Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-sd5qd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-09T04:35:35.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

MINIATURE IN EVERYTHING BUT MEANING: A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF MINIATURE VESSELS AT HOMOL'OVI I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2018

Samantha G. Fladd  and
Claire S. Barker
Samantha G. Fladd*
Affiliation:
School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210030, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030, USA; Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 23390 Road K, Cortez, CO 81321, USA
Claire S. Barker
Affiliation:
Arizona State Museum, Room 217, P.O. Box 210026, Tucson, AZ 85721-0026, USA
*
(sgfladd@email.arizona.edu, corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The most common explanations for the appearance of miniatures in the archaeological record are drawn from practice theory. Two alternatives stem from learning theories, while a third is based in ritual practice and performance. First, miniatures may represent early attempts at craft production by children or novice adults. Second, they could serve as children's toys used for enculturation purposes. Third, miniatures may be produced for use in rituals or as offerings. These explanations are not mutually exclusive; all may be part of the life history of a single artifact. Previous archaeological and ethnographic work on miniature ceramic vessels in the Southwest has variously supported all three prominent explanations. In this article, we examine the miniature vessel assemblage from Homol'ovi I, a prehispanic pueblo in northern Arizona, through a synthetic analysis of craft mastery, use, and deposition. While various life history trajectories are indicated, the miniature vessels at this ancestral Hopi village appear in similar depositional contexts. Specifically, these objects serve as important components in the preparation or closure practices of ritual spaces throughout the pueblo.

Las explicaciones más comunes para la presencia de miniaturas en el registro arqueológico se originan en la teoría de la práctica. Dos alternativas vienen de las teorías del aprendizaje, mientras la tercera se basa en la práctica ritual y la performance. En primer lugar, las miniaturas podrían representar intentos tempranos de la producción artesanal por niños o por novatos adultos. En segundo lugar, ellas podrían funcionar como juguetes de niños usados en prácticas enculturativas. En tercer lugar, las miniaturas podrían haber sido hecho para el uso ritual o como ofrendas. Estas explicaciones no son mutuamente excluyentes; todos podrían formar parte de la biografía de un solo artefacto. Estudios arqueológicos y etnográficos en las vasijas cerámicas miniaturas del suroeste de los estados unidos han apoyado las tres diferentes explicaciones prominentes. En este trabajo, nosotras examinamos la colección de vasijas miniaturas de Homol'ovi I, un pueblo prehispánico (de los ancestros de los hopis) en el norte de Arizona, a través de un análisis sintético de la maestría artesanal, el uso, y la deposición. Mientras se indican varias trayectorias biográficas, todas las vasijas miniaturas en este pueblo fueron depositados en contextos similares. Específicamente, estos objetos funcionan como componentes importantes en la preparación o la clausura de los espacios rituales a través del pueblo.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 107 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by the Society for American Archaeology 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Adams, E. Charles 1991 The Origin and Development of the Pueblo Katsina Religion. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Adams, E. Charles 2001 Homol'ovi III: A Pueblo Hamlet in the Middle Little Colorado River Valley. Archaeological Series No. 193. Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Adams, E. Charles 2002 Homol'ovi: An Ancient Hopi Settlement Cluster. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Adams, E. Charles 2004 Homol'ovi: A 13th–14th-Century Settlement Cluster in Northeastern Arizona. In The Protohistoric Pueblo World A.D. 1275–1600, edited by Adams, E. Charles and Duff, Andrew I., pp. 119–127. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Adams, E. Charles 2016a Closure and Dedication Practices in the Homol'ovi Settlement Cluster, Northeastern Arizona. American Antiquity 81:42–57.Google Scholar
Adams, E. Charles 2016b Chevelon: Pueblo at Blue Running Water. Archaeological Series No. 211. Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Adams, E. Charles, and Samantha Fladd 2017 Composition and Interpretation of Stratified Deposits in Ancestral Hopi Villages at Homol'ovi. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 9:1101–1114.Google Scholar
