Prehistoric Indians of the SouthwestWormington, H. M. (Hannah Marie)
History
Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest
Wormington, H. M. (Hannah Marie)
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New -- Antiquities; Southwest, New -- Antiquities
This preoccupation with ornamentation might suggest some degree of
vanity, and it is probably true that Basketmaker men gave a good bit of
time and thought to their personal appearance. Basketmaker women,
however, seem to have been a practical lot, far more concerned with
material for their weaving than with their own appearance. The hair of
female mummies is hacked off to a length of two or three inches. Of
course cutting with a stone knife could hardly be expected to provide a
particularly glamorous hair-do, and the fact that strands of hair seem
to have been cut off at different times, presumably as the need for
weaving material arose, added nothing to the general effect. While
Basketmaker women would hardly furnish “pin up” material according to
our standards, they presumably seemed attractive to Basketmaker men
which, after all, was far more to the point.
Basketmaker men usually wore their hair long and formed into three bobs
tied with a string, one on either side of the head and one in the back.
In some cases the hair was clipped away to form an exaggerated part and
tonsure, and from the hair at the top of the head was formed a queue
about the thickness of a pencil, which was wound with cord for the
entire length. The reason for this variation in hair dressing is not
known. Perhaps the rare form with the clipping and the queue had some
ceremonial significance, or was a mark of rank. Brushes made of yucca
fibers have been found, which we know were used for the hair. Human hair
is found clinging to them and they are a form still used by some modern
Indians.
Having determined how these people looked we may now turn to the
consideration of how they lived. For a great many years lack of evidence
of house construction, coupled with the fact that most Basketmaker caves
do not contain any great amount of ash and refuse, led to an acceptance
of the belief that the Basketmakers either had no dwellings, or perhaps
erected flimsy brush shelters which had since disappeared. Recent
excavations near Durango, Colorado, however, have yielded evidence of
well developed Basketmaker houses. Dates, tentatively assigned, fall in
the early part of the fourth century. Doubtless, in other parts of the
Anasazi province there were many other Basketmaker houses which have
been destroyed by erosion, root, and frost action. Some of those found
in the Durango area were in a cave and others on a terrace which had
been made by cutting into the talus and removing the earth until a level
surface large enough to accommodate the intended dwelling was produced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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