Indians of the Southwest / by Pliny Earle Goddard.

  • Pliny Earle Goddard
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Indians of the Southwest / by Pliny Earle Goddard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of food, the most important were the elk, deer, antelope, rabbits, prairie-dogs, and wild turkeys. Influence of Environment. The topography, the climate, and the vegetable and animal life of a region largely determine for the men living in it the character of their dress and houses and their manner of securing food. Certain physical surroundings also in a large measure influence art, religion, and man’s conception of the universe as a whole. In the Southwest is an atmos- phere wonderfully clear through which one sees with great distinctness the sculptured mountain peaks and ridges and the variously colored, flat-topped, ter- raced mesas. The violent storms with terrifying thunder and frequent rainbows which mark the sea- sonal rains; the mirage, the shimmer, and the whirl- winds of the dry season have produced results which we find reflected in songs, formulated prayers, and pictorial art. Only in the Southwest do the gods travel with rainbows and lightning and wrap themselves in clouds tied with sunbeams. So pronounced are these features that one feels from whatever un- known source came the people themselves with their language and original customs that many features of their arts, their mythology, and their religion could only have arisen and could only continue to exist in the Southwest.