  BY A. L. KROEBER POTTERY SHAPES RECOGNIZED BY THE MOHAVE The generic Mohave name for pottery vessels seems to be kwÁ?ki, The shapes for which Mohave names were obtained are mainly those which segregate out objectively on examination of a collection:
In the dreamed MastamhÓ myth of the origin of culture (AR 11:1, 1948, see 7:76, p. 63), the culture hero calls some of the principal vessel forms by two sets of names, the first being recondite, twisted, or punning. The list is:
It will be noted that handled jugs and handled cups are lacking from this list, though so are canteens and round platters. Small-and-flaring-necked spheroid jars, holding a gallon or more, are found in the region, and in 1900 I secured two Mohave examples which were destroyed in 1906 with the Academy of Sciences building. They served to store seeds, and seem often to have been hidden in caves and out-of-the-way spots by Shoshonean desert tribes. I secured one near Needles in 1908, now no. 13875 in the Museum of Anthropology, but it belonged to a Chemehuevi woman who was born in Chemehuevi Valley and was in 1908 living in Mohave Valley, married to a Mohave who was himself half-Chemehuevi. She had made the jar many years before: in fact, it was the first and last pottery vessel she attempted, she said. The ware is definitely paler than Mohave pottery: a sort of half-yellow. It bears on its upper half a red pattern, but this is fainter than most Mohave patterns, and most resembles occasional fishnet patterns on the under sides or backs of Mohave bowls, platters, or spoons. It has 42 vertical (radiating) lines and 7 horizontal (encircling) lines, resulting in 252 hollow quadrilaterals. The vessel also has two mends or strengthenings with lumps of black gum. The overall height, 225 mm., is 75 per cent of the maximum body diameter, 300 mm., which comes at about 100 mm., or less than halfway up. The mouth and neck diameters are 69 and 58 mm., or 23 per cent and 19 per cent of the body diameter. POTTERY OBJECTS OTHER THAN VESSELS Two figures idly modeled, or serving as toys—made for sale, it was said—were found in a household: a lizard and a hummingbird, plate 7,j,k, nos. 1726, 1727. They seem at least partly baked, but have since been washed with yellow ocher, which would turn to red on baking. The bird also has a white-painted beak and spots. I saw pottery human figures and dolls, both with and without hair of shredded cottonwood bark, cradles, etc., offered for sale by Mohave women to tourists on the station platform—Needles was a scheduled 25-minute meal stop for most trains. I did not purchase any of these, nor any small platters or handled jugs or cups, which were sometimes also offered. This was perhaps a mistake; but I was eager to impress on the Indians generally that my interest was in native, nontourist objects. While material was occasionally brought to me in town, this was uncommon, and I secured most of it from Mohave houses, especially native-style ones across the river in Arizona. Typically, the bows and arrows hawked by a few old men at the trains for twenty-five cents were not the plain long Mohave willow bows, but red- and blue-painted miniature willow imitations of the Chemehuevi retroflex horn or composite bow. Pipes, short and tubular, are made of pottery. Plate 7,l (no. 4264), was made for a boy, and was unfinished, remaining unbaked. Plate 7,m (no. 13870), is a fragment, 62 mm. long, about 11 through the mouth end, 19 at the break, buff-colored, with gray (overfired) paste at the fracture. I secured at least one other pipe, no. 1719, which cannot at present be found in the Museum. Pot rests, put under the large tŠuvÁva cookpots, were made of clay, as shown in plate 7,n,o. In 1904 I secured an arrow-straightener of pottery, no. 4367, shown in Handbook, plate 49,f. It carries a longitudinal ridge, a sort of notched comb; presumably to receive, after being heated, the joints of arrows of cane or reed. However, cane arrows, though known to the Mohave, were only occasionally used. The usual ones of arrow weed, without foreshaft or attached head, were simply warmed and bent by hand. TECHNOLOGICAL NOTES I saw pottery made about 1902-1904, and have little to add to the record.