Adams, E. Charles, and LaMotta, Vincent M. 2006 New Perspectives on an Ancient Religion: Katsina Ritual and the Archaeological Record. In Religion in the Prehispanic Southwest, edited by VanPool, Christine S., VanPool, Todd L., and Phillips, David A. Jr., pp. 73–94. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Bagwell, Elizabeth A. 2002 Ceramic Form and Skill: Attempting to Identify Child Producers at Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico. In Children in the Prehistoric Puebloan Southwest, edited by Kamp, Kathryn, pp. 90–107. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Barfoed, Signe 2015 The Significant Few: Miniature Pottery from the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. World Archaeology 47:170–188.Google Scholar
Barker, Claire S. 2017 Inconspicuous Identity: Using Everyday Objects to Explore Social Identity within the Homol'ovi Settlement Cluster, A.D. 1260–1400. PhD dissertation, School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Bartlett, Katherine 1934 The Material Culture of Pueblo II in the San Francisco Mountains, Arizona. Bulletin 7. Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Baxter, Jane Eva 2005 The Archaeology of Childhood: Children, Gender, and Material Culture. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Baxter, Jane Eva 2008 Archaeology of Childhood. Annual Review of Anthropology 37:159–175.Google Scholar
Bell, Catherine 1997 Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Bernardini, Wesley 2005 Hopi Oral Tradition and the Archaeology of Identity. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Blinman, Eric 1988 Ceramic Vessels and Vessel Assemblages in Dolores Archaeological Program Collections. In Dolores Archaeological Program: Supporting Studies: Additive and Reductive Technologies, edited by Blinman, Eric, Phagan, Carl J., and Wilshusen, Richard H., pp. 449–482. US Bureau of Reclamation Engineering and Research Center, Denver, Colorado.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre 1977 Outline of a Theory of Practice. Translated by Nice, Richard. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bradley, Richard 1998 The Significance of Monuments: On the Shaping of Human Experience in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Brew, John O., and Hack, John T. 1939 Prehistoric Use of Coal by Indians of Northern Arizona. Plateau 12(1):8–14.Google Scholar
Bubemyre, Trixi D. 2004 Ceramics. In Homol'ovi IV: The First Village, edited by Adams, E. Charles, pp. 55–76. Occasional Electronic Papers No. 1. Arizona State Museum, Tucson.Google Scholar
Bullen, Adelaide Kendall 1947 Archaeological Theory and Anthropological Fact. American Antiquity 13:128–134.Google Scholar
Bunzel, Ruth L. 1929 The Pueblo Potter: A Study of Creative Imagination in Primitive Art. Dover, New York.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith 1993 Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Carey, Heather B. 2006 More than Mere Child's Play: An Analysis of Mississippian Miniature Vessels from the Tennessee-Cumberland and Lower Ohio River Valleys. Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Chamberlin, Matthew A. 2011 Plazas, Performance, and Symbolic Power in Ancestral Pueblo Religion. In Religious Transformation in the Late Pre-Hispanic Pueblo World, edited by Glowacki, Donna M. and Keuren, Scott Van, pp. 130–152. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Clark, Geoffrey A. 1967 A Cache of Papago Miniature Pottery from Kitt Peak, South-Central Arizona. Kiva 32:128–142.Google Scholar
Colton, Harold S. 1956 Pottery Types of the Southwest. Museum of Northern Arizona Ceramic Series No. 3C. Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Colton, Harold S., and Hargrave, Lyndon L. 1937 Handbook of Northern Arizona Pottery Wares. Bulletin No. 11. Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Crawford, Sally 2009 The Archaeology of Play Things: Theorising a Toy Stage in the “Biography” of Objects. Childhood in the Past 2:55–70.Google Scholar
Crown, Patricia L. 1999 Socialization in American Southwest Pottery Decoration. In Pottery and People: A Dynamic Interaction, edited by Skibo, James M. and Feinman, Gary M., pp. 25–43. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Crown, Patricia L. 2001 Learning to Make Pottery in the Prehispanic American Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Research 57:451–469.Google Scholar
Crown, Patricia L. 2002 Learning and Teaching in the Prehispanic American Southwest. In Children in the Prehistoric Puebloan Southwest, edited by Kamp, Kathryn, pp. 108–124. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Crown, Patricia L. 2007 Life Histories of Pots and Potters: Situating the Individual in Archaeology. American Antiquity 72:677–690.Google Scholar
Crown, Patricia L. 2014 The Archaeology of Crafts Learning: Becoming a Potter in the Puebloan Southwest. Annual Review of Anthropology 43:71–88.Google Scholar
Cutright-Smith, Elisabeth, and Barker, Claire S. 2016 Pottery. In Chevelon: Pueblo at Blue Running Water, edited by Adams, E. Charles, pp. 165–209. Archaeological Series No. 211. Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
De Certeau, Michel 1984 The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Rendall, Steven. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
DeMarrais, Elizabeth 2014 Introduction: The Archaeology of Performance. World Archaeology 46:155–163.Google Scholar
