Join Renew Donate
ARARA presents... Rain is of dire importance for survival in the southwest USA. Prehistoric people gave voice to cloud-spirits through ritual prayers and rain ceremonies. They viewed their world as animate, and they engraved or painted imitative cloud-beings with rain to motivate cloud behavior. An examination of proposed cloud images accompanied with symbols of lightning, thunder, and rainbows are discussed in context with extensive ethnographic documentation. Though various cloud forms occur, they all share a common theme describing "rain bringers." The cultural identity for the Zuni, Keres, Hopi, and Apachean/Fremont is based on diagnostic elements in the panels that are described in the emergence stories that frame the different worldviews of each group. Carol B. Patterson, PhD, a Colorado native, has a BA from the University of New Mexico, MA from Columbia Pacific University, and her PhD in rock art from James Cook University, Australia. She was an adjunct professor of cultural anthropology at Metropolitan State College in Denver, Mesa State University in Montrose and Grand Junction campuses. She was employed as a G11 field archaeologist for the Uncompahgre Field Office of the BLM in Colorado for 5 years. Her company of 15 years, Urraca Archaeological Services, specializes in rock art documentation and reevaluation projects. She has published several books and journal articles, including “On the Trail of Spider Woman,” Ancient City Press, Santa Fe, 1997. Most Recently is the Petroglyphs of Western Colorado and the Northern Ute Indian Reservation as Interpreted by Clifford Duncan, American Philosophical Society Press,2016. Her work in the Bears Ears National Monument has produced articles on various themes and cultural affiliations of petroglyphs from 2018-2023. They are available on the web, in the international publication “Expressions” Vol. 22, 25, 27, 29, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39 and 40. She now resides in Bluff, Utah.
ARARA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Top