I noted that no slip was being used by Mohave potters, nor does examination reveal any. In 1904, notebook 60-34, I noted: "If dishes crack, they are mended by hair binding, or now a wire, being passed between two perforations." I did not note how the holes were bored, nor whether the hair was human or horse. No. 4326 is a small piece of rock such as was crushed and metate-ground for temper. It is not sandstone, as I stated in 1923, but granite, according to my colleague Professor Charles Meyer, whose courtesy is acknowledged and whose information is summarized in Appendix III. No. 4295 consists of several small slabs of yellow oxide of iron, for grinding up as design paint, which on firing makes the red ocher color which is both darker and more saturatedly red than the light reddish-buff ground color of Mohave pottery. Its composition is also given in Appendix III on the basis of Professor Meyer's examination. Both it and no. 4354 were obtained at matekwa?-kutŠyep, "yellow paint wide open," a spot in a wash cutting across the peneplain from Avimota, Mt. Manchester, in Nevada opposite Fort Mohave. Several samples of material that might help further elucidate the technology of Mohave pottery have unfortunately been misplaced in the Museum since at least several years. Quite possibly they have been put together into one tray, which was then mislaid. They include:
Another lot of similar accessories was once included in a collection belonging to the California Academy of Sciences and is listed in Appendix I. I secured half a dozen paddles, kanÓ?ki, for smoothing the fresh coils of pottery vessels. All of these prove to have been cut from white oak staves of whiskey barrels, whose two-way curvature perhaps suggested to the Mohave their adaptability for the purpose. Four of the six pieces still show staining by iron barrel hoops. Three, however, had had their concavity partly whittled flat. I presume that in the old days paddles were made of cottonwood or mesquite. The length and width dimensions of the "blades," that is, exclusive of handles, are:
The second and last of these paddles are accompanied by their "anvils"—waterworn stones. No. 4312 is somewhat three-cornered, 90-95 mm. in length, 43 mm. thick, has one flattish side, one convex, and weighs 18 oz. No. 13840, though got four years later, is quite similar: 85-90 mm., 48 mm. thick, one side flattish, weight also 18 oz. DESCRIPTION OF THE POTTERY All pieces are actually inscribed with and cataloged under a number beginning with the prefix 1-, which denotes provenience from native California. This prefix, being unvarying, is omitted in the present treatise. The objects described were collected by myself in three lots, in Mohave Valley, on both sides of the Colorado River, as follows:
Of these nearly 300 objects, some 70 are of pottery. An earlier collection, made in 1900 for the California Academy of Sciences, was destroyed by fire on the day of the San Francisco earthquake, April 18, 1906. Some notations on it were preserved and are summarized in Appendix I. PLATE 1: BOWLS
Of these 8 bowls, 3 (f, g, h, evidently from one household) run from 181 to 195 mm. in diameter; the other 5, from 233 to 281 mm. Proportions of height to diameter are, seriated: 47, 49, 49, 50, 50, 50, 56, 59. The pattern is fundamentally the same on the inside of all 8 bowls, except that spotting is omitted in f. It consists of triple-line bars that branch at an acute angle; one fork soon ends, the second goes on and merges with a branch from another bar, and so on in a complex pattern extending over the entire inside. The forks—which are also junctions—each contain a small solid-filled triangle, into which the thin middle line of each bar runs. Or, the middle lines might be said to emerge from the points of the solid triangles. The two remaining lines of the bars are therefore mere borders or shadows: they never touch a solid triangle. The dead ends of the forking branches point at each other, or inward toward the center, in most cases: a, b, d, f, g, h. In c they point parallel; e is unskillfully painted and lacks the dead or free ends. This pattern is complex and calls for skill in execution. e is a botch, a irregularly crowded, g, h simplified and open; the rest show successful control, especially b, c, d. Only b differs in that the dead or free branches each end in a solid circle. The solid triangles tend to vary somewhat in shape, from equilateral to narrow isosceles, even in well painted bowls: cf. b, c; this variation is perhaps unavoidable. This pattern is the most ambitious of Mohave design treatments. The outer side of these bowls is painted with vertical stripes down from the rim 6 times. Usually they are thinnish lines, in c wider stripes. Bowls e and f partly repeat the inside pattern on their outside. PLATE 2: BOWLS
