Effects of European contact on textile production and exchange in the North American Southwest: A Pueblo case study

Abstract

The patterns of Pueblo textile production, use, and exchange underwent dramatic change during the first two centuries of Spanish-colonial rule as precontact styles and technologies were modified, new ones embraced, and traditional systems of production and exchange were disrupted, usurped, and transformed. This study traces and interprets the historic and socioeconomic processes underlying these changes. Three major research questions are explored: (1) how were Pueblo systems of textile production and exchange organized prior to European contact? (2) how did contact with Spanish religious, political, and social institutions influence and transform these Pueblo systems; and (3) how did Pueblo societies compensate for these changes to ensure continuing supplies of native textiles for secular and ritual use? To evaluate these questions, the research constructs a general cross-cultural model of colonial textile change and then tests this model using archaeological and documentary data from the Pueblo Southwest for the period A.D. 1300-1850. Archaeological data from four regions are investigated and compared: the Hopi region, the Zuni region, the Rio Grande valley, and the eastern periphery. The research presents detailed technical analyses of archaeological textiles and production-related artifacts and features from the large, contact-period mission sites of Awatovi, Hawikuh, and Pecos, along with data from smaller assemblages. Using translations of primary Spanish accounts, the research considers the ways in which Franciscan missionaries, provincial governors, and other colonial entities appropriated Pueblo textiles and labor for Spanish-colonial purposes through systems of forced labor and tribute. The study assesses the impacts of this diversion on the organization of Pueblo textile production, including shifts in the gender of textile producers and in the contexts and scheduling of production activities. The adoption of new fibers and dyes and the growing use of Navajo, Hispanic, and imported fabrics by Pueblo consumers are also explored. On a broader level, the research traces the decline of textile production in the Eastern Pueblo region, the concomitant intensification of textile production among the Western Pueblos, the expansion of textile exchange networks on a regional scale, and the emergence of Hopi as the principal supplier of Pueblo textile needs.