594 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 228 



more or less continuous operation of this defensive 

 motive throughout the period of their occupation 

 of this territory. A strong and independent race 

 of people, who had no invasions of stronger foes 

 to fear, would have been necessarily influenced by 

 the environment to the extent of using the excep- 

 tional materials offered, and would have pro- 

 gressed in perfecting their lodges ; but the motive 

 for building clusters of rectangular cells — the in- 

 itial point of departure in the development of the 

 pueblo system — would not have been encountered. 

 The crowding of many habitations within the nar- 

 row limits of a small cliff -ledge or other restricted 

 site, bringing about the rectangular room-cluster, 

 would most likely have been due to the impera- 

 tive conditions imposed by this necessity for de- 

 fence. The character of many sites occupied is 

 not such as would be selected voluntarily by a 

 people in a low grade of culture, and the choice of 

 such places as homes must have been largely com- 

 pulsory. 



The general outlines of the development of this 

 system, wherein the ancient builders were stimu- 

 lated to the best use of the exceptional materials 

 about them both by the difficult conditions of 

 their semi-desert environment and by the necessity 

 for constant watchfulness and protection against 

 their neighbors, can be traced in its various stages 

 of growth from the primitive conical lodge, and 

 culminating in the large communal village of a 

 single many-storied building, such as we find on 

 the Chaco and also in the homes of some of the 

 present Pueblo tribes. Yet the various steps have 

 followed from a very simple and direct use of such 

 material as was immediately at hand, with grad- 

 ually improving methods of employing the same, 

 as the experience derived from frequent experi- 

 ments in building taught them to more fully uti- 

 lize local facilities, the builders doing the best they 

 could with the materials at hand. In all cases 

 such material was derived from the nearest avail- 

 able source ; and the occasional variations in the 

 quality of the finished woi'k were usually due to 

 variations in the quality of the stone near by, or 

 other local features. 



The results accomplished attest the patient and 

 persistent industry of the ancient builders, but the 

 work does not display any evidence of great skill 

 in construction or in the preparation of the 

 material. 



The same semi-desert environment that fur- 

 nished such an abundance of material for the 

 ancient builders, also, from its difficult and inhos- 

 pitable character and the constant variations in 

 the water-supply, furnished the conditions for 

 compelling the frequent use of this material ; and 

 this was a most important factor in bringing about 



the degree of advancement in the building art that 

 was attained. At the present day, constant local 

 changes occur in the water sources of these arid 

 tablelands, while the general character of the 

 climate remains unchanged. 



The pueblo system of construction, then, may 

 be regarded as the product of the defensive 

 motive, operating through an environment that 

 furnished at the same time both an abundance of 

 suitable building-material and the climatic con- 

 ditions that compelled its very frequent employ- 

 ment. 



The comparative abeyance, within the past few 

 years, of the defensive motive, which has been 

 such an important element in the evolution of this 

 building system, .has left its impress on the more 

 recent architecture. Even after the long practice 

 of the system has rendered it somewhat fixed, 

 comparative security from attack by their neigh- 

 bors has caused many of the Pueblo Indians to 

 recognize the inconvenience of a system of dwell- 

 ings in such large clusters, and on sites difficult 

 of access, while the sources of their subsistence 

 are necessarily sparsely scattered over large areas. 

 This is noticeable in the construction of single 

 houses of small size at quite a distance from the 

 main villages, the motive of greater convenience 

 to crops, flocks, water, etc., being allowed to out- 

 weigh the defensive motive. 



The greater security of the Pueblos as the coun- 

 try comes more fully into the hands of Americans, 

 has resulted also in the much more careless 

 methods of construction, as well as of arrange- 

 ment, that characterize the modern examples as 

 compared with the ancient. 



It seems altogether likely, that, as time goes on, 

 the system of building a great number of rec- 

 tangular rooms in many-storied clusters will be 

 gradually abandoned by these people, in the absence 

 of the defensive motive that bound them together 

 and was the compulsory cause of such construc- 

 tion ; and a more convenient system of scattered 

 small houses, located near springs and fields, will 

 take its place, thus again returning to a plan of 

 living that must have prevailed at one period in 

 the past evolution of the pueblo, prior to the 

 clustering of a great many rooms into one large 

 defensive village. 



The apparently distinct line of separation be- 

 tween the Pueblo Indians and the neighboring 

 tribes gradually becomes less clearly defined as 

 further investigation makes both sides better 

 known and reveals many connecting links. Mr. 

 Cushing's exhaustive study of Pueblo social, 

 political, and religious systems has clearly estab- 

 lished their essential identity with those of other 

 tribes. In the sphere of the arts, where the wid- 



