Design Analysis, Social Identity and Ancestral Pueblo Migration: Southwest Colorado to Northern New Mexico

Summary

Between PIII and PIV the Southwest saw the largest shift in population from the Mesa Verde region (SW Colorado) to the Northern Rio Grande (N. New Mexico). Traces of this migration are difficult to identify in material culture, but Pueblo oral traditions document the migration from the North and discuss two moieties: summer and winter. My research aims to understand dual division within Pueblo society and whether summer and winter moieties can be referenced through ceramic designs before and after the migration to the Northern Rio Grande. Utilizing conceptual metaphor theory, I compare ceramic designs pre-migration in the Sand Canyon and Goodman Point Pueblo communities with designs post-migration in the Northern Rio Grande particularly at Cuyamungue and Tsama Pueblos. My research will investigate whether Tewa moieties emerged pre-migration or not. Several possibilities exist for the origin of Tewa moieties: 1) Tewa moieties emerged from kin-structured moieties (Whiteley 2015); 2) they emerged with great kivas in BMIII (Ware 2014). This research aims to contribute to the knowledge regarding the history of dual organization in this Puebloan tradition through the analyses of pottery designs, guided by ideas concerning the symbolic associations of Tewa moieties and Mesa Verde region pottery.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22485