Page:The American Indian.djvu/111

Rh a series of pottery vessels from Arizona and New Mexico, there seems to be a definite similarity. Closer inspection suggests that this is true because certain combinations of angles and checker patterns are common to both. The chief point of difference is that curved lines and realistic figures are rare in basketry, whereas they occur with somewhat greater frequency on the pottery in question. Again, if we examine the blankets of the Navajo, we find a series of designs strikingly like those upon the basket series. Since we know that the Navajo weaving is of recent origin, we infer that many of their blanket designs were borrowed from basketry and because of the much greater distribution of the latter, that the pottery designs were also greatly influenced thereby.

An important point has been made that the technique of weaving itself places certain form limitations upon designs which tend to make them similar, irrespective of the wishes of the artist. In all weaving we have a geometrical relation between the warp and weft elements since they have a right-angle relation to each other and, in the main, can build up a design by equal rectangular units only. In basketry these units are usually so large that diagonals can only be run as steps and even in cloth it is difficult to escape this effect. These stepped designs and diagonal rows of small squares constitute one of the prevailing characteristics of textile art, so that in our discussions of design distribution we must make full allowance for similarities due to the limitations imposed by the weaving technique.

For example, we find a certain type of designs for cane baskets in Louisiana, and passing over to northern South America, we find baskets of similar materials with designs almost identical. In this case we have other facts that suggest this similarity to be but another example of culture diffusion. Yet, we can find baskets in some of the Pacific Islands which can scarcely be distinguished from cane baskets of the New World, if we consider the designs only, and in this case there is no good reason for expecting diffusion.

The limitations set by weaving are more clearly shown when realistic figures are attempted (Fig. 35). Painted pottery,