This funerary bowl from Mimbres (AD 1000-1150) once served a ceremonial function to guide a member of an ancient culture into the mystery of death. The bowl is part of a permanent collection on display at the Museum of Indian Art and Culture, Laboratory of Anthropology, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is originally from the Cameron Creek Village of the Mimbres Valley in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona, home to the larger Mogollon culture of which the Mimbres Pueblo people were a part. Before contact with Europeans, the prehistoric Native American culture, also known as the Ancestral Pueblo, was believed to have descended from three main cultures: Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi; and were known for their distinctive pottery and home building styles.
The image within the bowl is described as “man-rabbit with cargo basket,” a hard-edged, stylized black painting of a human-animal figure with curves, straight lines, and solid black on a spacious background of white. On the inner edge, two sets of thin, finely painted bands circumscribe the nearly perfect circular shape, while a more graphic set of triangular geometric patterns radiate upward from the figure’s back toward the lower banded rung. No valuable shading is apparent, as the figure is dominated by solid black with the exception of four white bands dissecting its body, head, and ears, with its single eye looking directly at the viewer from a face in profile. The black band across his face looks like a mask, which could indicate something hidden.
Tiny black fingers and toes protrude from the simple arms and legs of the stump. The arms or front legs dangle unnaturally, or the front legs may be walking in the air. Its hind legs have a more graceful, plant-like posture, and it doesn’t seem like they can support the figure. A tiny raised tail follows the flat, stylized design of the rabbit-man along with the small protruding lips, nose and two rabbit ears that also look like feathers. The black triangular tips of the ears/feathers relate to the shape of the charge. His body is hunched perhaps due to the load, represented by the radiant geometric shape that the figure appears to be holding, or possibly the rabbit-man is being pushed up by the shape of the load that appears to be connected to the edge bands. . The bands could also symbolize heaven or the after life.
At first glance, the roughly drilled hole in the center of the bowl was the obvious sign that it had a use other than simply holding something. Already in the year 750 d. C., these Mimbres pictorial bowls were used solely for ceremonial and ritual burial functions where the dead were buried below their floors in individual pits. This illustration shows how the dead were buried in an upright fetal position inside a closed pit with the bowl on the head. Before the bowl was placed in the pit, it was ritually “killed” by making a hole in the center with a sharp object before placing it upside down on the head. This ‘hole of death’ was intended to release the spirits of the deceased from the body. Then the well was filled or covered with a stone slab.
Many of these images on these funerary bowls suggest familiarity and relationships with cultures from northern and central Mexico. The images used depicted the clan totem animal or a celestial body, such as the rabbit, which is a common symbol for the moon found among many indigenous peoples of the Southwest and Central America. Rabbits were also a source of food for the Mimbres people, but the rabbit-man bowl seems to relate more to the moon than to a hunting scene. There’s probably a narrative to this illustration that connects personally to the deceased, and I’m assuming certain clan icons are represented here as well. Perhaps the number of rays in the ‘shape of the charge’ represents a certain phase of the moon when the deceased left his body.
The large amount of white negative space around the rabbit-man makes him appear to be floating, which could indicate outer space, or perhaps the deceased’s transition to another world. It is speculated that the intention behind these images within these burial bowls was to illuminate the deceased, so perhaps the rabbit could be the clan totem that descends to enter the deceased in order to lift their burden from this life during a auspicious phase of the moon. before his death trip. The illustration of the rabbit-man does not appear dark, frightening, or very emotional, leading one to believe that death was not something the wickers feared, but rather a highly ceremonial event.
The expression on her face is trance-like and the body posture is both graceful and awkward, yet there is balance between the upper anchor of the ‘charging form’ and the feet below, both touching the hoop bands. The ‘form of charge’ occupies a prominent place in the composition which gives it meaning. From its rear where its tail is, this larger white space appears quite empty, which could represent the life it is leaving, and the white area where its head and front legs are is possibly where it is headed. The outward gaze of her single eye gives the impression that she is between the two worlds, or that she is in the unknown mystery of everything and has no choice but to accept it.
The rabbit-man bowl is painted in Classic Mimbres Black-on-White (Style III). Around the year 1000 AD. C., Mimbres artists perfected a black-on-white technique on their ceramics, similar to the black-on-white technique of the Anasazi in the north. The snow-white slip was used beneath closely rendered geometric and figurative designs created in a black mineral paint. The reason for using only black paint is unclear, when other color pigments were available. Perhaps the kingdom of death was seen only as a journey in black and white, or perhaps when preparing the bowl for the deceased they thought that other colors would distract from the meanings of the narrative images. Many of the bowls were believed to be used ritually before burials. Due to the importance and exclusivity of these bowls among the Mimbres people, they were never traded outside of the Mimbres Valley, unlike other ceramics, such as their polychrome White Mountain Red Ware.
The rabbit-man bowl appears very light and is about 12″ in diameter and about 8″ deep. Most of the potters in the village families were women, who ritually prayed and thanked the ‘source’ for its materials and inspirations at every stage of pottery making: from collecting the clay to processing, then the elaboration of the ‘paste’, forming a clay tortilla and rolls to make the body of the vessel, for painting, cooking and decoration. Clays are present throughout the Mimbres Valley, including occasional kaolin deposits, and the brushes used were made from cassava leaves. “The Pueblo people believe that the clay has life. A sacred relationship between the potter and the clay begins when the clay is removed from the earth. Before removing the clay, the potter prays and asks the Old Lady of Clay for Land that is considerate of the needs of her family, ‘Just as they will eat us, feed us and clothe us, so please don’t hide.” -Tessie Naranjo, Santa Clara Town. (“Here, now and always” community exhibition of the town, Museum of Indigenous Art and Culture, Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe,
New Mexico)
The sanctity of the materials used, as well as the pictorial content, evolved with ancient people long before the word “art” even appeared, which inspires one to wonder whether or not their works can be called art. These burial bowl paintings are often considered art today, but I wonder if this is disrespectful to the spiritual boundaries of these ancient peoples, as it seems similar artifacts from other cultures fall into the same gray area. On display at the Museum of Indian Art and Culture, I found this captivating quote describing how these creations of Puebloans were not separate from their soul, body, and everyday life, but had an inherent existence to them.
“Art is not found in our language. But, what do we call a work created by the hands of my family? What shall we call that piece that embodies the life of its creator? What will it be like if it has life and a soul, while its maker sings and prays for it? In my house we call it ceramic painted with designs to tell us a story. At my mother’s house, we call it a wedding basket to hold blue cornmeal for the groom’s family. At my grandmother’s house, we call it a kachina doll, a carved image of a life force that holds the Hopi world in place. We make pieces of life to see, touch and feel. Should we call it art? I hope not. he loses his soul. His life. Its people.” -Michael Lacapa, Apache/Hopi/Iewa
As in most cultures, with the evolution of the independent artist grew the weakening of these traditions and the dissolution of this symbiotic relationship between a people, their trade and their spirit. The end of Mimbres ceramic production occurred around AD 1130-1150. C. and was equated to the “disappearance” of the people who made it, although it was later discovered that some remains of the population remained in the Valley of Mimbres.