling, specialized ear forms, 

 headdress peculiarities; also such features of form as cylinder, boat 

 or trencher shape; water bottles with figurines in relief applied to 

 neck sector ; such features as annular base ; and luting on of figurines 

 as free, hollow supports. 



In Tainan wares the decorative zone is entirely above the pole 

 of the bowl, or above the equatorial ridge. This decisive decora- 

 tive element sets Santo Domingan wares apart from the modern 

 painted pottery from Guiana. Venezuela, Amazonia, and Central 

 America generally. 



Modeled figurines common alike to the great middle American 

 pottery-making area and the Antilles are representations of the frog, 



