HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



play 

 with 

 pi. VI, 



a not unimportant part. (Compare tail of bird, pi. VII, fig. 2, 

 pi. vi, figs. 13, 14, 23, etc.; plume of serpent, text fig. 9, with 



fig. 9, etc.) 



Fig. 9. — Serpent. (American Museum.) 



Here, then, we have a very complete 

 series from passably free naturalism (pi. 

 VII, figs. 1 to 5), through more and more 

 highly conventionalized forms (pi. VI, 

 figs. 12 to 22), to true geometric ele- 

 ments (pi. VI, figs. I to 11), which last 

 would thus appear to have been re- 

 duced to "part for the whole" repre- 

 sentations of the bird (by means of the 

 beak or the tail), or the plumed serpent 

 (by the plume). 



That we should recognize in this series a case of conventionaliza- 

 tion is, to my mind, very doubtful, because nowhere in Southwestern 

 art is there any evidence that such a conventionalization has ever 

 taken place. On the contrary, wherever, as in the case of Upper Rio 

 Grande pottery, a true developmental series can be studied, the trend 

 seems to have been uniformly in the reverse direction, namely, toward 

 realization from geometric origins. 



I am inclined to think, therefore, that the club-like element is 

 geometric in origin, derived in some way yet to be worked out from 

 the scroll or possibly from the stepped figure; and that its lifelike 

 forms are due to the discovery that the addition of eyes and the indi- 

 cation (by short entering lines, pi. VI, figs. 13, 14, etc.) of tail-feathers 

 would produce quaint and pleasing designs which resembled birds and 

 reptiles familiar in their life or mythology The peculiar and, in the 

 Southwest, almost unique practice of negative or background drawing 

 may perhaps eventually be traced to the use of derivatives of the 

 club-like element. 



The questions just discussed cannot, however, be settled with 

 any reasonable certainty until we know something as to the sequence 

 of pottery types in the Casas Grandes region. The difficulty with the 

 collections at present available is that they probably contain both 

 early and late specimens, and we have no way of determining which 

 is which. 



Small triangles with crooked appendages (pi. v, fig. 9) are often 

 found on the vessels with rectilinear decoration. They seldom form 

 integral parts of the designs as do the three elements just considered, 

 but serve to fill narrow bands (pi. II, fig. 1) to supply edgings to larger 

 ornaments, or to occupy small spaces upon the various types of effigy 



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