Water Jar Boy: A Petroglyph and Story from La Cienega Pueblo

Abstract

The petroglyph discussed in this paper has the working title of “Water Jar Boy” because of the strong association between the symbols in the petroglyph panel found in La Cienega, near Santa Fe, New Mexico and the myth in Pueblo oral tradition called “Water Jar Boy.” There is no doubt that the images in this panel are intended to represent an important story. In her studies of Zuni panels, Jane Young refers to petroglyph panels of this clarity and style as metonymic images ”that evoke parts of tales and myths and the emotions associated with these vitally important ’texts.’ ” In her view, the petroglyphs “operate, then, as ’metonyms of narrative’: the visual image stands for and calls forth the verbal recitation."\nThe purpose of this paper is not an ”etic” comparison of data gathered from numerous sites to support individual symbol analysis, but instead is an “emic” perspective from the aspect of the myth itself, as a guide towards understanding the images as metaphors. Shaafsma has concluded in her analysis of the frequent use of roadrunner tracks in association with carnivore tracks that the meaning goes well beyond that of hunting magic. Instead, the study of the ethnographic data and the myth allows a better understanding of the image. ”This myth fixes the relaionship between the roadrunner and the Scalp Ceremony and by extension this bird’s association with war’‘ and its role in “confusing the enemies” in Pueblo society.

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