“WE’RE EARLY KIDS.”

 

Playing with broken pottery, curious five year olds talk themselves into playing Early Man, calling themselves Early kids - - and over a school year developed an appreciation of civilizations other than their own. The study of anthropology at this level develops scientific curiosity and helps us see our culture more objectively.

 

 

 

 

The Group

(Age in September, 1986)

 

Lauren    5 yr 3 months           Wesley  5 yr 5 months     Zachariah 6 yr  6 months

Ingrid      5 yr 4 months           Cathy   5 yr 10 months   Kamaryn   6 yr 6 months

 

Project leader:  Mary Pat Beach                                  Recorder: Margery Baumgartner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When a child catches on to a big idea, we have a scientist. It is late for them to get the spirit when they are in our universities, so we must attempt to explain these ideas to children.

 

Richard Feynman, in What Do You Care What Other People Think

 

 

 

 

 

 

            About archeology: Instruction in it ought to begin at an early age, and continue in spiral levels of complexity and sophistication through college.  What are the subjects that are suited to provide students with meaning? Prehistory, it seems to me, is one such subject, an I have no doubt that good elementary school teachers can figure out how to introduce and pursue the subject.

 

            Anthropology is clearly a subject of global dimensions, and its early introduction to our young and its continued study throughout schooling would help to give them an inspiring sense of our common points.   In learning about difference, we become less afraid and therefore more courageous, in learning about commonalities, we become more hopeful.  Is there anything our spaceship needs more than that its crew be courageous and hopeful?

 

Neil Postman, in The End of Education 1995

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“WE’RE EARLY KIDS!”

Five and six year olds study Early Man through play

 

Six children 5 to 6 years old had been together for three years, with siblings and other children, in The Family School (started and named by parents).  This group evolved into something like home schooling without requiring parents full time (six parents were teachers) and something like a cooperative without requirements (six parents participated voluntarily).  There was a place, a teacher, and other adults for variety and continuity.  We believed that anything can be taught at any level if presented appropriately, and that any subject can used for learning how to study.  Children chose the focus.  Our project developed from some artifacts brought in by one boy who spends summers with the Hopi because his father teaches anthropology in a community college.  The same children who go for dinosaurs will “dig” archeology.  We began playing cliff dwellers and gradually over the year developed the story of the origins of the earth, the Ice Age, early society, then the Basket Makers of the Southwest, and finally, comparisons with the Hopi of today and Mexican culture which the children knew slightly from living on the border.

 

We were fortunate in having access to artifacts, slides, an infinity of books, a real (pre-plastic) skeleton, a knowledgeable teacher-parent, and time.  The five-year-olds ended up with better information and attitudes than most adults.  They learned:

Diversity is good.  It’s all right for people to be different  All have the same basic human needs, met in different ways affected by environment.  No culture has to be “better” than another.

 

Where I lived at this age there was no kindergarten.  Entering school at age six, what was I given to feed my intellect?  See Spot run. Hungry, I lapped it up. Children will run with whatever is offered, but kids are smart; since World War II they seem to be born with computer skills their elders have to work to acquire.  As intelligent beings they deserve the real thing, the best.  We believed that any subject can be taught at any level if presented in an appropriate form, and any subject can be used to learn how to study.  If we have researched one thing thoroughly we have learned the method.

 

Note: this adventure would have made a lively video record, but we have only a teacher’s jottings in a sort of shorthand.  Sometimes a teacher’s comments may seem terse or a subject not pursued, but more discussion went on than we could capture and record.

 

Main topics studied.

 

Prehistory and life of Early Man

 

End of the Ice age, Cave Dwellers, Hunters, Food preservation, Origin of Agriculture, Settled life, Basket Makers, Pottery, Brain Development, Artifacts, Archeology, Historical Perspective, Interpretive Conjecture, and Contemporary tribes living on archeological sites. 

Materials used.

 

Brought in by teacher:

Mano and metate, sandal, moccasins, slides and pictures, books, potshards - - ; for Indian culture, Hopi piki bread and blue corn, Navajo fry bread, weaving and jewelry; lightening stick, paho, turtle shell rattle, bow, gourd rattle, wristband, kilt, sash; real skeleton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brought in by children:

Potshards, arrow heads, bow and arrow, scraping stones, clay pots, baskets, weaving, cattail, pictures.

 

                                                              

 

Early Kids Anthropology Activities.

 

Trip to San Diego Zoo to see rock paintings.  Trip to Museum of Man to see cave dwellings.  Trip to see skeleton of earliest known human Special exhibits - - agriculture, laboratories.

 

Math:  Estimated weight of mano and metate.

 

Art:  Drew baskets and bowls, pecking pictographs on sandstone; rubbed sandstone to sand; dug and lined a cist, arranged shards in designs, made necklaces, pinch pots, coiled pots, gourd rattles, stripped and dried stems for weaving, made corn husk dolls, bow of bent branch and reeds, Zach made a wood kachina.

 

Language Arts:  Classifying topics, heard relevant stories, listened to a dinosaur story in Spanish (a parent taught Spanish through songs and games).  Children used reference books and pictures, took turns quizzing one another; asked for topics to be assigned for home study made a group summary of the course, reading lessons based on their story.

 

Dramatic play of primitive life:  hunting, carrying meat, eating jerky and taking some home, grinding grain to Navajo Corn Grinding song with mano and metate, eating piki, blue corn bread, cooking (block play), sleeping in pits.  Running on balls of feet.  Basketmaker roles.  Making gourd rattles, dancing with them to Indian records.  Zachariah in Hopi costume taught real Hopi dance. 

 

 

Understandings Gained in the Course of the Study.

 

Anthropology, the science of the development of humankind (Anthropos– man-ology – study)

 

Anthropology studies the beginning of the human race, and the progress toward civilization and the varieties of mankind and of culture.

 

Physical anthropology studies man’s body build and what he is like as a person.

Cultural anthropology studies his way of life:  customs, habits, attitudes, institutions, religion, family, language, laws, arts, food, clothing, shelter, tools.  The anthropologist is interested in living cultures (ethnology) as well as those of the past.

 

Archeology (arche-old) studies the belongings people of earlier times have left behind them and tries to figure out what they meant.  These are called artifacts (artis-art) – objects made by skill rather than by nature.

 

The archeologist has ways of finding promising places to “dig” (search), and must work extremely carefully.  Broken bones and pottery are reassembled.  The layer of earth in which an object is found may tell how old it is.  Wood can be dated by tree-rings.

 

 

Value of anthropology study.

 

Develops scientific curiosity, Biology vs. culture, Objectivity vs. prejudice, Helps us see ourselves, How patterns fit together to make a whole.

 

"We're Early Kids!"

 

I.

The Anthropology study began the day Zachariah, who summers on Hopi Mesa (his father is an anthropology teacher) bought in pot shards he found at Hopi.  Cathy, the champion puzzler, immediately tried to reassemble them.  The children said, Don't break it, they're really fragile.  Here's one with dirt on.  It's made of mud, clay, and dried clay.

 

Teacher (Zachariah's mother, participating parent): Do you know what they used this kind of pot for?

Children: Cooking.

Teacher: Can we find this kind in California?

Cathy: We found a grinding thing in the mountains.

T (Teacher): People who used to live everywhere left things we can learn from.  These were made by the ancestors of Hopi; the earliest didn't have pots.  Early man hunted animals.  What weapons did they have?

