Essay On Pueblo Indian Culture

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The Pueblo Indians are the historic descendants of the Anasazi peoples, also known as the “Basket Makers”. The Pueblo Indians are Native Americans known for residing in compact permanent settlements referred as pueblos. In the modern world, the group lives in northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona. The Pueblo incorporates four distinct language groups including the Zuni, Keresan, Tanoan, and Hopi. The culture associated with early Pueblo Indians is estimated to have begun in AD100. At first, Pueblo Indians combined gathering wild plants, hunting, and corn cultivation. They lived in shallow pit houses, which were earth and poles structures developed over underground pits or in caves. The people had a diverse works of architecture, …show more content…
The different group lived in large communal buildings that were known as pueblos, built at the rocky tableland. The pueblos are developed as apartments, with the flat roof acting as a front yard as floor of the next level with ladders connecting the different floors (Nmartmuseum.org 2). Each family resided in a single room and when a family grew, other rooms were connected. Ownership of rooms was matrilineal transferred from mother to daughter. The buildings incorporated rectangular room as well as circular “kivas.” The circular kivas were utilized for religious ceremony (Szabo 5). This demonstrates cultural or ritual significance of the circular rooms. Cultural changes during 1150 to 1300 transformed how kivas were structures as some were built above grounds.
Music was an essential part of life for the Pueblo people. Different songs were used for distinct practices. The mothers sang lullabies to babies during bedtime. Consequently, children learned songs at a young age during games. Social, religious, and harvesting songs were vital to the peoples. The most important role of music for the Pueblo Indians was for ritual purposes such as curing rites, raining ceremonials, as well as the wedding songs. The Pueblo peoples utilized prayer sticks for rituals, which were colorfully decorated with fur feather, and

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