Wow Photo Wednesday ~ The Architecture of Conquest

[between 1915 and 1920?] 2nd Pueblo – Taos missions

2nd Pueblo – Taos missions
Wow ~ Other worldly architecture! The early Spanish missions of New Mexico incorporated European and Native American ideas to create buildings that in appearance could be located in the desert villages of sub-Saharan Africa. During the relatively peaceful period between the brutal depredations of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and his armies in the 1540s, and the Spanish re-colonization of the area by Diego de Vargas in 1692, the uneasy relationship between the Spanish missionaries and the Native people produced some odd hybrids of Christian and Zuni philosophy and architecture.
The Zunis knew that Christianity must be powerful, because the Christians had firearms and horses – and so they adopted various features of the Christian doctrine, without discarding their own beliefs. The Church Padres, while resistant to this syncretism, persisted as best they could, and missions were built, albeit with definite Zuni influences. The adobe mud and wattle buildings, perhaps because of the inherent requirements of the building materials, produce structures that are strikingly similar to the mud mosques in Mali, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.
Explore our Digital Collections to see many more fascinating images of Native American culture in the Southwest with terms like “Mesa Verde Indians,” “Zuni Pueblo,” or “Native American Dances.”
The images in the gallery below extend beyond the strict category of “missions,” showing some Anasazi Pueblo influences along with the hybrids they inspired.
“Wow Photo Wednesday” celebrates photographs in the Denver Public Library’s Digital Collections that have “The Wow Factor” and that highlight the myriad delightful nuggets in our database.

Photo NewsNew Mexiconative americansZuniAnasaziarchitecturechurchessouthwestPuebloCatholicmissionsPhoto Gallery: 

Indians Pueblo Taos missions exterior
[between 1915 and 1920?]

2nd Pueblo – Taos
[between 1915 and 1920?]

2nd Pueblo – Taos missions
[between 1915 and 1920?]

2nd Pueblo – Taos
Full size image[between 1890 and 1900?]

Cochiti
Full size image[between 1890 and 1910?]

Acoma
Full size image[between 1890 and 1920?]

Indians, Pueblo, Laguna
Full size image[between 1915 and 1926?]

Indians, Pueblo, Laguna, missions
Full size image[between 1915 and 1926?]

Indians, Pueblo, Laguna, missions
Full size image[between 1915 and 1926?]

Laguna
Full size image[between 1880 and 1900]

Isleta
Full size image[between 1900 and 1930?]

Nambe
Full size image1911?

Old church at pueblo of Acoma, N.M.
Full size image

Old Mission Church, Zuni Pueblo, N.M. view from the plaza
Full size image

San Felipe
Full size image[between 1880 and 1900?]

Santa Ana
Full size image[between 1920 and 1930?]

Santa Clara
Full size image1911?

St. Francis Mission, Ranchos de Taos, N.M.
Full size image[1920?]

The church of San Miguel, the oldest in Santa Fe, N.M.
Full size image

View in Isleta, old church of San Augustine, New Mexico
Full size image[1885]

Zuni
Full size image1911?

“The Delight Makers” home. Tyuonyi, the most interesting ruin in Pajarito Park
Full size image[between 1900 and 1916]

Altar – Mesa No. 3
Full size image[between 1880 and 1910?]

Bandelier National Monument
Full size image[between 1880 and 1900]

Balcony House, looking east
Full size image[1900?]

Cave rooms in cliff Pajarito Park
Full size image[between 1908 and 1916]

Zuni Pueblo
Full size image[between 1880 and 1900]

View in Pueblo Acoma, N.M.
Full size image[between 1880 and 1900]

View in the aristocratic quarter of Oraibi Moqui Village, Arizona
Full size image[between 1884 and 1890]

Walpi
Full size image[between 1880 and 1890?]

Walpi, Arizona
Full size image1912

Taos
Full size image1880

The Architecture of Conquest

http://feeds.feedburner.com/WesternHistoryAndGenealogyBlog