These 8 bowls vary more in proportion than those of plate 1. H/D ratio runs, seriated: 38, 45, 50, 52, 53, 57, The interior designs are less uniform than in plate 1. a and b show an overall interior pattern of solid rhomboidal quadrilaterals or hexagons reduced to triangles in the interstices and toward the rim; each such figure being surrounded by 3 thin parallel lines. Where the outermost of these enclosing lines intersect, two of the four angles are solidified, producing secondary hourglass figures. The effect is a bit like a tortoise carapace; but the design was named only for b, and then as recalling an overall pattern of basketry, which the Mohave do not themselves weave or coil though they know and use it. In a, there are four large hexagons filling most of the field (actually one is more pentagonal, one heptagonal); along the edges are four lenticular areas, each enclosing two triangles; two of these lenses show in the photograph. In b, the figures are grouped in four parallel tiers extending across the bowl. In b, the outside carries vertical stripes; in a, eight right-slanting and eight left-slanting lines enclosing as many diamonds and hourglass figures, with solid filling of the upper and lower corners of the diamonds and meeting corners of the hourglasses. c and d are crossed by rows of solid triangles touching at the corners. These aim at being equilateral in c (the flattest of the bowls), so that the intervening background spaces are also roughly equilateral, and there is an overall dark-light effect. But in d the triangles are narrower-based, or isosceles, and their points meet the bases instead of the corners of triangles in the tier above, so that the effect is one of pattern in rows rather than overall. This is the design that was called "coyote teeth"; which fairly agrees with plate 4,l,q. f also has solid triangles, but they meet point to point, leaving light rhomboids between their two rows. The center is a lightly quartered circle; toward the rim, there is a row of smaller, double, point-to-point (hourglass) triangles, each set over the outer point of a rhomboid. These outer triangles are each crossed by a bar of light background—a feature not repeated in the collection, and seeming strange to me; but it does yield a pair of miniature solid triangles—that favorite Mohave design device—in the waist of each outer hourglass. The miniature solid angle also recurs in the central quartering. The solid middle triangles as well as the medium-sized ones toward the rim are followed outside their edge (or inside the light rhomboids) by a row of dots. These rows of dots, with faint lines, further extend to the actual rim of the vessel, completing skewed hexagonal shapes of their own (one is heptagonal). The design name given, "butterfly," probably applies to the point-to-point large solid triangles, possibly to the rhomboids. On the outside, to which the design name "halter face paint" applies, there are eight double-outlined hourglass triangle pairs, meeting tips solid, the rest of their interiors and the intervening hexagons being stippled with oval, streakish dots. Cf. the outside of a. e has been much rubbed in the middle, but the design toward the rim is allied to those of the bowls in plate 1—triple lines turning back or forking at acute angles. Only the solid small triangles at junctures and ends seem to be lacking. The outside carries 58 vertical stripes averaging about 4 mm. wide. g is the tallest bowl, with a height-diameter ratio of more than 2/3, due in part to a semiconical bottom. It is considerably worn inside, and food has spilled over and crusted part of the outside. The discernible interior design is in a band below the rim. This is crossed by a series of diagonals sloping downward to the right, with a little solid filling triangle in the acute angle made by the diagonal with the border of the band. In addition, a left-sloping diagonal extends down from the rim to the middle of the right-sloping one, with a filling triangle at the juncture. The outside is continuously covered by what in other vessels was usually called "fish bones"—but here was named (i)yam-tŠuperta, a face paint—19 columns of downward and 19 of upward pointing zigzags, all points filled in red. Eight such horizontally progressing zigzag lines are still perceptible; there may have been one or two more, but not over ten altogether. This pattern is most effective in a fairly high field (it is common in spoons), such as this tall bowl affords on its exterior. h has free-standing eight-legged spider figures interspersed with dots. A spider design recurs in plate 3,i; and in 3,j a similar figure is called tortoise. The stripes and lines of the outside were called "fish tail"—it is not quite apparent why. In summary for exterior designs, a and f have hourglasses, g the zigzag fish bones, the others in this plate "radial" or vertical lines, wholly or partly widened in e, h to stripes. PLATE 3: PLATTERS Plate 3 shows flat bowls, dishes, or plates, more or less platterlike, sometimes round and sometimes oval. They differ from the bowls of plates 1 and 2 in being lower, in having no neck, and no outcurved rim.
