Ancient North Mexican Art
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Anthropologist Paul Kirchhoff coined not only the term "Mesoamerica" but also "Oasisamerica," the culture area across northwest Mexico and the American Southwest. One of the most prominent civilizations of this area was the city-state known as Paquimé or also popularly as Casas Grandes, named for its governors' 'big houses.'
Paquimé ceramics such as this magnificent jar are very similar to pottery designs from Southwest American cultures such as the Hohokam and the Anasazi, evidence of heavy cultural exchanges across the area.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
A remarkable quality of the Paquimé civilization was that they were so much in the "middle of it all" even though so far north of the Mesoamerican frontier. The city was a major trading hub for peoples from the American Southwest, the Pacific Coast, and Central Mexico; and we know this because of the wealth of materials discovered there that had come from different regions. Most of the shell jewelry, including this wonderful miniature hand at left, came from shellfish from Mexico's Pacific coast. Likewise, the charming little copper turtle and beads at right were imported from the P'urhépecha people of Michoacan, in southwest Mexico.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
Not only were the ceramics of Paquimé vibrant and colorful, but many of the people were, too! The figure at left is holding a thick cigar to their lips. Before European contact many Native cultures across the Americas smoked tobacco to induce trance, an important part of shamanic experience and practice. This is the best explanation for the smoking figure. The small fellow at right looks pensive, with her chin rested upon her right hand. This could pertain to native connections between thought and creativity, a distinctive spiritual concept among today's Cora people of Nayarit, Mexico.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
The region that is today New Mexico has long been an important source of turquoise in not just the American Southwest but also well into northwest and central Mexico. Just as the city of Paquimé was bringing in foreign goods from the Pacific Coast and the Mesoamerican civilizations, it was also importing turquoise from its northern neighbors. This work of jewelry is outstanding because it was made from materials from all three areas! Most of the beads are carved from the shell of the Spondylus, a mollusk related to the scallop, and the pendant itself is also a shell piece. Upon it is a mosaic of Southwestern turquoise beads, and the necklace even includes pieces of copper. It is an exemplar of the cultural exchanges that the Paquimé civilization controlled between especially the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
The Mogollon culture area included both Paquimé and the Mimbres region, between what is now Arizona and New Mexico. Most Mimbres ceramics date to the period between 1000-1150 AD, and they commonly feature repeating zigzag, stripe, and swirl patterns upon a cream-colored base. The ceramic bowl and jar featured here were excavated in New Mexico but are on display in the National Museum of Anthropology to highlight the ancient cultural links between the two countries.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
Many of the peoples of the Oasisamerica area spoke Uto-Aztecan languages, which today include Huichol, Yaqui, and Nahuatl in Mexico and Hopi, Luiseño, and Tohono O'odham in the United States. These languages spread across Oasisamerica because the peoples who spoke them had early advantages of settling in fertile lands with agricultural technology to produce ample food and ceramic industry to store it.
Established in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest, the Anasazi were one of the area's largest civilizations. In many ways they shared cultural similarities with their Mesoamerican contemporaries: large cities, astronomical observatories, intensive architecture, and beautiful ceramics such as the two featured here.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
The Chochimí peoples of the Baja California peninsula painted elaborate murals within the caves of the Sierra de San Francisco range. This replica presents just a portion of the entire complex, which features hundreds of humans and animals painted in black, red, yellow, and white.
The National Museum of Anthropology offers some intriguing explanations for their meaning. The animals could be spiritual creatures, especially the deer charging along the scene. "Guamas" shamans and mature women figures suggest the performance of fertility rituals, and the red and black designs may symbolize the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