Children: guns, arrows.

T: At first, not even spears.  Why did they need animals?

Children: Food, clothing.

T: What about shelter?

C (Cathy): They had caves.

Lauren: they could hide in caves.  When the buffalo came along they could do something-

T: Make a fire to chase them away. How could they catch their meat without weapons? They had to work together.

Ingrid: Run-

T: Run them over a cliff where they'd fall and-

Wesley: Die.

T: They figured out a weapon they could throw.  It didn't happen in a day.  Pottery came later, how could they carry things before? Skins.

 

 

Wild beasts threaten the cave!!

 

II.

T: The first people were hunters and gatherers.  What is gathering?  People think of mammoth hunters, but they ate mostly plants.  Why? What's easier to catch?

Children: Plants don't move!

T: What are arrows?

L (Lauren): Little things, pointy.

T: they were not used for throwing; they hadn't figured that out yet.  What could you do with arrows?

Children: Scrape, screw.

LAUREN: My daddy has one looks like a Christmas tree.

T: What could you do with one that little?

LAUREN: Scrape cactus points off.

CATHY: They had cactus for drinks.

T: did Early Man know that?  They did.  They knew more than we do about how to live where they lived.  What kind of animals are easier to kill?  Mammoth or rabbit?

Kamaryn: I wouldn't kill a rabbit!  Not a deer!

T: But you're not you now, you're Early Man - a mother, and your children are crying.  You don't drive rabbits over cliffs, you make nets.

Zachariah: From vines.

I NGRID: Or sticks.

T: They had long hair-

INGRID: String.

T: Is hair nature's string? It's stronger than string.  What if hunters brought home a lot of meat?

LAUREN: Eat a little bit that day and put some away for another day.

T: Now what do we do with all this meat?

INGRID: Put it in the cave.

T: In a moist cave it would rot.

K (Kamaryn): Put it in the sun.

LAUREN: It would dry.  One day when you came out and you were starving you'd find it and it would taste good.

T: What dried fruit do we know?

WESLEY: Apples, tomatoes.

CATHY: My grandma makes fruit roll.  It gets littler, tastes better.

T: They moved a lot.  It's easier to carry when it's not big and heavy.  Do you think they dried meat?

CATHY: Yuck!

ZACHARIAH: I brought buffalo jerky and you all eated it.

T: They dried meat of mammoth, rabbit, deer.  They dry fish and also smoke it.  How?

LAUREN: Over something hot.

ZACH: Fire.

LAUREN: How did they get the fire?  They didn't have matches.

(Several children demonstrate friction.)

T: Why did they smoke it?

W: Tasted good.

T: Another way to make it last.

 

III.

T: What did Early Man do when not working on food?

WESLEY: Writing on rocks.

T: where did they get this red paint?

KAY: Ground rocks.

T: They also made arrowheads.

ZACH: They didn't have weapons.

INGRID: They used rocks.

T: Sometimes they are called Ice Age Man.

WESLEY: It was cold.

ZACH: There was a lot of ice.

T: what would caves do for them?

ZACH: Keep them warm.

T: They're also called Stone Age Man.

WESLEY: Used stones.

T: Did they have any metal? Where did they find stones?

INGRID: dig with hands 'cause they don't have shubbles.

KAY: They had wood.

ZACH: Do we say Wood Age Man?

INGRID People forget about early kids!

T: Men, Women, children, here's how they looked (pictures).

CATHY: I see an ax.

ZACH: Tool.

T: What did fire do for them?

Children: Warm, light, cook.

T: What would fire do about wild animals?

WESLEY: Scare them away.

T: How would they preserve meat?

INGRID: Put it under a rock. Smoosh it like a pancake. Pull it up and eat it.  Put things in holes in the rock caves.  They could make rock tables.

T: Under a rock, something in the earth might eat it.  What could air do?

CATHY: It will be dry.

T: and would it last forever?  No, but for a long time.  Your fruit rollups are made that way.  Well, now we're Early Man killing our meat.

W: Mammoth.

LAUREN: (hands together) They prayed before they ate it.

T: That helped them to be good hunters and good people.  What do we do with this big dead animal?

ZACH: Have to take it home.  A bunch of people, a hundred, have to help.

INGRID: Bring a big sack of water in case they get tired.

CATHY: Cut it.

INGRID: With a rock.

T: How many chunks can each of you carry?

(They each name a number, and everyone escalates, accurately, to thirteen.  Imaginary chunks are distributed and they carry it, staggering.)

T: Hurry! There are very hungry wild animals standing around.

(points to the animal mural, which no one had referred to before.)

LNGRID: Make a trap and get more animals and slice it up.

INGRID: We'll be able to save the meat.  In a big hole.

T: But worms or little animals might get it.

KAY: Put rocks over it.  How do we cover it so flies don't get in?

T: If we slice it thin, what will the air do?

INGRID:  Dry dry dry

LAUREN:  The bugs don't have hard enough teeth to go through there.

T: It will be harder to chew.  Will it be big or -

Children:  Smaller.

T:  And it won't rot so fast so we can store it.

(All are staggering around saying I'm carrying a hundred.  Here mom, Here's some meat.

Teacher brings out a large shoulder roast.)

T:  This is mammoth meat.

ZACH: Mammal.

T: Mammoth is a special kind of mammal.

LAUREN:  It's plain ol' American meat!

T:  No, mammoth.  It was on sale at Safeway.

LAUREN: Yes, it is.

T:  No, it isn't.  Have you seen a mammoth at the zoo?

LAUREN:  Elephants are related to mammoths.

T:  Mammoth was an early elephant.

ZACH:  Sabre tooth tiger

T:  At the zoo?

ZACH:  At the museum.

T:  They're ex-

Children:  'tinct!

T:  What to do with this big chunk of meat - really beef?

INGRID:  Smash it.

W:  Cut it in slicesT:  Thick or thin?

LAUREN:  Thin - easier to eat.

ZACH:  We should have a rock knife.

T:  True, they had no steel.

(Kids ask, Can I put on my apron?  They had just made aprons on the sewing machine.)

T:  I'll do the cutting.  I don't want my cave children to cut their fingers.

LAUREN:  Are we going to eat it?

T:  Would I share the food with my children?

LAUREN:  Shall we eat it raw or cooked?

ZACH:  Nobody has ever eated raw meat! Nobody knows how it tastes.

T:  People nowadays do eat raw meat, steak tartar.

WESLEY:  That's good!

T:  Some like rare meat.

ZACH:  Raw!

T:  Yes, just warm. Some like it burned brown.  Cooking kills -

Children:  Germs!

T:  At first there was no fire.  Or they didn't think of cooking.  Maybe some fell in the

fire and a mistake showed them it was good.  Mistakes are for learning; even if they're

bad mistakes you can learn not to make that mistake again.

INGRID:  Food that looks awful may taste good.

T:  To make it taste better they used herbs.

CATHY:  Spices.

INGRID:  We have nerves.

T:  Herbs, spices Salt also made food last longer.

(Children salt and spice slices.)

T:  They used to dry it in the sun.

(Kay flaps her arms to keep the flies off.)

T:  Which of you wants to guard it from flies and animals days and nights for three days

until it dries?  Well, as long as you know the difference, we're going to use the heat of the oven.

 

IV.

(Teacher brought in the jerky partly dried and continued in the school oven all morning,

children turning it once.)

