Colonowares as evidence of acculturation at Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico

This study is the first systematic description of colonowares in New Mexico. Colonoware research in New Mexico, unlike other regions of the Spanish Empire, has been practically nonexistent. Colonoware forms identified at Pecos Pueblo included platos, candeleros, ring bases, bacines, a bacia, a pitchel, tinajas and miniature vessels. The platos at Pecos clustered into three sub-groups. This clustering suggests that potters were working from a mental template. The prevailing idea regarding colonowares in the Southwest has been that production of these ceramics was coerced, either by Spanish colonists or Franciscan friars. Following this assumption these forms should occur exclusively, or in highest frequencies, in Spanish mission or Spanish households. They should not be found in native contexts. To evaluate these ideas I compared colonoware assemblages between 23 sites including seven mission sites, ten native, non-mission sites and six Spanish settlements. My examination showed that colonowares were present in all three contexts. The most prevalent form was the plato, which occurred in virtually all contexts. Mission communities had a higher diversity of forms than occurred in other settings. In contrast to mission sites, Spanish sites had the lowest diversity of forms. The native non-mission sites showed considerable diversity of colonoware forms. In general, the results, low frequency at Spanish sites and the presence of colonowares in Native contexts, suggests that Native Americans were voluntarily producing and using colonowares in New Mexico. Both Spaniards and Natives were using these new forms. While the continuity in design style at Pecos Pueblo points to native manufacture, the recovery of colonowares from Native non-mission sites suggests that production was not wholly coerced. Natives were manufacturing these ceramics for their own ends. Several factors could be responsible for the Native use of colonowares: changes in foodways, changes in identity or production as an economic strategy. The lack of form diversity in colonowares at Spanish sites suggests that the colonizers were adopting native vessels and foodstuffs. The colonoware evidence, although not plentiful, suggests that the process of acculturation was more complex and varied than has been previously presented in the literature.