It will be seen that the H/D ratio is from 28 to 38 per cent; whereas that for bowls is from 38 to 68 per cent, with 21 out of 24 between 45 and 61. Platters i and j were described when collected as "dish-like spoons" or scoops; j, like plate 2,h, is from Tokwa?a's household. Designs As regards painted design, a and b revert to the all-over regular forking of plate 1, but with dark background instead of light or spot-studded, so that the pattern really is negative in effect. It is probably significant that the only two platelike bowls carrying this design should be the only ones to present it negatively. The pattern is well executed in both. It is of course somewhat easier to carry out regularly on a flattish plate than in an up-curving bowl. d was called "himÁka lame?lame, its back leaves" (or "patches"?—cf. pl. 4,d). This presumably refers to the large dot-studded hexagonal areas—hexagonal at least in intent. My notes also name a "tŠit?Ôk face-paint" design, which would then be the name of the interconnected hourglass figures which constitute the primary or positive element of the patterning. The combination of these two design elements recurs on the exterior of the jar of plate 8,a. The back or under side of d in the present plate is boldly checkered, as shown in plate 8,c. It is possible that the leaf name refers to this checker. c and g were both designated as fish backbone, which as a pattern we have already encountered on bowl 2,g, though there on the outer side and named after a face paint: parallel zigzags with solid-filled angles. The idea seems to be that of a fish backbone as it might be drawn out with ribs attached—"herringbone" in our own nomenclature. Then 3,g would be the more representational form with the vertebral column left in—though it is also partway transitional to the triple-line angle-and-forking pattern of plate 1 and of 3,a,b above. The simpler, merely parallel-chevron form of the design—with the vertebrae omitted—is perhaps more usual, and is shown recurring in e and in plate 4,f,k. The under side of c has 67 vertical (radiating) lines.—Plate 3,g, no. 1751, was obtained from Nyavarup along with no. 1749, plate 4,o, which see. Nyavarup, like Tokwa?a, was a historic character, having been encountered by the Ives party in 1858 and mentioned in MÖllhausen. In 1902 he told me the creation, which will be published as myth no. 9. f is the under or convex side of e, but its spots (12-14 mm. diameter) reappear as the sole inside pattern in h, and between the tortoises of j. The inside dots of h and the outside ones of f were however put on differently: in h in rows across the oval, in f irregularly or perhaps spirally. The under side of h also has dots, fainter than on the front. In j the dots seem inserted with reference to the larger figures of tortoises. These tortoises of j are definitely similar to the halytÔ?a spiders of plate 2,h, but are also distinctive, with enclosed-line quadrilateral body, 3-toed legs at corners, and head and tail. Both 3,j and 2,h however were made to sell, are more representational than most Mohave pottery paintings, and should be viewed with a degree of reserve, though I believe that their designs have basis in native usage. 3,i as halytÔ?a, spider, is puzzling as to why its name, and is also abnormal formally. PLATE 4: SPOONS These are ladles, dippers, scoops, as one will, but I retain the "spoon" which the Mohave most often gave as their English term for native kam'Óta. They are of course not taken into the mouth, but held to it while gruel flows out; or perhaps more often they serve as a convenient holder of an individual or temporary portion which is scooped into the mouth with two or three fingers which are then sucked off. They also serve to ladle boiled food from large cook pots into bowls or platters. I give, first, identifications, sizes, and design names; then shapes; and finally a discussion of painted patterns. Identifications
Shapes Hollow, rattling handles, consisting of a three-cornered box, are found on e,f,r. In each case, the end is modeled into a rude quail's head, showing eyes and beak (or topknot?). Some rudiments of a quail head, but without hollow compartment, appear also in a-d,q; possibly in i,k. The foregoing have the outer edges, toward the top, somewhat raised and a bit incurved. This sort of an edge shows also in g,h,j, which however possess no rudiments of the quail's head. The edge faces forward (if the hollow of the spoon is regarded as its front). Another group of spoons have their edge rather turned outward—that is, away from the hollow. This group includes l-p and s. These average somewhat flatter, and the apex is generally rounder, than in those with forward-turned edge: see especially n,o,p,s; also m; only l comes to a point. Also, the total width ratio is greater in this group. The classification thus is: A. Edge raised, turned forward; apex pointed Additional spoons are shown in plates 7,i and 8,i-k; and in 7,a-h appear the back patterns of eight spoons Note A: Handle retroflex It will be seen that all four subclasses of spoons are represented by examples both above and below the median 178 mm. length. Also, the three longest spoons in the collection belong to three different