CATHY:  It's burnt!  Why is it brown?

ZACH:  The pepper?

T:  Here's an experiment.  At 5:30 this morning I had two pans full, why only one now?

ZACH:  It shrunk.  When water is in it it's big.

T:  It was light brown; now it's coming closer together it's darker.

INGRID:  That bumpy stuff is the fat.

KAY:  It's really beef from a cow.

T:  Why would it take longer to dry if it were thicker?

CATHY:  It's juicy.

T:  Here's a math problem: If it were twice as thick, and this much took three days in the

sun, how much - (using blocks the size, shape, and color of the meat slices.  Children

made estimates.)

T:  (read an old recipe for jerky, which emphasized the importance of thinness.)  Hopi

women take pride in long thin pieces.  What is preserve?

LAUREN:  It's like drying a mummy.  (Her research project was on mummies.)

T:  You preserved that word.  It means to save or keep.  Why did they preserve meat?

INGRID:  They couldn't have eaten it in one day.  If they saved it in the cool time the flies wouldn't get it.

T:  What's another way to save meat?

KAY:  Freeze it.  Put it in the snow.

(Children taste the jerky, declare it good, and take some home to share with their families.  They enjoy the story and pictures in the book If You Lived with the Wild Mammoth Hunters.

 

V.

Why did hunters and gatherers move?

KAY: Animals would get ‘em, would take the meat.

ZACH: The weather changed. 

KAY: The birds only move when it snows.

CATHY: They walked—picked up—

ZACH: There wouldn’t be any more stuff.

KAY: They would get really hungry.  They moved to another valley. 

T: They were nomads.

ZACH: It means they move a lot.

CATHY: The cave might cave in on them. 

INGRID: Animals would come in the cave.

LAUREN: At night they might hear an unusual noise and go in the cave.

INGRID: Animals can’t smell the food, it’s dried.

LAUREN: Animals have good scents.  They have glowing eyes that see in the dark.

T: Do animals always stay in the same place?

LAUREN: They find their own cave.

T: Looking for--?

LAUREN: Food and water.

T: Who’s following whom?

ZACH: Ice Man and animals, each other.

T: Archeologists dug up mammoths—

LAUREN: And put them together.

T: Where did the mammoth hunters live?

ZACH and KAY: All around the world.

T: Wherever there was grass for mammoths to eat.

KAY: When the mammoths move, you move.

CATHY: They walked.

LAUREN: They got a rest.

 

VI.

Discussion of early man’s environment—kind of land determined way of life—buffalo and long grass on plains.  Wesley described fields in the Midwest with tall growth.  Ingrid again mentioned throwing rocks in discussing using what is around you.  Desert Indians made mud houses, lacking water and trees, etc.  Environment means what’s in your own back yard.  A few days later Zach was arranging objects in and around the dollhouse.  I commented on the good use he was making of what was available.  He said, I’m using the environment.

 

VII.

Zach loves Breuil’s book Beyond the Bounds of History and we look at the pictures. 

T: This author wondered what life was really like—couldn’t prove but imagined.  You can laugh because the people have no clothes on, or you can read the pictures he made when the cave people became alive and real for him.

Cathy brought a scraper and passed it around.

T: How would you hunt a mammoth?

LAUREN: I’d creep up, hide behind a tree, sneak by it.

INGRID: I would put bushes around me, throw an arrow through the bush.

CATHY: Hide behind a tree and camouflage.

KAY: Get an arrow and kill him.

ZACH: I’m up on the rock – throw a spear down on him.

KAY: They’re not fast.  (Look at picture of group driving mammoth over cliff.)

INGRID: They’re cooperating.  They wouldn’t want to die, the mammoth didn’t get them, they got him. 

LAUREN: They didn’t want to kill him.  They wouldn’t have done it if they were in America where there’s hundreds of food in the stores.

WES: They were hungry.

 

VIII.

Cathy remembered the questions assigned last week and recalled the word preserved.  Lauren brought obsidian arrowhead.  Kay asked did they paint this?  Lauren told about shell middens in Florida: There was shellfish and Indians left the shells.  If everyone took one, none would be left.

 

T: Where did archeologists find bones?

LAUREN: Buried.  When dinosaurs died they sink into the earth.

WES: The rain comes, blows sand.

INGRID: Moved into the sea…

CATHY: Bones are heavy!

WES: I bet they were excited when they found the first bones (of Lucy)! Were there dinosaurs at the same time as early man?

LAUREN and KAY:  Mammoths.

ZACH: when dinosaurs were alive there were animals.

WES: They only didn’t want to find the bones of early man; they wanted to find other things, like mammoths.

T: Did early man have pets?

ZACH: Their favorite thing was dogs.

WES: They didn’t have dogs!

ZACH: Then it was the wrong movie.

T: Later they had dogs as pets.

INGRID: Baby deer.  Rabbits.

CATHY: They could have had wolf pets but they were too rough.

T: Did they children have toys?

INGRID: They could write in the sand with rocks.

T: What did children see their parents doing? Would you have imitated – made little arrows, carried a doll on your back? How would archeologists know?

ZACH: They found them.  They were reserved.

WES: Cave.

T: That could be a clue.

CATHY: Hair?

T: Nets of hair?

ZACH: Footprints? Of dinosaurs?

T: Fossilized mammoth footprints.

WES: When they stop they dig and find mammoth bones.

T: That tells them people might have been there.

KAY: asks for the next question to think about for next time.

Vocabulary; have heard: preserved, archeologist, environment, nomads, imitation, assumption or assume, site and midden.

 

IX.

CATHY: How did early man get there?

T: They say early man was like us but he had different problems.  Let’s go to the Museum of Man again to see the statues of early man in the cave.

INGRID: They’re extinct.

CATHY: Face painting on their face.

WES: That was the Indians.

T: It’s like a double feature at the movies, there are different exhibits in one museum.  The Huichol (Zach says Rachel) exhibit is still here.

KAY: We’re going to pay attention only to early man.

LAUREN: Not run off and say Ooh, this is neat;

T: Do you remember whether they wore clothes?

WES: Mammoth skin.

ZACH: They had skin like ours, but hair all over.  It doesn’t keep us warm but it kept them warm.

LAUREN: Then they invented clothes.  It was over periods of time.  Time changed and with those past of years women had pretty hair, men grew beards and moustaches. –I’m old now, I won’t be scared.

ZACH: Lucy was the oldest they ever found.

KAY: They were really happy that they founded that one.

WES: ‘Cause there were so many pieces.

ZACH: It was raining so much in the mountains it came down and –

CATHY: She was in the dirt.

LAUREN: Did they find skin on her?

INGRID: The skin sink.

ZACH: It was rotted.

ZACH: Did they swim?

T: Maybe; can’t prove it.

LAUREN: Unless you’re an archeologist.

ZACH: They always say maybe.  (Looking at picture of burial:)

ZACH: Why did he keep his necklace on?

LAUREN: Did they like him?

INGRID: What’s that blood?

ZACH: It’s called ant sand.

T: Red ochre was very special.
LAUREN: Did they like him very much?

T: They went to all this trouble to honor him.

 

Bibliography: Time-Life Early Man; Henri Breuil, Beyond the Bounds of History: Prehistoric People (Troll); M. Elting and F. Folsom, The wild Mammoth Hunters; Aliki, The Wild and Wooly Mammoths, a Let’s Read and find out Book.

