Subjective Color in Mimbres Black-on-White Pottery

Abstract

Many Mimbres black-on-white bowls painted with geometric designs produce the illusion of color when rotated rapidly, much like the subjective-color hallucination that has been known in the psychology of perception for more than a century. Subjective color is one of numerous neurophysiologically induced visual hallucinations that are universal in human beings and are produced by epilepsy, migraines, hallucinogens, certain diseases, and other causes. This essay describes the phenomenon and the design characteristics that produce it, discusses similar visual hallucinations in the scientific literature, and speculates on the contribution of subjective color to Mimbres ritual organization. I argue that the illusion was deliberately produced by Mimbres potters and may have been used by shamans to induce trance states or in mimetic rituals to bring rain. At least some of the designs may have been created by shamans themselves who had experienced the visions induced during trances and shamanic journeys.