Unique Pueblo Native American Polychrome Vase. Almost perfectly spherical ball-shaped vase, with star patterns of white and black and large orange shapes adorning it. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 4 7/8 x 4 7/8 x 4 3/4 in. 

#4083 . 

The Puebloans, or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans divided into nearly two dozen tribes in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among the currently inhabited Pueblos, Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, Jemez, and Hopi are some of the most commonly known. Pueblo people speak languages from four different language families, and each Pueblo is further divided culturally by kinship systems and agricultural practices, although all Pueblo tribes cultivate varieties of corn (maize). Pueblo peoples have lived in the American Southwest for millennia and descend from the ancestral Puebloans. The term “Anasazi” is sometimes used to refer to ancestral Pueblo people, but it is now largely avoided as a conflation since Anasazi is a Navajo word that means Ancient Ones or Ancient Enemy. Pueblo is a Spanish term for “village,” and when Spanish conquest of the Americas began in the 16th Century with the founding of Nuevo México, they came across complex, multistory villages built of adobe, stone and other local materials, applying the term generally to them and their inhabitants. Today, the state of New Mexico contains the largest number of federally recognized Pueblo communities, though some also live in Arizona and Texas and along the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers and their tributaries. Pueblo nations have been remarkably adept at maintaining much of their traditional cultures, which center around agricultural practices, a tight-knit community of family clans, and respect for elders and the old ways. They also have been highly successful at retaining their core religious beliefs, as well as developing syncretic Pueblo Christianity. Exact numbers of these peoples are unknown but, in the 21st Century, some 75,000 people identify as Pueblo. The clearest division between Puebloans relates to which of their four languages they speak: Keresan, Kiowa-Tanoan and its numerous offshoots, or Uto-Aztecan and Zuni, both spoken only by the Hopi and Zuni Pueblo, respectively. Their ability as horticulturalists and their incredible adaptation to the arid region were crucial advantages that allowed them to withstand much assimilation, and they retain not only their culture and language but most customs, arts, and crafts of their ancient ancestors. In particular, the various Pueblo communities have different traditions regarding the making and decoration of pottery artifacts, with countless overlapping but personalized designs, iconography, and shapes utilized. Weaving, especially of rugs, is another significant art form which has been paramount in preserving their culture and developing necessary industries such as tourism and textile trade in the modern ages.

Commensurate with age.