Sex and the Salt Road
Interpretation of a West Texas Pictograph
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9216692 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Solveig A Turpin (Our Lady of the Lake University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 220 |
| Pages | 323-330 |
| Publication date | 2011-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Plains Anthropologist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-0447 • E-ISSN: 2052-546X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1179/pan.2011.026 |
| OpenAlex | W2048864424 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
In the pictograph assemblage in the Black Mountains of west Texas, one image is a naked man who appears to be copulating with a crack in the bedrock. This pictograph, one at Hueco Tanks, and a similar petroglyph at Alamo Canyon may record an increase rite associated with the acquisition of salt. Anovice taking part in the 1912 Hopi expedition to the Grand Canyon for salt described simulated intercourse with a landmark boulder that was said to be Salt Woman, one of the primary deities in the creation myth of several Puebloan societies, thus establishing a context for the images of men copulating with rock. The Black Mountains are one of the few sources of water and food on the barren plain that separated the settled communities on the Rio Grande, near what is now EI Paso, from the Salt Flats. This image is but one element in the larger Mogollon iconographic repertoire adopted by Puebloan people and perpetuated in myth
Archaeology · Assemblage (archaeology) · Bedrock · Canyon · Cartography · Context (archaeology) · Geography · Geomorphology · Hopi · Interpretation (philosophy) · Mythology · Rite · Rock art · Salt lake · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Geology · History · Law
| Highly cited | No |
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