 

 

X.

ZACH: We learned more at the Museum of Man.  I liked the man with charcoal making pictures, and the figgers next to the cave (diorama). 

WES: They’ve been so long age.

KAY: liked the dioramas showing archeologists measuring, then diggings, then classifying and recording in the laboratory.

KAY: We saw a woman making a fire.

LAUREN:  One was in Africa.  It’s really sunny and people were black.

CATHY: How man changed, growing up straight, started to learn more. Houses with leaves.  Buried with flowers.

KAY:  Red dust – yogur (ochre).

 

XI.

Pictures of a bison hunt in 1979 National Geographic:

T: Dennis; this archeologist, is a friend of ours.  He asked how bison would be hunted today and reconstructed how paleoman did it.  They were so smart, they created a slide, turned the snow into ice, and trapped them.

WES: They look like buffalo.

INGRID: That could be the kind of ice you skate on.

CATHY: They were wearing warm stuff.

LAUREN: Was it skoals (skulls) they found?

CATHY:  The rain and dust came on them.

T: They didn’t sink, something built up over them.

LAUREN: Not the way Lucy was killed.

 

XII.

What happened to the mammoths?

INGRID:  They died.

WES:  Early man hunted them. Old age.

LAUREN: They were killing them off.

ZACH: The mammoth and people killed each other!

T: Some people think the weather changed.  What happened to the mammoth hunters?

INGRID: They died. Souls never die.

ZACH: They did not die, they changed.-

Others cry, They changed! To what?

ZACH: Us.  We didn’t come from nowhere.

CATHY: We’re not like eggs, we don’t just happen.

ZACH: If we died we wouldn’t be here. How would we be here if all the early men died?

WES: Extinct means no more.

CATHY: I’m changing a little every day because I’m growing.

INGRID:  You can’t feel it but you’re growing right now.

T: The environment changes too. What happened to the mammoth when the weather got warmer?  Snakes take off their skin.  Mammoths didn’t know how.  (Pictures of musk ox)

ZACH: Trees change.

WES: And animals.

KAY:  Caterpillars change.

T: Which animal was smarter?

 INGRID:  The one that changed his coat.

T: The one that changes survives, the ones that can’t are extinct.

KAY:  How did they discover whose bones were they?

 

We read the story of Wee Gillis illustrating the effect of environment.

 

(A parent has taught Spanish through songs and games)

 

XIII.

A book about dinosaurs was read in Spanish. 

Children knew sharp teeth mean a meat eater.

LAUREN: Is Tyrannosaurus good? Does he like people?

INGRID: When eggs turn to stone and you pick them up they’re round like an egg.

 

XIV.

What was man’s work? Killed animals, practiced throwing spears at paintings.  Women were gatherers.

ZACH: They walked around a lot.

T: Migrated.

ZACH:  Moved? Like a hotel but different.

T: Did they have houses? They didn’t have time.

ZACH: When the animals move the people have to move.

T: Then one thing happened that changed everything.

WES: Glaciers?

T: They stopped moving.

WES: Flash flood?
T: It stopped Lucy but that was only one incident.

ZACH: We can get enough food, from stores.  Animals would stay there.  They have to find a good place with a lot of food.

INGRID: If birds made their nest there you could eat their eggs.

CATHY: Snails.

T: If you want the animals to stay you have to feed them.

LAUREN: A deer moving around in the area couldn’t find its mother, it might stay and have a baby –

T: The women said, I could plant these seeds and have plants where I want them.

ZACH: She was a planter!

LAUREN: A farmer.

WES: Where would you get the seeds?

CATHY: How would you know what seed it was?

T: They knew their environment.

LAUREN: One day her husband would come home and say where did you get this food? And they’d have a good dinner with hundreds of fruit and corn. 

T: And she’d say, I’m not a hunter-gatherer any more, I’M A FARMER!

 

 

XV.

T: Why did they stop wandering and stay in one place?

CATHY: ‘Cause it’s very comfortable there.

ZACH: The girls got so many seeds they could make more and more food.  They became farmers. (Children recall taking a cattail apart) – plants made more and more babies.

WES: How did they find the seeds?

LAUREN: You could keep the mother deer and some of the babies…

T: They could eat only what they needed and save some.  Once man learned about farming – agriculture – their whole life changed.

LAUREN:  Blossoms on the flowers changed?

T: Not the environment – man’s life.  Remember when we were all working for food all the time? (Children all jumped up and began to dramatize hard work.)

CATHY: If you don’t help you don’t eat.

CHILDREN: I’m hungry!

T: Now the mom can say go out in the garden and get yourself something to eat.

T: Now that we’re out of the caves, what will you build your house of? How can you make it better?

CATHY:  That color stuff (red ochre).

T: Now they can create more art – no emergencies.

LAUREN: Flowers, pictures on the walls.

ZACH: Time to jump on the flowers.

KAY: Make a beautiful dinner.

LAUREN: Make friends.

ZACH: What if a mammoth attacked them?

CATHY: They’re extinct.

T: Time to make….? Pottery.

 

We read The Cat that Walked Alone, from Just So Stories, about domestication of animals.  Children asked for a repeat.

 

XVI.

ZACH: They have stopped moving, chasing after animals. Slowing down.

LAUREN: Changed into a farmer.

ZACH: The thing you had the seed from, that used to be a seed – something was inside…

T: Every day they experimented, made some mistakes, learned something new.

ZACH: Then we’ll have enough time to do something, make a stone house, find animals that could be friends. Our feet are worn out.

KAY: Time to play, cook.

ZACH: Get more friends. Make pottery.

KAY: Make animal friends.

INGRID: Train animals.

 

We read A Seed is a Promise.

 

 

 

XVII.

LAUREN: Mammoth bones – I bet they made sculptures, grinding, hammering, lots of things.

CATHY: From the environment.

ZACH: Sometimes it could be desert, where Lucy lived. Or glaciers – hit the world three or four times. They had to move so much.

CATHY: Why?

LAUREN: To follow the animals. Then they decided not to move.

INGRID: They used to carry their houses on their backs.

ZACH: The used seeds instead of animals – acorns, apple seeds.

LAUREN: They might remember where they dropped some seeds and they grew. They had time to have meetings, make friends, get out of there before someone came to murder them.

T: Other things changed in the environment.

CATHY:  Food?

ZACH: Animals moved out. Some did because they couldn’t take their fur off.

WES:  Wooly mammoth.

ALL: Extinct.

LAUREN:  I’ve got to find something new!

T: And they made something that was new – to eat from.

LAUREN: Pottery! Like play dough.

INGRID: Fried mud!

LAUREN: And then they carverded it. They could make a shelf and put their pottery on it.

T: Did they make any mistakes?

LAUREN: They stored it in their little brains.

KAY: Yes, and opened the little drawers.

T: They farmed and hunted and gathered and invented something that made them hunt better.

KAY: I’m going to be Early Girl and make a bowl.

T: They hunted with rocks, the atlatl, made the spear longer, then someone thought of ---

ZACH: Bow and arrow! It wouldn’t fall.

CATHY: Where would the arrow go? Maybe they couldn’t find it.

WES: It could go farther.

ZACH: And faster.

T: Why was the bow and arrow an important invention?

ZACH: You wouldn’t get killed.

LAUREN: You wouldn’t have to get close.

CATHY: To make a bow and arrow you need a curvy stick –

ZACH: For the bow.

