THE POWER OF CLAY

Kathleen I. Kimball

We ourselves are made from it. We stand and walk upon it, grow our food and store ground water in it, eat and drink from plates and vessels made of it, and when we reach for the stars, we cover our vehicle in tiles made from it. The power of clay is with us from creation myth beginnings to libation of our cremains, when, as Yeats said, "They but thrust their buried men back in the human mind again."¹ But in addition to correlating earth and mind, humans have seen clay pots as people, clay bricks as containing the numinous, and clay objects housing the soul, the goddess, and the power to make things happen.

No one has yet proved what many suppose, which is that the earliest hominids (200,000 bce Neanderthals) first used clay. Perhaps it was discovered as primitive fire brick when soil in a fire pit partially baked; or perhaps it is, as Cooper has suggested, "natural" to have picked it up in the areas around the rivers²; or perhaps it was used to line baskets and when they were heated or burned, the clay remained. In any case, by 20,000 bce goddess figurines widely populated Europe.³ Gimbutas interprets 9000 year old figures as the life-giving/death-wielding regenerating neolithic great goddess.⁴

These images speak of the fertility of the earth itself as a power; the earth was a goddess, and her image was produced in her own substance, i.e., clay. By 4500 bce settled Near Eastern villages with geometric compositions on the pottery appeared. The continuing goddess meanings for these symbols in the Halaf and Samarra styles has been well established.⁵ By the time of Gupta India, (500ce) the words and rituals for making & using brick for temple building were long standing. Brick was the preferred material, since it was made of earth and fire, and therefore contained the "essence of sacrifice" and the essence of the diety within itself.⁶ The bricks, like the earlier neolithic figures, contained a power from the clay. This "presence" in an object is what Armstrong argues makes art at all.⁷ What I am suggesting is that clay is inherently the primordial substance of power.

From observing the role of the earth in the power of change, (seasons, daily sunrise and set, life & death), it is easy to see why both creation myths and funeral rites often still feature the use of clay. From the well known Bible story of Adam made from clay to Mud Diver and Coyote of the North American Indians, versions of such stories about the beginning of humans abound. Nor is there a shortage of funeral rituals. From that first paleolithic burial in pre-natal position in 200,000 bce⁸ to "dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return"⁹ in contemporary burial practices, we are presented evidence of the power of clay in our history and in our present.

And what of that present? Today a common social science methodology is the use of inferences between archaeological and ethnographic information. For example, comparing excavated rouletted African pottery shards with current rouletting practices in the same geographic area. Given the origin of homo habilis in the Olduvai gorge, and the probable spread from there throughout central and northwest Africa, it is reasonable to look at this area of Africa today to ascertain what remains of the ancient power of clay. Therefore, being mindful of the analogy between potting and procreation¹⁰, we turn our attention to central and northwest Africa. (See attached Map of Africa.)

Throughout Africa pottery is largely considered to be women’s work; and for the Yoruba the goddess of potters is a goddess of fertility. There are many taboos and rituals regarding the making and using of pots, e.g., while menstruating, Manda women cannot gather clay¹¹, and Asante women cannot make pots. When a Gurensi woman dies her eating bowl is broken at the funeral as the pot is analogous to the body as vessel, and the body is no longer functioning.¹² Even decorative styles may reflect the body, e.g., scarification patterns appear on pots with the similar result of beautifying the surface.

An 8,000 year old tradition, African pottery is the preserve of archaeoethnology and art history more than ceramics, Michael Cardew notwithstanding. A wealth of information is now in print and beautiful colored pictures abound. (See annotated bibliography.) Thanks to these it is easy to learn about the variations in pot making and culture throughout the continent. Clay reflects change, tradition, and cultural values; e.g., depending on the tribe, women may be taught as children or only later by their mother-in-laws in a new patrilocal setting.

Clay has been special pots for people, events, and substances as well as part of daily life. It is also material for musical instruments, pipes, houses, and portraits, and it shares these roles with other materials, such as wood, ivory, and metal. It provides one of the only ways women may control their own money, but in many places is being replaced in some of its functions by imported plastic and enamel wares. It seems able to hold its own in specialized functions for which clay is a must, such as housing an ancestor spirit or intitiation rites.

For example, pots are considered house of the spirit in Ife terracottas; Akan portrait pots of important figures ensure their continued influence.¹³ Similarly, Mma ancestral pots ensure the deceased are satisfied and the power over fertility protected.¹⁴ The ashe effect, that presence which comes alive when objects are used, continues to work in a variety of healing and conjuring vessels.¹⁵ While there are similarities in the pots and clay work of Africa, even within a specific culture area, such as Ghana or Nigeria, there are also tremendous differences in style, shape, and meaning. The history of Africa is written in its pottery, and contact with neighbors, distant Europeans, and the earth itself, are shown in a review of the work.

Beyond its ongoing and changing uses in Africa, there are many other contemporary testimonies to the persistent presence and power of clay. These would include the sublime and the ordinary, as in the conjuring vessels of African-American artist, Williams Harris II, earthworks as art¹⁶, bridal registries of China patterns, and kiln goddesses so familiar to many American potters. In the end, we are still of, with and returned to the clay of our ancestors, and the power of clay itself. If the architect Soleri is right that "mass energy is in the process of etherealizing itself into spirit"¹⁷, then how better to facilitate our evolution than by working with and through the power of clay?