KIDDER— CASAS GRANDES POTTERY 



It is safe to say that the group belongs to the so-called South- 

 western culture rather than to any Mexican culture at present known. 

 This is shown by the structure of the vessels and the prevailing sim- 

 plicity of their shapes (lack of complex forms, tripod types, the flat 

 dish, etc.). The decoration also is Southwestern in general plan, as is 

 evidenced by the use of bands with framing lines; by the formality 

 of arrangement and the regular repetition of elements. Of the ele- 

 ments themselves, the interlocking scrolls, the triangles with bent 

 appendages, and particularly the opposed stepped figures, are all 

 typically Southwestern. 



Qualities foreign to the bulk of Southwestern pottery are: the 

 prevalence of effigy vases and the erotic tendencies of some of them ; 

 the use of negative drawing as a means of decoration; and probably 

 the appearance of the plumed serpent. 



Whether the club-like element and its derivatives should be con- 

 sidered as of local origin or as an importation from the South depends 

 on whether it is believed to be the product of a broken-down nat- 

 uralistic system or to be of geometrical origin. In the former case it 

 is possibly Mexican; in the latter it may perfectly well be South- 

 western. 



We conclude, then, that Casas Grandes pottery is a highly special- 

 ized and somewhat aberrant sub-group of the great Southwestern 

 family which, owing to its position on the southern frontier of the 

 Pueblo country has been considerably influenced, probably during the 

 formative period, by the ceramic art of Mexico. 



Beyond the fact that Casas Grandes ware is Southwestern, we 

 cannot at present go; we cannot as yet, for example, trace any genetic 

 relationship between it and any other Puebloan group. Of contact 

 relationships, however, we do get a few hints. As was mentioned in 

 describing the decoration, certain vessels were found to be strongly 

 suggestive of Lower Gila (Casa Grande) ware. Furthermore there 

 is in the Museum of the American Indian a vessel (t^Vt) typical of the 

 Lower Gila style in clay, shape, decoration, and even in the line-break, 

 a feature not found at Casas Grandes even in the Lower Gila-like 

 specimens just mentioned. In the Peabody Museum there is from 

 Los Guanacos, lower Gila, a pottery parrot-head (H-3867), broken 

 from its parent vessel. This specimen came, without much doubt, 

 from such a Casas Grandes bird-pot as that shown on plate II, figure 7. 

 Too much reliance should not be placed on single finds of this sort, 

 and it is of course possible that the jar in the Museum of the American 

 Indian (being in a purchased collection) may have actually been found 

 on the lower Gila. I think on the whole, however, that it is safe to 



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