T: You wouldn’t want an arrow that was curved.

ZACH: Yes, it would – (He demonstrates.)

T: A boomerang. (All collapse on the floor with laughter.)

 

 

 

XVIII.

Looking at Time-Life book of Early Man:

ZACH: identifies bushmen, calls them huntmen.

KAY: Sign language!

ZACH: They have clicks in their languages. Roots tell them where water can be. They don’t have much water. They use poison arrows to put animals to sleep so they can kill them.

CATHY:  They don’t wear that much clothes

T: They live today in Africa. Right now there’s a boy and a girl living the way Early Man did.

WES: They don’t have houses like us.

CATHY: Straw and sticks.

KAY: It would fall down.

LAUREN: Not steady.

T: They don’t put a lot of energy into their houses because they move around. Are they farmers?

ZACH: Some could build houses and some farm. They have a bunch of people.

INGRID: How do they know it’s going to rain?

T: They know their environment very well.

LAUREN: When they cut cactus open they find water.

 

Cave pictures: Children say we’ve seen that in the Museum of Man. Red ochre. We thought it was blood. Trapping wooly mammoth.

LAUREN: They scared them with fire and chased them into a pit.

 

T: They gave some bushmen the tools Early Man used, and they worked. Here they’re butchering an animal. 

Girls say ooh, sick.

WES: Well, life is life.

KAY: I’m really interested in Early Man. 

All chant.  Changed over time, changed over time

 

XIX.

Children see a large metate and begin to chant Potato, petato, petate, metate.

T: We’re going to grind grain with the hand piece, called a mano. 

Children talk about seeing California Indian grinding stones.

 

LAUREN: Man changed after time.

T: What happened that made life new and different?

ZACH: Planting seeds now.

LAUREN: Finding seeds that drop to the ground. They might spit out a seed and next time they go there they find an apricot tree. They didn’t want to scurry around any more and worry.

ZACH: Didn’t have to chase animals.

INGRID: Wooly mammoth became extinct.

CATHY: The environment changed.

LAUREN: The whole environment changed and the people changed.

ZACH: The world changed. Bows and arrows.

INGRID: Pottery.

 

T: This all is what we’ve been talking about. Now something new is going to happen: domesticating plants and animals. What could tame animals do?

ZACH: Help hunt.

CATHY: Get a robber.

INGRID: Jump in the water and rescue somebody.

LAUREN: Dig them from an avalanche.

T: And help them work?

ZACH: Scare away birds.

T: What was their next thought? If I can tame a dog….

LAUREN: A very wild horse.

ZACH: Cow.

 

XX.

T: Now we’re out in our fields. You can grind…

ZACH: Corn.

WES: Wheat.

LAUREN: Once I saw about 30 metates in a big rock in the desert that the Indians left.

T: This is a mortar and pestle, same idea as California grinding holes but flat.  What is the difference between wild and domesticated grains?

Gatherers didn’t get much for their hard work.  Here are birdseed, sunflower seeds hulled and unhulled, popcorn and parched corn dried in hot salty sand.  (They all have to eat some of the parched corn which they have previously enjoyed.)  Which will be easiest, hardest to grind?

INGRID: Can we eat it?

ZACH: No way, it’s dirty on that thing.  (They take turns and Ingrid reminds me to play the Navajo Corn Grinding song and they join in singing as they push and pull, lifting the mano unnecessarily to enjoy the weight.  When the song ends they stop grinding until it is restarted.) 

WES: Those are not crushing.

ZACH: This is so fun!  Popcorn looks like marble.

T: Would you like to do this all day? In the Southwest they socialize while working. (Children are impressed by the sparse yield.)

 

They inspected and compared ground and unground grains; estimated and confirmed the weight of the stones. Estimates were 35,100, 40, 42 pounds; actual weight 42 pounds (about their own weight). Accidental accuracy?

 

All danced around the room to Navajo music, feet close to Mother Earth, Indian style, and kept singing the Navajo Happy song with the record while cleaning up.

 

 

 

 

All agreed the hard grains were hardest to grind.

WES: Some of the stone gets in. Their teeth got –

ZACH: Worn out.

T: Early Man didn’t use grinding stones.

KAY: Couldn’t carry them around.

T: Early farmers –

KAY: Stayed in one place.

 

T: Early Man lived where it was cold and where it was hot.  Everywhere they were the same but different, because of the environment.  They had many things the same but many different.  We call them –

 Children: Paleolithic, Stone Age, Ice Age;

T: Now we are going to talk about the early farmers but not the ones in Africa, the ones who were here, and here they were called basket makers.

CHILDREN: made woven paper, and wove yarn onto berry baskets, and picked and stripped stems and made wreaths.

 

T: They lived in shelters nature made and were hunting, gathering and farming.

CATHY: How did they get water for planting?

INGRID: Made a big pot to carry it/

ZACH: Water will fall through the baskets, like a shower.

T: They fixed that, with sticky stuff from the trees.

CHILDREN: Sap.

T: It wouldn’t wash off their hands.

INGRID: They could put some on the baskets to harden.

CATHY: You could put mud.

T: First they used pitch, then mud. If it works, why not just mud? But they had no pots yet.

 

T: Now we need to store extras.

ZACH: They could make a basement.

(Ingrid begins digging with hands.)

LAUREN: You could make a little lid from a tree.

CATHY: What if your meat was all dirty?

KAY: Pottery, and put the meat in.

T: They didn’t have pottery yet, just baskets. What if they didn’t want to use their baskets for storage?

ZACH: Put sap in there and let it dry – don’t put a dirt top on.

CATHY: It would sink down.

ZACH: I want a wood top.

T: They lived in a desert place. The cliffs they lived in were made of sandstone. The sandstone comes off easily in flat thin pieces, like flagstones on a patio.  They lined pits with it.

ZACH: I could bring some and show what it looks like in person.

 

 

 

 

XXI.

LAUREN: I want to talk about Early Man.

T: Early farmers were later than Paleolithic ice age stone age cavemen –

KAY: Seven names for Early Man.

T: Why did they store food in stone – lined pits?

INGRID: Because where else would they put it? Maybe we could make one.

LAUREN: I was digging for treasure, it was like digging a giant hole.

T: If you were a basket maker what would you make?

WES: A round one with a hole in it and a rainbow in the bottom.

T: Why was rain important?

LAUREN: They wanted crops to grow.

KAY: I’d make a bowl with decorations.

ZACH: I’d make a humungus bowl with sap on it, black and brown.

INGRID: They didn’t have colors but they used charcoal to make decorations.

LAUREN: I’d like to draw the shapes.  (They all draw decorated baskets and bowls.)

T: What else besides baskets could weaving be used for?

CHILDREN: You could make clothes – belts.

INGRID: Out of wooly mammoth hair.

T: Mammoths were gone, but what animal’s hair could they use?

LAUREN: Their hair!

 Other children: Rabbits …

LAUREN: Did they kill the rabbits?

T: Yes, but they used the whole animal – for food too.

LAUREN: Did some rabbits get away to live?

T: What if they hadn’t?

LAUREN: They would be –

ALL; EXTINCT!

 

T: And they wove sandals.  They covered only the front of the foot and only for traveling.  When they traveled they ran – on toes, so only the toes needed protection – the ball of the foot.  The heel didn’t touch the ground.

 

Children jump up and run around on toes until breathless, then return to look at pictures of sandals, belts, bags, and rabbit blanket from Mesa Verde.

