Zuni Heartline Pot

    When you look at this Zuni Heartline pot, you see Japanese influence, Zuni culture, and a process. This red, black, and white painted pot has deer painted in black all over it along with red arrows going from their mouths to their hearts. This is the heartline and represents the life force and breath of the animal. This concept is called pinna, but the Japanese have a similar concept called ki. Both of these represent the life force of all living things in both cultures and is one of the reasons that some scholars believe that 13th century Japanese sailors might have made contact with the Zuni tribe and influenced them in various ways like language, culture, and religion.

 

    The Zuni believed in kachinas which were gods or spirits that could be anything from the antelope spirit to the squirrel spirit. There were more than 500 of these spirits that the Zuni and other Pueblo tribes believed in. The Zuni men would perform a ritual wearing kachina masks and regalia so that the kachina would manifest itself and would temporarily become a part of the participants.

 

    The process that the Zuni used to create this pot in particular is a process called coil making. First, they choose their clay depending on various factors, then they knead the clay. They do this by a process called foot kneading, stomping on the clay in a spiral pattern, and then rough or spiral kneading which serve to remove any air pockets and homogenize the clay. Next is coil making which is when long, even strands of clay are made and then stacked on top of each other to create the desired shape. Afterwards, they add decoration, glazes, and fire the clay into its finished product.