MINDELEFF | DEVELOPMENT OF PUEBLO ARCHITECTURE 19S 
are called estufas or kivas and are the council houses and temples of the 
people, in which the governmental and religious affairs of the tribe are 
transacted. It is owing to their religious connection that the form has 
‘been preserved to the present day, carrying with it the record of the 
time when the people lived in round chambers or huts. 
In opposition to the hypothesis of local origin it might be stated that 
there is no evidence of forms intermediate in development. The old- 
est remains of pueblo architecture known are but little different from 
recent examples. But it must be borne in mind that pueblo architec- 
ture is of a very low order, so low that it hardly comes within a defini- 
tion of architecture as an art, as opposed to a craft. Except for a few 
examples, some of which have already been mentioned, it was strictly 
utilitarian in character; the savage had certain needs to supply, and he 
supplied them in the easiest and most direct manner and with material 
immediately at hand. The whole pueblo country is covered with the 
remains of single rooms and groups of rooms, put up to meet some imme- 
diate necessity. Some of these may have been built centuries ago, some 
are only afew years or a few months old, yet the structures do not differ 
from one another; nor, on the other hand, does the similarity imply that 
the builder of the oldest example knew less or more than his descend- 
ant today—both utilized the material at hand and each accomplished 
his purpose in the easiest way. In both cases the result is sorude that 
no sound inference of sequence can be drawn from the study of individ- 
ual examples, but in the study of large aggregations of rooms we find 
some clues. 
The aggregation of many single rooms into one great structure was 
produced by causes which have been discussed. It must not be forgot- 
ten that the unit of pueblo construction is. the single room, even in the 
large, many-storied villages. This unit is often quite as rude in modern 
work as in ancient, and both modern and ancient examples are very 
close to the result which would be produced by any Indian tribe who 
came into the country and were left free to work out their own ideas. 
Starting with this unit the whole system of pueblo architecture is a 
natural product of the country in which it is found and the conditions 
of life known to have affected the people by whom it was practiced. 
Granting the local origin of pueblo architecture it would appear at 
first sight that a very long period of time must have elapsed between 
the erection of the first rnde rooms and the building of the many-storied 
pueblos, yet the evidence now available—that derived from the ruins 
themselves, documentary evidence, and traditions—all suggest that 
such was not necessarily the case. As a record of events, or rather of 
a Sequence of events, tradition, when unsupported, has practically no 
value; but as a picture of life and of the conditions under which a 
people lived it is very instructive and full of suggestions, which, when 
followed out, often lead to the uncovering of valuable evidence. The 
traditions of the pueblo tribes record a great number of movements or 
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