 

XXII.

Several children watched a TV program on geology showing ancient man and modern Indians of North and South America.

 

XXIII.

T: All the people who came before – both the cave people and the basketmakers – are called prehistoric man.

LAUREN: Dinosaurs lived in prehistoric too.

 

T: What did early caves look like?

ZACH: Black on top from fires.

LAUREN: Big; a whole bunch of people lived in.  They were dirty and dusty.

T: And deep and dark.  Why did they want them deep?

INGRID: Was it scary? They were human, they weren’t afraid.

T: They were at home, with family and friends. Caves were deep for protection from animals and weather.

LAUREN: Stormy and cold.

T: The basketmakers lived not in real caves like early man but in overhangs, not deep and dark.  Why?

ZACH: Caves could collapse on you.

T: The weather was different in their desert environment.  They needed shade to protect them from the sun.  Nature made their homes.  What did they make, besides weaving?  Something they dug out.

INGRID: Storage pits, about this big.

 

T: I’ll ask you some questions.  People who came before are called ---? (Prehistoric)  Who came before the basket makers?  (Early Man)  No longer alive?  (Extinct)  Who lived in caves, in overhangs?  (Early Man, basket makers)  Another name for farming?   (Agriculture)  Taming?  (Domesticating)

 

T: Now you make questions for the others.

CATHY: Why did Early Man live in caves?

INGRID: Only thing they found.

ZACH: Protection from snow and animals.

WES: Another word for farming?

ALL: Agriculture.

INGRID: Why did Early Man catch animals?

WES: To eat them.

CATHY: So they wouldn’t die.

ZACH: Why did Early Man have dogs?  I mean basket people.

INGRID: To help them catch stuff, like rabbits.  And so their children could play with them.

CATHY: They didn’t want them to get bored.

ZACH: If a big animal was coming they’d go bark bark.

INGRID: It warned them so they could eat it.

KAY: Why were basket makers after early man?

INGRID: Didn’t have enough stuff.

T: Had to start with the simplest (basics).

LAUREN: Why did mammoths die out?

KAY: Early Man killed them all.

INGRID: Ate them all.

ZACH: When it got hot they couldn’t take their coats off.

 

XXIV.

LAUREN: I hope they sewed those sandal up good so they wouldn’t get stickers in their feet.

CATHY: They could put rabbit skin in.

ZACH: When they walked on snow they wouldn’t have cold toes.

 

LAUREN: if we make storage pits we have to take the worms out, and bugs.

INGRID: Stone-lined.

ZACH: I would put flagstone so they couldn’t come up.  Can we ask questions again?

 

LAUREN: Why did they wear sandals?

ZACH: Wouldn’t want their feet to get prickles.

WES: They walked like this, not this, not straight down.

CATHY: Why did basketmakers wear a little bit of clothes?

ZACH: It was so hot they didn’t need a whole bunch of clothes, and they had hair.

 

ZACH: Why did Early Man not have cats and dogs? I’m not talking about basket makers.

LAUREN: Maybe they weren’t ready to be trained yet.  They were so wild, they didn’t want to hang around.

ZACH: They moved so much.

INGRID: Why did basket makers make baskets?

ZACH: To carry water from far away, picking seeds and foods, and they could use them for masks.

T: Because there was need for them, and if you have a need and you’re smart enough you invent something.

 

XXV.

T: This morning I brought a prehistoric sandal.  What do you think it will look like?

INGRID: I think it’ll have two straps, animal skin laces, rabbit.

CATHY: Vine.

T: For someone who knows nothing about basket makers, it wouldn’t be interesting.  But you know a lot, you’ll probably say wow, that’s really old – some prehistoric man wore that – it’s worn out.  Imagine him running up the cliff, along the mesa.  Cathy was right, here’s something like a vine between the big toe, and it’s tied over the top and woven back and forth.

LAUREN: Could we try it out once? – it might break apart.

CATHY: Where’d you find it?

ALL: Overhang.

T: Why is it still here?

ZACH: It got aserved.

T: What preserved it, in an overhang, in the southwest, which is

WES: Hot.

ZACH: Dry.

T: Water is what rots things.

LAUREN: Clouds can’t hold onto any more –

WES: Water on the ground goes up to the clouds, then comes down.

 

T: If we made a sequence puzzle of what come next, what would be the first picture, back in time?

ZACH: I’m rewinding my head.

CATHY: They started out little.

ZACH: First, no world.

LAUREN: A round world that’s dark.

ZACH: Just stars, no planet.

T: We won’t get finished if we start there! Another time.

LAUREN: Little bugs.

WES: Grass.

ZACH: Rocks, little animals, mammoths.  Glaciers!

LAUREN: walks bent over,

All get up and walk.

T: Next picture, more upright.

CHILDREN: Killing mammoth, living in caves.

INGRID: (as teacher) Why did they live in caves?

ZACH: No winter could get in, animals can’t find them, they could have fires, won’t get cold and won’t get scared because a lot of people were there.

CATHY: Why not in houses?

ZACH: They moved around, couldn’t take 100 days to take it down and 100 days to put it up.

T: Next?

ZACH: Trees, grass.  Why was it cold and then warm?

T: Glaciers melted.

ZACH: You could’ve thunk of that.

CATHY: Why did early farmers work so hard?

KAY: They wanted to eat.

 

XXVI.

T: What did basketmakers have that earlier man didn’t?  Storage pits, called cists.  Size depended on what was to be stored.  First they found a lid, then dug the cist to fit.

 

T: Showed jacket linings, asked how cist could be lined.

CATHY: Sticky stuff from trees.

ZACH: Fur (hide).

CATHY: Dirt.

T: Adobe is dirt made strong by the minerals in it.

OTHERS: Woven mats.  Sandstone.

 

T: They stacked corncobs on grass and bark so air could circulate.

CATHY: So it doesn’t get old.

WES: It would get soaky and fall –

T: Shall we just throw the corn in?

CATHY: Had to check which were good or bad.

ZACH: They could use the bad ones for something else.  Put it smooth and – lay it in the basket very carefully so it wouldn’t get bruised.

 

T: How do they knew this?

LAUREN: They read a lot.

T: How else do people learn?

KAY: From moms and dads.

T: And by doing, working, and asking questions.

 

T: Where did they dig storage pits?  Out in the open?

CATHY: If you wanted to go out and get something in the night, would you want to go out in the cold?

ZACH: A mammal might get you.

KAY: In the cave.

LAUREN: Overhangs – like a cave but not dark.

 

How were basket makers different from early man?

ZACH: They didn’t walk around.

T: Migrate.  They domesticated animals.  They lived in --?

ALL: Overhangs. 

T: Then something new happened.  They invented something to make them more comfortable, and that was architecture.  We’ll study that next.

 

XXVII.

T: Close your eyes.  What would you be doing right now if you were basket maker people, fathers, mothers, kids?  Think of the weather, your home, you day.

ZACH: I’m making a bow and arrow to kill a rabbit to eat and to get fur.

CATHY: He must have breakfast – bird eggs.  How would I fry ‘em?

WES: Hot sun.

CATHY: I would eat the shell for calcium.

T: Grind it in your metate.

CATHY: Wake the children.  How would they start the fire – with rubbing?

KAY: Make them go out and get some wood.  I blew on it.  Sit by the fire and weave baskets.

