The Southwest United States

The Southwest culture area encompasses Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah and includes parts of Colorado, Nevada, and California, in the United States, and northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico. Before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the Southwest was home to three major cultural groups: the Hohokam, the Anasazi, and the Mogollon.  Each group had developed a significant pottery tradition by about 500 CE, and it is through their ceramics that these cultures are most often represented in museum collections. Ceramic vessels functioned both in utilitarian ways—for carrying and sorting water, and for cooking, serving, and storing food—as well as in trade, religious ritual, and art.

In common usage today, Southwest refers to the region including Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Carol Robbins, "Jar with zigzag pattern (1988.105.FA)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 194.

ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS 

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apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Acoma AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Anasazi AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Ancestral Puebloan AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Apache AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Anasazi AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Chichimeca AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Cochiti AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Hohokam AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Hopi AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Jemez AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Laguna AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Mata Ortiz AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Mimbres AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Mogollon AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Nambe AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Navajo AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Papago AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Pima AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Salado AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Sandia AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains San Ildefonso AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Santa Clara AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Santo Domingo AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Taos AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Tesuque AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Zia AND department_id equals 8

apply to OBJECTS where culture contains Zuni AND department_id equals 8