SYMMETRY ANALYSIS OF HOPI YELLOW WARES: REGIONAL, TEMPORAL AND INTERPRETIVE STUDIES.

This paper analyzes the Hopi yellow ware design system in terms of the plane pattern symmetries that structure the designs. This analysis reveals that the advent of the yellow wares correlates with the aggregation of farming villages into large pueblos in response to the thirteenth-century drought. Coincident with this settlement change is a shift from geometric designs organized by bifold rotation that metaphorically represent the reciprocities central to the corn lifeway to quasi-representational images organized by a number of different symmetries, some new to the region. Oral tradition indicates that Hopi villages are composed of many different groups of people, each with their own rituals and living practices. This paper suggests that the new symmetries and images not only mark the arrival of these in-migrating groups to Hopi villages but also the development of new social institutions to organize these larger communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]