subclasses. The salient feature is that the blunt-ended "B" spoons have a bimodal distribution: from 198 mm. up, from 156 down. I should not be surprised if B forms turned up in the intervening range; but I should expect the bimodality to remain even if many additional specimens became available. For the rest, it may be significant that the pointed-end classes A2, A3 are unrepresented below 170; and the clear quail-head (and rattle-box) class A1 not above 195. It may be that beyond a certain size the firing of the juxtaposed solid head and hollow rattle was difficult for the Mohave. Designs The great majority of spoons are painted inside, usually outside (on the back) also, though there mostly with longitudinal lines or stripes only. The angled-and-forking overall pattern so characteristic of bowls occurs in spoons, but is rare: b is an example. The area of a scoop is generally hardly wide and large enough for this design. In b it reduces in effect to a sort of cramped swastika. One of the two most frequent patterns of spoons is that of g,h,i,j,m—the last in negative effect and unsprinkled with dots. The central feature is a column of three (or two and a half) rhomboids. These are flanked and meshed by four (or three) triangles. The rhomboids and the triangles are separated by three lines, making, with their own boundaries, five parallel lines in all (though this number is sometimes reduced); and where points of triangles meet (and sometimes of rhomboids also) the corners are solid. It is obvious that this pattern is related in several features to the commonest pattern of bowls, but with adaptation to a more cramped field—chiefly by omission of forking and back-angled elements. The only name obtained—once—was kyauelkyau, which is said to mean zigzag or angled. Another spoon pattern has two or three tiers of light rhomboids separated by pairs of dark triangles, apex to apex (hourglass): see a,d. There is no thin-line bordering or separating in this pattern. For d, the design names cited were ta-hlame-hlame, "patches," and "butterfly inside"; but I do not know which of these names refers to the hollow rhomboids and which to the paired solid triangles. Another tiered design arrangement is shown in l and q. Both were called coyote teeth, which speaks for itself. It will be seen that the teeth are in opposite rows, geared into diastemas—which does not hold for plate 2,d. In one of these spoons the solid-color teeth have a line border, in the other a row of dots. In both there are two longer double-toothed bands across the middle, two shorter one-way-facing bands of teeth at the ends. "Coyote teeth" appears as a face paint—a cross-barred line—in Handbook, figure 61,b. A second design of outstanding frequency in spoons is represented by e,f,k,o, (s). It was twice designated as fish backbone (with adhering ribs). The backbone itself appears only twice in the five examples in plate 4 (e,o), and is by no means dominant then. The sets of parallel ribs or chevrons number from 10 to nearly 20, and make either 3 or 5 bends (i.e., are formed by 4 or 6 lines). The bends are filled in with small solid triangles in f,k,s. Rows of dots show in e and s. Other designs each occur only once in the collection. c, polka dots only. n, a fishnetlike design, no name obtained, vertical corners filled in solidly. p, raccoon hand (first mistranslated "otter," but the otter is "water-raccoon" in Mohave), with five hollow-line toes, background of fine dots. There is some reminiscence of the forking bowl design, but without angling back or hooks. s, perhaps a simplified version of the pattern of g-j,m? There is no marked correlation between any of these designs and the shape classes of spoons that have been defined. PLATE 5: JARS, POTS, JUGS, CUPS
The two water jars are of about the same height, toward 8 in., but a is smaller-mouthed and bigger-bellied than b. The neck diameters are around 5/6 to 4/5 of the mouths. a is somewhat greater through the body than it is high; b, nearly the same. Another and larger jar is shown in plate 8,a. The cook pot, c, has the opening as large as the body diameter; the neck is only 9 to 10 per cent smaller than the mouth, the height only 77 per cent of the width. This pot is somewhat higher in silhouette proportion than any of the bowls, but not much higher than the highest of them, viz., 2,g and 8,h. The four handled jugs fall into two classes: d and e, medium; f and g, high. In the former, the height is about a tenth greater than the mouth diameter, in the latter, about a half greater. Also, in the medium jugs, the base of the handle springs from the lower half of the vessel; in the high ones, from the middle or above. In all cases the handle rises somewhat above the lip. The neck is less than the mouth by 12 to 15 per cent. The cups are like the jugs except that they are lower and the main painted designs come inside. In fact, the cups seem to be small bowls with a handle attached. I am quite uncertain whether the handled jugs and cups are native Mohave forms or derived in imitation of Caucasian shapes. It is unclear what specific function their handles would have served in Mohave life, in sand-floored houses empty of furniture or apparatus. Yet probably g and