The general view of the village given in [Pl. XXXI] strikingly illustrates the blending of the rectangular forms of the architecture with the angular and sharply defined fractures of the surrounding rock. This close correspondence in form between the architecture and its immediate surroundings is greatly heightened by the similarity in color. Mr. Stephen has called attention to a similar effect on the western side of Walpi and its adjacent mesa edge, which he thought indicates a distinct effort at concealment on the part of the builders, by blending the architecture with the surroundings. This similarity of effect is often accidental, and due to the fact that the materials of the houses and of the mesas on which they are built are identical. Even in the case of Walpi, cited by Mr. Stephen, where the buildings come to the very mesa edge, and in their vertical lines appear to carry out the effect of
the vertical fissures in the upper benches of sandstone, there was no intentional concealment. It is more likely that, through the necessity of building close to the limits of the crowded sites, a certain degree of correspondence was unintentionally produced between the jogs and angles of the houses and those of the mesa edge.
Such correspondence with the surroundings, which forms a striking feature of many primitive types of construction where intention of concealment had no part, is doubtless mainly due to the use of the most available material, although the expression of a type of construction that has prevailed for ages in one locality would perhaps be somewhat influenced by constantly recurring forms in its environment. In the system of building under consideration, such influence would, however, be a very minute fraction in the sum of factors producing the type and could never account for such examples of special and detailed correspondence as the cases cited, nor could it have any weight in developing a rectangular type of architecture.
In the development of primitive arts the advances are slow and laborious, and are produced by adding small increments to current knowledge. So vague and undefined an influence as that exerted by the larger forms of surrounding nature are seldom recognized and acknowledged by the artisan; on the contrary, experiments, resulting in improvement, are largely prompted by practical requirements. Particularly is this the case in the art of house-building.
Plate XXXV. View of Shumopavi.
[ SHUMOPAVI.]
This village, although not so isolated as Oraibi, has no near neighbors and is little visited by whites or Indians. The inhabitants are rarely seen at the trading post to which the others resort, and they seem to be pretty well off and independent as compared with their neighbors of the other villages ([Pl. XXXIV]). The houses and courts are in keeping with the general character of the people and exhibit a degree of neatness and thrift that contrasts sharply with the tumble-down appearance of some of the other villages, especially those of the Middle Mesa and Oraibi. There is a general air of newness about the place, though it is questionable whether the architecture is more recent than that of the other villages of Tusayan. This effect is partly due to the custom of frequently renewing the coating of mud plaster. In most of the villages little care is taken to repair the houses until the owner feels that to postpone such action longer would endanger its stability. Many of the illustrations in this chapter indicate the proportion of rough masonry usually exposed in the walls. At Shumopavi ([Pl. XXXV]), however, most of the walls are smoothly plastered. In this respect they resemble Zuñi and the eastern pueblos, where but little naked masonry can be seen. Another feature that adds to the effect of neatness and finish in this village is the frequent use of a whitewash of
gypsum on the outer face of the walls. This wash is used partly as an ornament and partly as protection against the rain. The material, called by the Mexicans “yeso,” is very commonly used in the interior of their houses throughout this region, both by Mexicans and Indians. More rarely it is used among the pueblos as an external wash. Here, however, its external use forms quite a distinctive feature of the village. The same custom in several of the cliff houses of Canyon de Chelly attests the comparative antiquity of the practice, though not necessarily its pre-Columbian origin.