The decline of the defensive motive within the last few years has greatly affected the more recent architecture. Even after the long practice of the system has rendered it somewhat fixed, comparative security from attack has caused many of the Pueblo Indians to recognize the inconvenience of dwellings grouped in large clusters on sites difficult of access, while the sources of their subsistence are necessarily sparsely scattered over large areas. This is noticeable in the building of small, detached houses at a distance from the main villages, the greater convenience to crops, flocks and water outweighing the defensive motive. In Cibola particularly, a marked tendency in this direction has shown itself within a score of years; Ojo Caliente, the newest of the farming pueblos, is perhaps the most striking example within the two provinces. The greater security of the pueblos as the country comes more fully into the hands of Americans, has also resulted in the more careless construction in modern examples as compared with the ancient. There is no doubt that, as time shall go on, the system of building many-storied clusters of rectangular rooms will gradually be abandoned by these people. In the absence of the defensive motive a more convenient system, employing scattered small houses, located near springs and fields, will gradually take its place, thus returning to a mode of building that probably prevailed in the evolution of the pueblo prior to the clustering of many rooms into large defensive villages. Pl. LXXXIII illustrates a building of the type described located on the outskirts of Zuñi, across the river from the main pueblo. The cultural distinctions between the Pueblo Indians and neighboring tribes gradually become less clearly defined as investigation progresses. Mr. Cushing’s study of the Zuñi social, political, and religious systems has clearly established their essential identity in grade of culture with those of other tribes. In many of the arts, too, such as weaving, ceramics, etc., these people in no degree surpass many tribes who build ruder dwellings. In architecture, though, they have progressed far beyond their neighbors; many of the devices employed attest the essentially primitive character of the art, and demonstrate that the apparent distinction in grade of culture is mainly due to the exceptional condition of the environment. INDEX