certainly h have been used. And the ware of the jugs and cups, as well as their painted designs, are typical Mohave. They look like an "acculturation acceptance"—a new trait adopted into the old native pattern. The problem will probably be solved when enough datable precontact and protocontact ware from the Mohave and kindred Yuman tribes becomes available. With these round vessels the forking-and-angled design of the bowl interiors recurs: in the jar a, the jug f, on the interior of cup i. It will be seen that these come with and without dot stippling. The pattern of jug d was called tattoo points; but it is the same as the coyote teeth of plate 4,l,q. Similarly, e, though called hotahpave halter, resembles plate 4,g-i; and g, called fish backbone, lines up with the fish backbone designs on spoons: plate 4,e,f,k,o,s. PLATE 6: BOWLS, PLATTERS, PARCHERS, CANTEENS
The bowls a and b are grouped together because of their raccoon-hand designs; compare also plate 4,p. Bowl a looks unused and may have been made for sale; b has been used and is probably from the same house, though almost certainly not painted by the same person. The large platter-bowl c has its painted design built up around four big rhomboids or hexagons, nearly rounded into pointed ovoids with triple solid tips; between which similarly pointed triangles project toward the center from the rim. The oval platters d and e, nos. 1738, 4294, are the convex backs or under sides of plate 3,i,j. The former looks used, the latter new and perhaps for sale. The tortoises on the under (6,e) and tortoise carapace on the upper (3,j) side of the same piece seem an exaggeration from normal Mohave style. In my field catalogue I entered d as "dish-like spoon"; and e, two years later, simply as "oval spoon," which is confirmed by the notation: kam'Óta kapeta, viz., "tortoise spoon." The two katÉla or parchers, f and g, having adjacent numbers, 13787 and 13788, are probably out of one household—a conservative one, inasmuch as they were secured in 1908. They differ slightly in proportions, yet are closely similar. Piece f, the longer and flatter, has its ends brought into a semblance of the abbreviated quail beaks and eyes found on some spoons—class A2. The rims of both f and g are transversely flat and wiped or pinched over inward to extra thickness, then scored regularly with a fingernail or stick; in g the outer edge has also been lightly punch-marked. The canteen in its net, h, no. 13793, has evidently seen use. This was the kind taken on journeys. There is a faded design of three vertical figures in double outline. Each of these consists of three near-rhomboids set on top of one another, with the joints between them open, so that the three of them appear as a single figure. Within each of the figures and between them there are dots 4-6 mm. in diameter. The bottom of the vessel is unpainted. The plain duck seed-bin or canteen i, no. 4297, would be practical for use sitting in the sand in the house or under the ramada shade. It contained melon seeds when I purchased it. PLATE 7: SPOON BACKS, TOYS, PIPES, POT RESTS
The convex backs of spoons a-i are not the only painted ones, but show the more ambitious attempts, if this adjective is applicable to rudeness of their degree. The prevalent painting is lengthwise striping, though crosswise (i), and both ways (d), occur. The lengthwise stripes may be plain lengthwise lines (b,g); heavy stripes with light (e) or with rows of dots (f); flanked by multiple zigzags and forming the fish backbone design (c,h); negative effect (e). Piece a is irregularly interesting: three diagonally curved lines sweep across the convex back, and are subdivided by transverse lines into about a dozen triangles and quadrilaterals of unlike shapes; nine of these contain a polygonal spot or daub. PLATE 8: JAR, CUP, PLATTER, BOWLS, SPOONS This plate comprises vessels of various shapes which I had at first intended not to illustrate or which had been overlooked.
i, no. 13811, outlined diamonds and triangles containing from 9 to 4 dots. The surface is worn, and the arrangement of figures of the two shapes may have been more regular than now appears; but the painting was slovenly at best. j, no. 1750, very similar to the fishbone design of plate 4,o. There are 12 thinnish cross lines, each with four upward angles. 8,j and 4,o are very similar and bear adjoining numbers, 1750 and 1749, and were almost certainly the product of the same hand. h, 13806, parallel line-angles, pointed right, then left, then again right across the front of the hollow of the scoop. These angles are formed by 18 or 19 cross lines. SUMMARY OF SHAPES Bowls: kwÁ?ki. Diameter about twice the height; neck concave, often strengthened with a lashing of mesquite bark; lip gently everted; principal design inside; outside design usually mere lines, stripes, rows of dots. H/D down to 38 per cent, usually 45-61 per cent, in two cases 68 per cent—one of these has been cooked in. (Pls. 1,a-h, 2,a-h, 6,a-c, 8,d-h.) Round platter or plate: kayÉ?a. Lipless; continuous curvature. Principal design inside (above). H/D 29-35 percent. (Pls. 3,a-d, g, 8,c.) Oval platter: kayÚka or kakÁpa. Like the last except for being oval, with width/length percentage