Because of the length of this column I will present it in two parts. Part two will follow this next week.
Along with burials of parrots and macaws from the American southwest, there are many images of these beautiful birds painted and pecked by Ancestral Puebloan people. I have written columns previously on them (available through the cloud index at the bottom) but when additional material becomes available I try to update a subject.
That is the
case now as I have some new images and information to add to my previous
writing on the subject.
“Archaeologists have known for more than a century that the prehispanic Pueblo people of the American Southwest acquired goods from Mesoamerica. Such items included marine shell from the Gulf of California, raw copper and crafted copper bells from West Mexico, cacao from the Neotropics, and tropical birds such as scarlet and military macaws whose feathers were important in ritual. Scarlet macaws (Ara macao) are the most exotic birds recovered by archaeologists excavating settlements in the SW from southern Utah and Colorado to northern Mexico.” (Watson 2015:8238) While there are colorful birds in nature in these regions (Western tanager, Flicker, Bluebird, Goldfinch) none of the native birds can match the striking colors of the various macaws and parrots from farther south. And, in a culture where colors were pretty much limited to the colors of nature, the radiant colors of these birds would be striking.
Whether
these imports arrived on the backs of long distance traders such as the Aztec
pochteca, or were traded step by step up a chain of stages from their origins
in Mesoamerica is not yet certain.
“Along with cacao, shell, and
copper, these birds signal the type of long-distance transport of goods often
argued to have been an important dimension of emergent sociopolitical
complexity in prehistoric societies. Like cacao, to which access was probably
restricted to high status individuals or groups, the acquisition and control of
scarlet macaws was likely the province of social and religious elites.” (Watson 2015:8238)
In the words of the Billie Holiday song God Bless the Child, “them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose.” You would have had to possess great status and importance to own a macaw, and owning a macaw would reinforce your status and importance. This importance would be a major factor in the creation of images of macaws and parrots in rock art of the American southwest.
Polly Schaafsma said in 2022 “Macaws and other parrots are portrayed in the ancient pictorial records of farming communities throughout much of the U.S. Southwest and adjacent regions. Their immediate sources of procurement, patterns of trade, management issues, ritual use, and wider connections to politics and social hierarchy are among the subjects concerning these colorful tropical birds in the north of their native habitat.” (Schaafsma 2022:241) We need to remember that the people only had what nature provided at that time, no artificial colors and dyes. And, although some minerals, animals, and plants were quite colorful much of their surrounding would have been quite drab by today’s standards.
The descendants of Ancestral Puebloans tend to be culturally somewhat conservative, holding on to their practices and adapting their ceremonies into today’s circumstances. The ceremonial importance of these continues to this day. “Today, these members of the Psittacidae family continue to be highly valued for their cosmological symbolism by the Pueblo people in New Mexico and Arizona. - - Parrots and macaws appear in Ancestral Pueblo imagery possibly around1000 CE. The pictorial evidence from the Pueblo past indicates that first and foremost the members of the parrot family, and most notably the scarlet macaws, were associated with the sun, just as they are today. Accordingly, they are linked to summer and the growing season, while their red, blue, and yellow feathers echo the hues of rainbow and the many colors of maize (Tyler 1979:13-38). Their directional symbolism, due to their red color and place of origin is in the south.” (Schaafsma 2022:241) One interesting question would be if the importance of color and direction existed in Ancestral Pueblo belief before the availability of macaws and parrots, or can the color and directional significance be attributed to association with the arrival of the first birds traded north.
The association of macaws and parrots with the Sun, warmth and the south is echoed by Frank Waters (1963:67) who wrote that the Parrot Clan symbolized the south in Hopi belief because they arrived at Hopi from the south after their migrations. Dennis Tedlock (1993:165) also makes the association with the south “which is where parrots and macaws now come from.”
Hamilton Tyler (1979:26-7) discusses modern pueblo ceremonial dances in which people wear headdresses of macaw feathers on their head instead of tablitas. As a tablita’s stepped-fret design represents clouds this reinforces the sky and weather implications of macaws and parrots – sky; cloud; rain; rainbow; macaw/parrot. Weiner (2015:232-3) agrees with the weather implications and adds that a parrot or macaw can learn to speak words, a talent that would make them doubly exotic and impressive. The striking visual impact of a macaw is generally recognized, but here Crown reminds us of an aspect of the parrots and macaws that would have been seen as even more remarkable – they could speak, and in your language. This would guarantee the social status of the owner of one. A bird that speaks human words would seem magical, so not only were they kept for their feathers, but as amazing companions and ceremonial participants.
Part 2 of
this column will be posted next week.
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