DeMarrais, Elizabeth, Castillo, Luis Jaime, and Earle, Timothy 1996 Ideology, Materialization, and Power Strategies. Current Anthropology 37:15–86.Google Scholar
Ericson, Jonathan E., Read, Dwight W., and Burke, Cheryl 1972 Research Design: The Relationships between the Primary Functions and the Physical Properties of Ceramic Vessels and their Implications for Ceramic Distributions on an Archaeological Site. Anthropology UCLA 3:84–95.Google Scholar
Fewkes, Jesse Walter 1895 Expedition to Arizona in 1895. Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology No. 17. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Flegenheimer, Nora, Weitzel, Celeste, and Mazzia, Natalia 2015 Miniature Points in an Exceptional Early South American Context. World Archaeology 47:117–136.Google Scholar
Fogelin, Lars 2006 An Archaeology of Early Buddhism. AltaMira Press, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Fogelin, Lars 2007 The Archaeology of Religious Ritual. Annual Review of Anthropology 36:55–71.Google Scholar
Fowler, Carol 1977 Daisy Hooee Nampeyo: The Story of an American Indian. Dillon, Minneapolis, Minnesota.Google Scholar
Fowles, Severin 2013 An Archaeology of Doings: Secularism and the Study of Pueblo Religion. School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Foxhall, Lin 2015 Introduction: Miniaturization. World Archaeology 47:1–5.Google Scholar
Gagné, Laura A. 2014 Learning to Make Pottery: A Look at How Novices Became Potters in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 372:19–33.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony 1984 The Constitution of Society. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Gladwin, Winifred, and Gladwin, Harold S. 1930 A Method for the Designation of Southwestern Pottery Types. Medallion Paper No. 7. Gila Pueblo, Globe, Arizona.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. 1959 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Doubleday Anchor, Garden City, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Hays-Gilpin, Kelley, Bubemyre, Trixi D., and Senior, Louise M. 1996 The Rise and Demise of Winslow Orange Ware. In River of Change: Prehistory of the Middle Little Colorado River Valley, Arizona, edited by Adams, E. Charles, pp. 53–74. Archaeological Series No. 185. Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hays-Gilpin, Kelley A., and Lyons, Patrick D. 2001 Homol'ovi III Ceramics. In Homol'ovi III: A Pueblo Hamlet in the Middle Little Colorado River Valley, Arizona, edited by Adams, E. Charles, pp. 137–226. Archaeological Series No. 193. Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hays-Gilpin, Kelley, and van Hartesveldt, Eric 1998 Prehistoric Ceramics of the Puerco Valley. Ceramic Series 7. Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Hedquist, Saul L. 2016 Ritual Practice and Exchange in the Late Prehispanic Western Pueblo Region: Insights from the Distribution and Deposition of Turquoise at Homol'ovi I. Kiva 82:209–231.Google Scholar
Heidke, James M. 2006 Native American Pottery. In Rio Nuevo Archaeology, 2000–2003: Investigations at the San Agustin Mission and Mission Gardens, Tucson Presidio, Tucson Pressed Brick Company, and Clearwater Site, edited by J. Thiel, Homer and Mabry, Jonathan B., pp. 7.1–7.94. Technical Report No. 2004-11. Desert Archaeology, Tucson, Arizona.Google Scholar
Hill, W. W. 1982 An Ethnography of Santa Clara Pueblo New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Holmes, William H. 1903 Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 20. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hough, Walter 1907 Antiquities of the Upper Gila and Salt River Valleys in Arizona and New Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 35. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hough, Walter 1918 The Hopi Indian Collection in the United States National Museum. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 54:235–296.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2006 Plazas, Performers, and Spectators: Political Theaters of the Classic Maya. Current Anthropology 47:805–842.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, and Coben, Lawrence S. (editors) 2006 Archaeology of Performance: Theaters of Power, Community, and Politics. AltaMira Press, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Jackson, H. Edwin 1992 Ables Creek Site. Research Series No. 42. Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
John-Steiner, Vera, and Souberman, Ellen 1978 Learning Styles among Pueblo Children: Final Report. US Department of Health Education and Welfare, National Institute of Education; College of Education, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Kamp, Kathryn A. 2001 Prehistoric Children Working and Playing: A Southwestern Case Study in Learning Ceramics. Journal of Anthropological Research 57:427–450.Google Scholar
Kamp, Kathryn A., Timmerman, Nichole, Lind, Gregg, Graybill, Jules, and Natowsky, Ian 1999 Discovering Childhood: Using Fingerprints to Find Children in the Archaeological Record. American Antiquity 64:309–315.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred Vincent 1932 Artifacts at Pecos. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Kiernan, Philip 2015 Miniature Objects as Representations of Realia. World Archaeology 47:45–59.Google Scholar
