Bni.MEs.l LIFE FORMS IN OTHER ARTS. 1 Sf) 



may not lie possible to find evidence of tlie arrival of this period, 

 as it is not necessarily marked by any loss of nnity or consistency — 

 striking characteristics of ancient American art; for such is the con- 

 servatism of indigenous methods that, unless there be forcible in- 

 trusion of exotic art, original forms and groupings may be perpetu- 

 ated indefinitely and remain much the same in appearance after the 

 associated ideas are modified or lost. 



In our study of the forms and meanings of these devices it should 

 not be forgotten that collateral branches of art are also simultaneously 

 employing the same motives and reducing them through other sim- 

 ilar classes of conventionalizing forces to corresponding forms. Re- 

 cording arts— pictography, hieroglyphic and phonetic writing— carry 

 life forms through all degrees of abbreviation and change, and all 

 ceremonial and all domestic arts with which such forms are associated 

 do the same; and it is not impossible that many conventional forms 

 found iipon pottery are borrowed outright from the other arts. It 

 will be impossible to detect these borrowed elements unless very liter- 

 ally transferred from some art the style of which is well knoAvn. It 

 would be comparatively easy to identify literal borrowiiiys frdiii pho- 

 netic art or even from hieroglyphic art, as the form and anan^innMit 

 of the devices are quite unlike those observed in pure decoration. 

 We do not know that Chiriquian culture had achieved a hieroglyphic 

 ( )r a phonetic system of writing, but it is worth while to call atten- 

 tion to the form and the maimer of employment of some of the de- 



'Kaole devices — J 



<^^<^'^<^<^<^<^^ <P<^ (^ 



vices found upon the pottery. In Fig. 28-1 1 present an outline draw- 

 ing of a vase, the shoulder of which is encircled by a broad zone of 

 decoration. This zone is divided into jjanels by oblique lines. A 

 row of rectangular compartments extends along the middle of the 

 band and rows of triangular spaces occur at the sides. Each sjiace is 