 

INGRID: What I saw in my head – a mammoth.

T: Paleoman might, but not basketmakers.  Why?

LAUREN: I dreamed in my head I was making a doll of cornstalks.  I’d gather cornstalks and make head and arms and legs.  If I had something like chalk I could make a face.

T: Carbon.

CATHY: Could put leaves and vines and flower petals.

T: would you like a basket to gather some pinon nuts?

 

Children rush for the blocks, build an overhang, storage pit, hearth and spit with a (block) cylinder to turn it.

WES: Kill a rabbit, make a storage pit and store it in.

ZACH: I’ll give you some of my meat if you help me turn the spit and cook the turkey.  It’s on fire!

LAUREN: This is not a storage pit.  We need a home.

CATHY: Do you want to survive or not?

ZACH: If you want to live, live.  Wesley made a storage pit for us. We do have a survivor.  The turkey’s done.

WES: W need food more than a home.

LAUREN: Zachariah talked me into making a storage pit in the house.

CATHY: This is where something dried.

 T asks Ingrid, who is bringing sandstone to line the pit, What is your wish?

INGRID: I wish that I would grow up without dying.

 

(Good dramatic play and block building followed)

 

XXVIII.

Next session, looking at pictures of ritual cornmeal sprinkling, children ask what are they praying about?

ZACH: Food.

CATHY: Somebody died.

LAUREN: On special occasions maybe they bursted out firecrackers.

CATHY: They might throw up burning sticks. 

They ask where did they (desert people) get shells?  (Trade.)

CATHY: What did they trade for shells?

 

T: The desert can be cold at night.  Imagine you have a large storage pit in an overhang.

CATHY: A storage pit could be a trap.

T: But animals would be afraid to come in people’s home.

CATHY: In pictures I remember a square house.

T: This is before they build structures. And it’s very windy.

CATHY: They could use the pit for fireplace.

T: What if you climb in to sleep there and let the wind blow across the top?

INGRID: You could make a blanket for the baby.  Take two pieces of fur and lie between.

WES: Use the meat, save the fur skin.

LAUREN: He’s freezing his tailbone off.

 

T: You have walls but leaves and rain can still blow in.  How about a top?

CATHY: You couldn’t breathe.

CHILDREN: Raise it.

CATHY: What if they wanted it bigger?

T: It’s like a one-man tent, just to sleep in, not to live in.

LAUREN: Couldn’t they make a bigger one for the whole family?

T: Just like us, they wanted to have families.  They put up posts, leaned branches against them, maybe used mud.  Now we have a pit with a roof. Where is the door to get in?

LAUREN: Round house, little doorway like an arch.

T: Most of the house is underground, walls are not big enough for a door to walk through.

LAUREN: The roof.

T: With a ladder.

 

CATHY: Maybe moisture would get through the ground.

ZACH: It’s very dry there.  The sun comes right on the ground.  In the high mountains we’re so close to the sun. 

LAUREN: How do they make it so hot?

 

XXIX.

Next day, looking at the book Messages on Stone: what messages did the basketmakers leave us?

CATHY: I think they could paint.
T: Early man painted in caves.

ZACH: Far away – where it’s dry.  No water got in.

T: Basketmakers didn’t have caves.  Overhangs were open to the weather.

CATHY: If they don’t have tops on, it will pour in.

CHILDREN: They could paint on turtle shell. On sand.

T: The Indians still draw on sand, but sand and paint disappear.  It’s a lot of work to peck a message on stone.  Why would you take all that time and energy?

ZACH:  You could practice aiming at an animal.

LAUREN: I would peck a picture of a horse running, to be here after we’re gone.

INGRID: Make a picture of a storage pit.

INGRID: I would draw a stork flying – I’d like to catch it.

CATHY: Cooking by the fire, telling them I can cook.

T: Things they were proud of.  But guess what, there are no pictures of women.

ZACH: How did they talk? How would they make a message when they don’t know how to make words?  Oh – make an x.

T: Like cattle brands.  They made messages about territory, journeys, dreams.                     

 

 

 

Children now take turns asking each other questions.

 

INGRID: Why did they make storage pits?

ALL: To store things!

INGRID: That’s pretty close.  They needed them to live in.

LAUREN: Why did they live in overhangs?

INGRID: They wanted to be protected.

CATHY: And they needed to not be in the cold.

ZACH: And sun.

WES: They had no place else to live.

LAUREN: They had to use their environment.  Until they discovered how to make houses.

CATHY: Why did they need food?

LAUREN: Without food and water they’d soon die.

ZACH: They’d have to follow the animals again.

T: What kind of food?

KAY: Deer.

LAUREN: Corn.

WES: Bison.

LAUREN: Bunny rabbits.

ZACH: They picked berries.

T: They hunted, planted, and gathered.

 

ZACH: What weapons did they have?

LAUREN: Spears and bows and arrows.

INGRID: Throwing rocks.

KAY: Why didn’t basket makers have mammoths?

LAUREN: The sun was so bright and in hot weather they couldn’t shed their skin.

LAUREN: Why did they train the animals?

WES: Domesticate.

ZACH: Didn’t move around so much, they could train them to play with the kids.

LAUREN: Which animals?

KAY: Dogs.

CATHY: Wolves.  Not bunnies.

ZACH: Cats.

CATHY: Dogs were easiest.

WES: Turkeys.

T: Why?

ZACH: They could pounce on them so they could eat them, and put feathers in their hair.

T: And turkeys lay eggs.

ZACH: Make more turkeys. And chickens.

T: Dogs will else help carry things.

WES: They would hunt.

ZACH: Look for people.

CATHY: Protect children from robbers.

 

LAUREN: Why did they leave messages?

ZACH: They wanted to tell what was happening with them, what animals they had.

LAUREN: This whole world used to be sea.  At Epcot we saw the earth changed and we saw the stars.  We went through houses.  We saw mammoth, bones of mammoth, early man.

ZACH: Mammals ate the dinosaur eggs.  They’d eat the baby, the baby wouldn’t come out.

WES: Won’t be no baby dinosaur.

CATHY: No big dinosaurs.  Gone.

 

 

Children digging a pit and pecking on stone.

 

XXX.

Referring to the pictures of rock art in Messages in Stone, the children make outline drawings of prehistoric people, plants, and animals.  They dug a storage cist with cover, lined it with sandstone and cemented the chinks with mud mixed with small chinking stones which they collected.  Cathy called them chinkle stones.  The girls played at making dinner and the boys made weapons.  Zach invented a bow and arrow of “wiggly branches” with reeds as cords.

 

They rubbed sandstone until it was partly reduced to sand, fascinated by the simple repetitive task, imagining they were the Basket Makers.  They tried to peck designs into the stone and saw how hard and time-consuming it was to make any impression; people must have really wanted to leave messages.  The sandstone broke, and they arranged the pieces either randomly or organized into a pattern; Cathy’s was a mask.

 

A book on basketry as the mother of pottery inspired Wes to bring in clay pots he made at home, and all the children made pinch pots and coiled pots of clay.

 

            Slides of archeological sites: All pointed out rock paintings and Wes said the adobe looks like red ochre! They identified reed and stick reinforcement in adobe walls, stone walls with chinking stones, and T-shaped doors.

LAUREN: if we went there we could see a lot of objects.  Clues tell me that used to be a wall.  Hurricanes- humungus winds – and not only wind but creatures might have broken the wall down.