between 78 and 89. They also average smaller than the round plates—modes around 160 mm. and 260 mm. respectively; but Spoon, ladle, dipper, scoop: kam'Óta. These are oval trays brought at one end to (A) a point or rude quail's head, or (B) to a sharp rounding or blunt point. The second type is obviously related in form to the oval platters; though most spoons are longer than most platters. Their range is from 113 to 226 mm. Painted design on the inner side varied; on the back it is usually simpler, but also varied. A few spoons are built up at the "handle" into a hollow box that rattles. Parcher: katÉla. As the spoons can be construed as oval platters pointed at one end, the parchers—used to shake live coals with grain or seeds—are two-ended, with well-raised points. They are about twice as long as spoons, and longer than any known platters or bowls: 340-385 mm., with a width about seven-tenths that. They are wholly unpainted. (Pl. 6,f, g.) The five foregoing shapes are all "open" and relatively flat. There are about the same number of "tall" shapes—pots, jars, jugs, etc. But these are represented by notably fewer specimens. Whether this disproportion existed in precontact times, I do not know. It is possible that cooking vessels and containers of American make had begun to crowd out native forms by 1902-1908 faster than bowls, platters, and spoons were being displaced. Cook pot: tÁskyena. The single specimen available, 5,c, is about the size of a bowl but higher (77 per cent as against 68 per cent maximum); mouth and body diameter the same, neck constricted 9 to 10 per cent. No handles, paint, or decoration. Large cook pot: tŠuvÁva. Set on three rests. It may have been proportionally higher than the tÁskyena, but my recollection is fifty years old. Water jar: hÁpurui. Unhandled, painted. The largest dimension is the body diameter, usually below the middle. Next largest dimension is the height, though in one case this is about equaled by the mouth diameter. The neck has from 80 to 87 per cent the diameter of the mouth. One specimen (5,a) differs from the two others in showing considerably more taper from body to neck and mouth and in having an annular base. The contained volume would be around a gallon or up. (Pls. 5,a, b, 8,a.) Oval seed-storage jar (or canteen) with short side spout: hÁpurui hanemÓ, "duck jar" from its shape. The single specimen is unpainted. (Pl. 6,i.) Seed jar with small flaring mouth. See Appendix I. Canteen for carrying in sling or net. Short spout on top, as in a basket or gourd. One specimen, painted. (Pl. 6,h.) Handled jug: no native name obtained, except hÁpurui, jar, or kwÁ?ki, bowl. May be a postcontact form. Higher than wide; no spout. Painted outside. (Pl. 5,d-g.) Handled cup: also unnamed, except perhaps kwÁ?ki, and perhaps postcontact. Wider than high. Painted design mainly inside. (Pls. 5,h-i, 8,b.) TRANSITIONAL AND EXCEPTIONAL PIECES Bowls with principal painting outside: 8,f, g. Bowls of height more than two-thirds diameter: 2,g, base somewhat conical; 8,h, fire blackened. Bowl with cylindrical projections to prevent slip of neck binding: 8,e. Transition bowl-platter with 11 flanges to hold binding; no neck or recurved rim; H/D ratio 38 per cent on border between bowl and round platter classes. The diameter is greater than that of any other bowl or platter in the collection (8,e is next), and the weight is second heaviest (8,f being first): 6,c. Called suyÍre. Spoon with ribbon handle curled back (only "handled" spoon): 8,k. Water jar with annular base (found otherwise only on handled jugs), and considerably reduced neck and mouth: 5,a. SUMMARY OF PAINTED DESIGNS AND ELEMENTS "Angled-and-forked" continuous pattern: usually of triple lines; background stippled or empty. Bowls 1,a-h, 2,e, 8,d; platters 3,a-b, 3,g (called "fish bones"); spoon 4,b; jar 5,a, jug 5,g; cup 5,i. I did not obtain a name for this design as an overall pattern. Some element in it, perhaps the filled-in angle, was twice denominated tŠit?Ôk face paint. "Hourglass" figures: (1) as principal design, bowl 2,f; platter 3,d; spoons 4,a, 4,d (in rows), 4,q; jar 8,a; jug 5,e. (2) as secondary design element with rhomboids, bowls 2,a, b; spoons 4,g, h, i, j, m with diamonds in column. The hourglass figure can of course be construed as the "filled-in angle" enlarged. Quadrilaterals-hexagons, shifting from one to the other according to exigencies of the field. The mark + designates painted figures, that are dark; others are open, left as part of the lighter background, or stippled.
Rows of dark and light triangles: bowls 2,a, b; spoons 4,l, q (these spaced and "geared"); 2,b, 4,l, q named coyote teeth; jug 5,d, named tattoo points. Fishbone (fish backbone) pattern: of parallel angled lines, from one to four chevrons in each line. Usually about half the angles are filled in; this is indicated by the asterisk *.
Circular center of design: bowl 2,f; oval platter 6,d; cup 8,b. Fishnetlike design, crossing lines, square or diagonal. Asterisk * denotes filled-in angles.
Large polka dots as design: platters 3,f outside, 3,h, 3,j (combined with tortoises); spoons 4,c, 7,a (central blobs in polygon), 7,f (with stripes). Stippling: more or less as shading or value effect or border.
