Bright Spots in a Drab Landscape: Color Use and Symbolism in the Jornada Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Coloring the World: People and Colors in Southwestern Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

"Color" often evokes thoughts of vibrancy, boldness, and distinctiveness. With no denigration or judgement of the area intended, a casual visitor to the Jornada region may not be left with such impressions. Miles of exposed sands, stark mountains, and sparse vegetation do not immediately bring images of bright and unique coloration to mind. A more intimate and perceptive relationship with the landscape, however, reveals the sometimes-fleeting moments of brilliance that abound. Mountains, lacking the thick or even moderate-density of vegetation of other regions, show off their constituent elements; sunrises and sunsets reflect off these mountains and desert floors; the sky, so often barren of clouds, provides a vivid backdrop against the earthen landscape, and the flowering of plants in the immediate aftermath of rare precipitation all add vibrancy and boldness. In this paper, I explore how Formative period populations in this region might have envisioned, selected for, made, and used color to reflect and emphasize these moments of vibrancy, stress the import of relationships, and symbolize their world in their material culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Coloring the World: People and Colors in Southwestern Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26131