The Struggle within: Effects of Spanish Colonization on Pueblo Pottery Technology revealed through Petrographic Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cross-Cultural Petrographic Studies of Ceramic Traditions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

There is no doubt that Spanish contact and colonization, dramatically changed certain aspects of Pueblo life, among the Ancestral Piro of south central New Mexico. In the context of Pueblo history, examining ceramic technology provides a means of recognizing cultural continuity and transformation on the social landscape and of acknowledging the role indigenous agency played in determining the topography of that landscape both prior to and after Spanish contact. In this study, we examine both decorated and undecorated wares for evidence of adopting expedient ceramic technology over time among potters living in the Rio Abajo region. We rely on previous research among pottery producing foragers, as well as on studies of historic expediency, to identify the variables most likely to inform on whether or not expedient ceramic technology was used at some point during the Colonial period. We couch our interpretations within a framework of agency and practice to discuss the active role of material culture in potters' daily attempts to negotiate their place within a changing cultural landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Cross-Cultural Petrographic Studies of Ceramic Traditions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23744