 

CATHY: Why do they have sticks sticking up?

T: For measuring.  They measure and draw this on the map.  (Kay recalls the diorama she liked of the archeology lab.)

WES: They shake the dust out and see if there’s bones.

ZACH: That looks like an artifact for working on sandstone.

 

T: Let’s think what Basket Makers have learned.

CATHY: Food.  They’re better farmers, have better crops.

LAUREN: Tools.

WES: Weapons.

T: They have bows and arrows.

ZACH: Pottery.

LAUREN: Pottery will hold things more.

T: Baskets were good when they traveled light: now they live in one place.

ZACH: Houses. They were living in their storage pits.

T: Storage pits grew so big they could live in them.  They’re called pit houses.  With more people in better conditions, overhangs were getting crowded.  They leave, go up to the top of the mesa and build pit houses.

ZACH: Then they put houses on top of the pits.

T: They were smart.  Four walls made a house.  When another family came…

ZACH: They stayed to wall to wall.

T: Some Indian tribes did live in longhouses, like connected houses.

WES: moves double wall, makes it single.

 

T: Remember the ceilings we saw in the museum?

WES: Wood beams.

T: Just tree trunks.  In the desert, trees don’t grow vary big, so rooms must be skinny and long but tall.  What would they do for storage?  Children say pits, then remember seeing rafters used.

 

T: How would you find an archeological site?

WES: Footprints.

T: Would they last?

ZACH: Shoes (old sandals).

T: Something that would last through the weather.

ZACH: Pottery.

 

XXXI.

T: Zach and I are going to Hopi.  What would you like us to look for?

LAUREN: Zach has good looking eyes, maybe he could find some pottery pieces.

T: When you were in Florida, why didn’t you disturb the shell middens?

(Lauren gets the point, changes her request).

LAUREN: Oh! I’d like you to bring back something they made – instruments.  I’ve never looked it up in a book but I think they used sap from a tree, drew on rock, in the sand.

 

T: Who were Hopis very much like?

WES: Early man.

LAUREN: Do some Basket Makers still live?

T: Another kind of Basket Makers.

WES: Hopis.

T: Hopis are doing many of the same things as the Basket Makers. (Children remember seeing mudheads in rock paintings.)

 

LAUREN: Why don’t they want their pictures taken (during ceremonies)? They don’t like to be interrupted.

CATHY: They don’t know what you’re going to do with them.

LAUREN: When they’re dancing they hear that sound.

ZACH: You can get chased.  It’s embarrassing.

CATHY: It’s stupid.

T: They do want you to watch—its good medicine, good for you.  When you’re a visitor you put on your good manners.

 

Children ask, does it hurt when a kachina whips you?

ZACH: Yeah, it does.  Big kids, they do it harder.  I was really scared.  My dad said, he’ll take care of you.

T: They’re not angry – it’s their blessing.

INGRID: Do mudheads throw mud?

T: Their head is a mask that looks like a mud.

LAUREN: The sun kachina is beautiful, and the deer mask.

CATHY: Some have long beaks.

WES: The owl.

T: They show what’s in their environment.  They have a snake.

LAUREN: Do they crawl on their stomach?  Do they do anything to people?

T: If anything makes you uncomfortable, you can just leave.

 

XXXII.

After the return from Hopi:

T: Why do we study Hopi?

CHILDREN: They’re like Basket Makers.

T: They do many things the same way their ancestors did in this same place long, long ago.

 

T: We saw 47 kachinas and some mudheads.  The kachinas point silently to someone and give him a present.  This is the bow and arrow they give the boys.  Did the Basket Makers have this?  By the end of their time, when they invented pottery, they had them much like this.  We saw the boys shoot them up in the air, not at the target, and the curved and came down straight in the earth every time.  Why do they give the boys these?

CATHY: To practice.

LAUREN: Even though they pretend, they can kill animals.

INGRID: What do they give girls?

CATHY: Dolls.

WES: Kachina dolls.

T: They give rattles and woven plaques, and at some ceremonies, food.

LAUREN: Like piki bread.

T: They stack the piki just the way Basket Makers stacked corn in storage pits. 

CATHY: Like a fire.

T: I have a package of piki bread for each of you to take home to share with your family.

 

T: This cylinder is a Kachina mask.

INGRID: It could be a drum.

T: Shows moccasins and turtleshell rattle with deer scapula.

LAUREN: They put it on their knee.

T: You hear them around the corner before you see them.  What’s this?

LAUREN: An atlatl?

CATHY: Looks like something to kill with.

ZACH: Lightning stick!

T: Why would they want it?

KAY: Dance for rain?

T: Where do they live?

ZACH: Desert.

T: Yet they have to grow corn.

LAUREN: Corn sucks up water.  (Kids recall osmosis experiment with celery and colored water.)

T: They pray for water.

 

T: shows kilt.  Who wove it?

CHILDREN: Women.

CATHY: Men, with that thing (demonstrates loom).

KAY: The girls couldn’t come in the cave.

T: Cave-like Kiva.

T: This belt is called a sash.  Who wove it?

CHILDREN: Men, in the Kiva.

T: Feel – each knob has corn in it.

WES: Ooh, it’s hard.

T: The Kiva is special, like a church, for ceremonies.

 

T: shows jeweled suede wristband with sandcasted silver and turquoise, explains the use of a wrist bowguard and describes buying it from the teenage artist, then shows fur.

INGRID: It’s a fox skin?

T: It was freezing before dawn.  Crow Mother wore fur skins moccasins, black mask, feathers.  She was singing for kids who were learning to be Kachinas.

 

T: Shows gourd rattle when corn inside, says I admired the painting but the Indian wanted me to shake it and listen to the sound.  Shall we pretend you’re Hope kids?  Here’s what’s happening:

 

You’re lying in bed listening for Kachinas.  It’s cold, dark, windy, the sun starting to rise, smoke smell from fires the mothers are making.  Dogs and men are running around.  Kids put blankets on and go near the Kiva.  You see the feathers and head of Crow Mother coming up out of the Kiva, the loveliest kachina you’ve ever seen.  She makes a hooting noise in four directions, more kachinas rise, you hear those from other kivas, their feet and chests bare – the sun is up but it’s cold.  A signal – stamping – brings twelve priests up from another kiva, wearing only kilts.  In turn they sprinkle the kiva with smoke, water, turquoise, and cornmeal, then go down.  This repeats with Corn Mother going from one kiva to another carrying beansprouts and corn.  By the time you usually have breakfast it’s all over.  Meanwhile the greaser kachinas, young boys who are fast running, they try to sneak up and put soot from chimneys on people, if you don’t see them coming and turn away.

ZACH, in costume dancing and kids watched silently a long time.  Next day we learned several Indian dance steps.

 

         

 

                                                                 XXXIII.               

LAUREN: I was sneaking around like Grease kachinas to grease my daddy.  I was telling my daddy about Corn Mother and I said Burn Mother!

 

CATHY: brought in pictures in an art magazine – Kachinas and Indian art

Cathy you find lots of pottery from the Indians in the mountains.  You have to look in the right place.

LAUREN: It depends where they were doing it.  I was driving in the desert and saw red on a rock and it was yochre (ochre).  I saw hundreds of holes in rock and some of them were black from fires.  There were lots of Indians.

CATHY: There were acorns –

T: Those grinding holes were little metates.

 

XXXIV.

            The childre