Curriculum Materials: Art in America
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Image 11 Keresan Questions: |
Think Questions Teacher Answer Key
1. Why do you think Southwestern peoples began to make pottery long ago? (To have containers in which to store, preserve, prepare, and serve their food.) What kind of containers do you and your family use to keep your food in? What are your containers made of?
2. Why do you think artists at Acoma Pueblo decorated their pottery? Are your containers decorated as elaborately as this one? Why might you choose to have decorated jars and containers in your home rather than plain ones?
3. Why do you think the artist chose to use the colors you see on the pot? Would the pot look different if it had been decorated with commercially manufactured colors such as neon or fluorescent colors? How?
4. This pot is recognizable as coming from Acoma Pueblo because of its form, colors, and decorations. Each pueblo in New Mexico produces a unique style of pottery. Why might it be important to a group of people that they produce a unique and recognizable style of pottery?
5. An Acoma Pueblo artist modeled the design for this pot after a traditional water jar. How big do you think the pot is? Traditionally the Keresan people at Acoma Pueblo carried water jars on their heads. Does this information change your opinion about the pot's size? If so, why?
6. Acoma Pueblo artists decorated pots for use in the pueblo, but this pot was produced for sale to tourists. Why would a Pueblo artist take the time to decorate a pot with traditional designs for tourists? (Pottery that appeared "authentically" American Indian may have been more saleable.) If you were going to buy a piece of pottery from a culture other than your own, would it be important to you that it look "authentic" or traditional? Why or why not?
7. Many modern-day potters in the Southwest continue to make pottery in the tradition of their grandmothers and great-grandmothers. What is a tradition? Do you have traditions in your family that you can trace back to your ancestors? Why would it be important for people to have traditions that continue through generations of a family? What are some ways that you think traditions are passed from one generation to another?
8. Compare the Acoma Pueblo Jar
to the Templeman Tea Service detail. Prepare the students by
showing the full Templeman Tea Service set before looking at
the detail. For what purpose was each object used? What
material is each made of? Both of these containers are
decorated with LINEAR
designs. What kinds of lines do you see on each object? How
do the decorations accent the shapes of the containers?
Where in each container do you see lines repeat to make
patterns? How was the decoration applied on each?
(Decorations on the jar were applied with a brush;
decorations on the tea caddy were incised in the
metal.)
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