Kopytoff, Igor 1986 The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by Appadurai, Arjun, pp. 64–91. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
LaMotta, Vincent M. 2006 Zooarchaeology and Chronology of Homol'ovi I and other Pueblo IV Period Sites in the Central Little Colorado River Valley, Northern Arizona. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
LaMotta, Vincent M., and Schiffer, Michael B. 1999 Formation Processes of House Floor Assemblages. In The Archaeology of Household Activities, edited by Allison, Penelope, pp. 19–29. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Langin-Hooper, Stephanie M. 2015 Fascination with the Tiny: Social Negotiation through Miniatures in Hellenistic Babylonia. World Archaeology 47:60–79.Google Scholar
Lave, Jean, and Wenger, Etienne 1991 Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, Kent G., Martinez, Antoinette, and Schiff, Ann M. 1998 Daily Practice and Material Culture in Pluralistic Social Settings: An Archaeological Study of Cultural Change and Persistence from Fort Ross, California. American Antiquity 63:199–222.Google Scholar
Lillehammer, Grete 1989 A Child Is Born: The Child's World in Archaeological Perspective. Norwegian Archaeological Review 22:89–105.Google Scholar
López-Bertran, Mireia, and Vives-Ferrándiz, Jaime 2015 Miniatures from Domestic Contexts in Iron Age Iberia. World Archaeology 47:80–93.Google Scholar
Lyons, Patrick D. 2003 Ancestral Hopi Migrations. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona No. 68. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Lyons, Patrick D., and Hays-Gilpin, Kelley A. 2001 Homol'ovi III Ceramics. In Homol'ovi III: A Pueblo Hamlet in the Middle Little Colorado River Valley, edited by Adams, E. Charles, pp. 137–226. Archaeological Series No. 185. Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Martin, William W. 1991 A Functional Analysis and Comparison of Three Mississippian Period Ceramic Assemblages from the Black Bottom of Southern Illinois, Pope and Massac Counties. Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Menon, Jaya, and Varma, Supriya 2010 Children Playing and Learning: Crafting Ceramics in Ancient Indor Khera. Asian Perspectives 49:85–109.Google Scholar
Miljour, Heather 2016 Homol'ovi I Pueblo: An Examination of Plant Remains within Ash Closure, Renewal, and Dedication Deposits. Master's thesis, School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Mills, Barbara 2007 Performing the Feast: Visual Display and Suprahousehold Commensalism in the Puebloan Southwest. American Antiquity 72:210–239.Google Scholar
Minar, C. Jill, and Crown, Patricia L. 2001 Learning and Craft Production: An Introduction. Journal of Anthropological Research 57:369–380.Google Scholar
Nahohai, Milford, and Phelps, Elisa 1995 Dialogues with Zuni Potters. Zuni A:shiwi, Zuni, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Nelson, Nels C. 1914 Pueblo Ruins of the Galisteo Basin, New Mexico. Anthropological Papers No. 15. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Nequatewa, Edmund 1939 Miniature Pottery. Plateau 12(1):18.Google Scholar
Park, Robert W. 1998 Size Counts: The Miniature Archaeology of Childhood in Inuit Societies. Antiquity 72:269–281.Google Scholar
Parsons, Elsie Clews 1939 Pueblo Indian Religion. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Pauketat, Timothy R. 2001 Practice and History in Archaeology: An Emerging Paradigm. Anthropological Theory 1:73–98.Google Scholar
Potter, James M. 2000 Pots, Parties, and Politics: Communal Feasting in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 65:471–492.Google Scholar
Schiffer, Michael B. 1987 Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sillar, Bill 2016 Miniatures and Animism: The Communicative Role of Inka Carved Stone Conopa. Journal of Anthropological Research 72:442–464.Google Scholar
Spielmann, Katherine 2002 Feasting, Craft Specialization, and the Ritual Mode of Production. American Anthropologist 104:195–207.Google Scholar
Stanislawski, Michael B., and Stanislawski, Barbara B. 1978 Hopi and Hopi-Tewa Ceramic Tradition Networks. In The Spatial Organization of Culture, edited by Hodder, Ian, pp. 61–76. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Titiev, Mischa 1992 Old Oraibi: A Study of the Hopi Indians of Third Mesa. Reprinted. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. Originally published 1944, Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology No. 22, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Tournavitou, Iphiyenia 2009 Does Size Matter? Miniature Pottery Vessels in Minoan Peak Sanctuaries. Hesperia Supplements 42:213–230.Google Scholar
Walker, William H. 1995 Ritual Prehistory: A Pueblo Case Study. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Walker, William H. 2002 Stratigraphy and Practical Reason. American Anthropologist 104:159–177.Google Scholar
Wenger, Etienne 1998 Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar