CONCLUSION" 139 



supports, the earthenware stamp, lids, complex incised patterns in 

 decorative design, effigy, human, zoomorphic and aviform figurines, 

 decorated water bottles, and above all, the multitude of painted de- 

 signs, many of which are directly connected with tribal mythologies 

 and religious motives. 



In summing up resemblances and differences existing in the abo- 

 riginal pottery of the Gulf States and Santo Domingo we must first 

 of all exclude as divergent types and as local, divergent wares many 

 of the examples from the higher centers of pottery production, as 

 at Moundville and Weeden Island; and Tennesseean and Arkansan 

 effigy forms, which incorporate conventionalized designs based on 

 local life forms and religious motivation impossible to correlate. 

 Eesemblances are rather with the less developed forms and designs 

 occurring often far removed from the West Indian Archipelago. 

 Thus, the Pawnee, the Iroquois, the Mandan, and the Choctaw, like 

 the Cuna and the prehistoric population of Panama, share with the 

 Taino of Santo Domingo and the prehistoric Arawak of South 

 America truly marginal cultures in ceramics. Centers of intensive 

 pottery production in the Central American, South American, West 

 Indian, and Gulf States did not become centers of pottery diffusion 

 so far as pertains to the more specialized painted or cult forms. We 

 must, however, not overlook the fact that even marginal cultures 

 bear in themselves the elements of development in ceramic form and 

 design. Mention here need be made only of the unique Santo Do- 

 mingan water bottle and of the modeled earthenware examples of 

 local Antillean fauna. The use of slips and paints, like the shaping 

 of divergent forms, was taking its beginning in southeastern Santo 

 Domingo at the time of the discovery and conquest. 



Pottery of eastern United States and contiguous eastern Canada 

 had an origin in the Colombian and northern Andean pottery area 

 in common with the Antillean pottery area. Tlie several subcenters 

 cited of intensive development in the potter's art show conversely a 

 wide divergence in conventionalized decorative art, also in the ele- 

 ments of form. The marginal subareas showing a relatively slight 

 development in pottery production retained elementary forms and 

 devices for decorative embellishment. Here the forms are fewer and 

 vary less from what we might designate as normal elementary types 

 of bowl, vase, or container; decoration is less artistic and effected 

 through incising and free-hand modeling. In western Porto Rico 

 and eastern Santo Domingo conventional art and a rich mythology 

 were leading up to a high differentiation in form, also in painted 

 design. The gods of a primitive religion become joersonified in clay 

 images. At this point Tainan art of the Santo Domingan-Antillean 

 island culture area becomes distinctive. 



