page_title: Ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas
section_title: Gran Chaco
hierarchical_section_title: Ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas / Gran Chaco
caption_attribution_description: Rosa Brítez
context_page_description: Native American pottery is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component. Ceramics are used for utilitarian cooking vessels, serving and storage vessels, pipes, funerary urns, censers, musical instruments, ceremonial items, masks, toys, sculptures, and a myriad of other art forms.
  Due to their resilience, ceramics have been key to learning more about pre-Columbian indigenous cultures.
context_section_description: Guaraní ceramics fall into two major categories: na'e, or dishes, and yapepó, pots, pans, and storage containers. These were both utilitarian and ceremonial. The precontact ceramic tradition of the Gran Chaco was dramatically transformed under European colonization, which created a demand for pitchers, cups, and other introduced pottery forms. Author Josefina Pla observed that women are typically potters, and animals associated with men are not represented in Guaraní pottery.
  Tobatí, a city near Asunción, Paraguay, is renowned for its ceramics, including tiles and female effigy jars, known as Las gorgas. A reddish-brown slip, known as tapyta in Guaraní, is popular, with blackware being less common. A local ceramic artist, Don Zenón Páez (b. 1927) became famous for his ceramic figures of saints.
  Itá, Paraguay is another ceramic center, known for its whimsical, ceramic chickens. Rosa Brítez (b. 1941) is a famous ceramic artist from Itá and has been recognized by UNESCO.
  The Museo del Barro, "Museum of Clay," in Asunción features pottery from the Gran Chaco, from Pre-Columbian Guaraní to contemporary mestizo ceramics.
caption: Doña Rosa Brítez with her blackware pottery
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