Solid angles, corners filled in: (see * under fishbone and fishnet patterns; and regular in "angled-and-forked.") Total occurrence is in more than thirty vessels. Bowls 1,a-h, 2,a, b, (c), f, g outside, 6,c, 8,d, e; platters 3,a, b, c, d, e, g; spoons 4,b, f, g, h, i, k, m, n, r, s; jar 5,a; jugs 5,e, f, f; cups 5(h), i, 8,b. Negative (dark) effect:
SUMMARY OF DESIGN NAMES Designs are named most frequently after animals or their parts, once after a leaf. Next most frequent are names derived from patterns of face painting or tattooing. A few are descriptive, like "patches," "zigzag." Animals or parts.
Plant parts.
Of these, coyote teeth, yellow-hammer belly, butterfly, and (atalyka) leaf occur also as names of face paintings (Handbook, p. 732, fig. 61,b-e). The Handbook (p. 738) mentions a few additional names for pottery designs: rain, rainbow (this also a face painting), melon markings. Face paintings or tattoo.
"Adjectivally" descriptive.
It is evident that there is no deeper symbolic significance in the pattern names. They are like our crow's foot, horseshoe, pigtail, fleur-de-lys, diamond, spade, wavy, broken—metaphorically or directly descriptive. The Mohave in addition have available a number of striking and familiar types of designs with which women ornament their faces. In their actual, though of course transient, face decoration, the Mohave, though not quite the artistic equals of the Seri, paint with far more care, neatness, and precision than they bestow on their pottery. It is significant that it is the patterns of pottery that are named after those painted on their cheeks, not the reverse. THE MOHAVE POTTERY STYLE Mohave pottery was made in a culture which set little intrinsic value on anything technological and looked upon economic acquisition as in itself unworthy and fit only for dissipation. Artifacts were used but not prized; and they all perished upon their owner's death. Certain qualities of Mohave pottery are expectable as a product of this atmosphere: lack of evenness and finish or precision, the appearance of haste or indifference in manufacture. Surfaces are not quite true or even, thicknesses variable, firing intensity somewhat spotty; diameters vary enough for the eye to see some lopsidedness from the round, or sway in the level of a rim. Particularly in the painted designs, which do not contribute to functional use, inequalities, crowding, wavering lines, departures from symmetry, are all conspicuous. At the same time the ware is never incompetent. It has reasonable strength, toughness, hardness for its purpose. Its shapes are definite and well standardized. It never tries merely to get by. This is proved by the fact that, except for vessels like cook pots and parchers, where decoration would be wasted, painting is the rule, and mostly, painting on both sides. The execution of this painting is often enough slovenly; but it is firm in aim. There are a series of design patterns more or less fitted to the several shapes; there is considerable choice between these, and even more freedom of adaptation to shape of field. Timidity was not one of the earmarks of the Mohave potter; if her pattern came out neatly, well Some of these patterns, especially the forked-and-angled continuous or interlocking one, are not easy to plan or apply with reference to a given field, whether circular or otherwise; yet they are attempted again and again with a slapdash gusto. Elements like the triple line, or an extra line shadowing the edge of a solid area, or a row of dots following an inner or outer contour, or the filling either of figures or background with stippled spots, and the superabundant solid-filled angles—either opposite or apart—are simple enough to execute in themselves; but the frequency of their use, often of two or three of them at once, are evidence that the Mohave potter was at least not skimping her decoration, even though she was unworried if it came out skew or ragged. After all, these details might have simply been left out instead of being executed. In fundamental form, the bowls, platters, parchers are pleasing; and in design and its relation to its field, vessels like 1,b, c, 2,g, 3,a, b—or 3,c, e, 5,g; or 4,g; h, m, p; or 3,d, 4,r—show concepts that in the hands of a more interested or aesthetically more experienced population would have had definite potentialities. There is then a standard in the Mohave pottery art, and behind this a tradition. How this tradition grew will be gradually worked out as a corpus of published data on the ceramic wares of other tribes of the region becomes available, and especially as archaeological information accumulates. Personally, I have always assumed that Colorado River ware as represented by historic Yuma and Mohave pottery was a variant in a cotradition that includes also Hohokam, much of Sonora, and probably southern California. This seems also the basic view of Malcom Rogers, Schroeder, Treganza, Meighan, my present collaborator Harner, and the few others who have concerned themselves with Colorado Valley pottery. But of course the full story is long and complex; and the present description and Harner's analysis are merely thresholds from which the problem can be really entered. Rogers' "Yuman Pottery Making" is a useful preliminary survey and stimulating. Meanwhile a Patayan tradition has been set up for the mountains and desert east of the Mohave habitat along the Colorado. But we have scant information on the Patayan development, and that little seems quite different from the historic Mohave one. So far as there may be resemblances, I hope that our present detailed contribution will induce those who know Patayan to point out in print such similarities as they discern. |
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