The Pecos River style, the most ancient of Lower Pecos art, is a monumental polychrome style usually considered to be religious or mythological in theme. The central characters, the shaman figures, are towering, faceless anthropomorphic figures, dressed in multicolored garments, and equipped with a uniform range of accessories. An atlatl (spear) and darts are often held in one hand, a fuzzy object, sometimes interpreted as a prickly-pear pouch dangles from the other or hangs from the elbow. The figure may be headless or crowned with antlers, feline ears, radiant hair or horns. The body is rectangular, often tapering to stubby legs on a line with the torso. Although usually posed frontally, several shaman figures in profile have been identified.
The shaman can be surrounded by miniature replicas of itself, sometimes
inverted as if falling from the sky, or herds of deer, often pierced by
spears. Undulating geometrics, interpreted as serpents or water symbols,
may enclose or emanate from the shaman figure. The most common animal depicted
is the deer, although fish, turtles, rabbits, insects, birds and snakes
contribute to the bestiary. Only the panther, the central figure at many
sites, is equivalent to the shaman figure in size and majesty.
[Thomas N.} Campbell (1958) suggested that the Pecos River style might have
had its origins in visiions induced by ingesting mescal beans, the seed
of the mountail laurel, a flowering tree common in the desets of Southwest
Texas. [William W.] Newcomb elaborated the shamanic hypothesis, proposing
that medicine societies ritually engaged in wall painting, making their
multicolored vision permanene on the limestone "canvas" of the
rock shelter walls. Mescal bean consumption produces various physiological
symptoms, such as nausea, cramps, muscle paralysis, stupor and intoxication,
but not hallucinogenic visions. The dreamlike state, however, may have prepared
the seeker for reception of culturally informed visions. The thematic consistency
found in sites separated by many miles of difficult terrain suggests that
the painting, and any inspirational visions, must have conformed to specific
cultural expectations.
[J. Charles} Kelley (1974) suggested that specific attributes of the
Pecos River style, such as frontally posed warriors and an emphasis on felines,
were derived from Mexoamerican high cultures. Contact between the emerging
civilizations of Mexico and the Archaic population of the Lower Pecos region
has yet to be demonstrated by trade goods or shared items of material culture.
A more conservative view is that both areas manifested beliers inherent
in a shamanic religious tradition, generated from a common root but developed
independently. This uniformitarian hypothesis also would explain similarities
between the Pecos River style and distant pictographs in Baja California
and Barrier Canyon, Utah.
The most common of Lower Pecos styles, Pecos River pictographs are found
at the majority of recorded sites, although many of the panels are reduced
to remnants. Some sites contain only a few simple figures; in others, extensive
overpainting testifies to repeated, possibly ritual activity by aggregating
groups. Based on superimpositions and stylistic relationships detected in
the larger panels, [David]Gebhardt (1965) divided his Pecos Style into three
phases: early, middle and late. Newcomb's four evolutionary phases within
the Pecos River style were derived from increasing stylization of the shaman
figure. These typologies rely upon different criteria to sequence the pictographs,
and the two are therefore not exactly equivalent.
The consistent depiction of the atlatl and the absence of the bow and
arrow imply that the Pecos River style originated and flourished during
the long Archaic period, from 7000 B.C. to A.C. 600 in this region. Relative
sequencing of the different pictographs styles narrows that span from 7000
to 1000 B.C. Most recently, I suggested that an age of 4000 to 3000 years
would be consistent with the functional interpretation of the Pecos River
style as a response to scalar stress. Scalar stress ... is information overload
created by an increase in the number of participants in the decision-making
process, a phenomenon usually related to population density. Ritual, a stable
pathway for information flow, is one means of alleviating scalar stress.
Ritual art, such as the Pecos River style, is a likely correlate of aggregation.
The period of highest population density, and presumably scalar stress,
within the estimated range of the Pecos River style is roughly between 2000
and 1000 B.C. Although admittedly speculative, this estimate provides a
heuristic device for future archeological research into Lower Pecos population
dynamics.
The Pecos River style contributes to a reconstruction of prehistoric lifeways,by
I believe, demonstrating that a unified belief system, rooted in a shamanic
tradition, was an organizing principle in Archaic society. Representations
of myth and ideology were standardized and understood across a large area.
This standardized iconographicj vocabulary, once intelligible to practitioners
and viewers alike, is indicative or a level of interaction not often attributed
to the Lower Pecos inhabitants. The impetus for the rise, florescence, and
abandonment of this monumental art form cannot be explained in the context
of the static model.