Read Ebook: The Katcina altars in Hopi worship by Fewkes Jesse Walter

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 2540 lines and 119850 words, and 51 pages

THE KATCINA ALTARS IN HOPI WORSHIP

FROM THE SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1926, PAGES 469-486

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON 1927

THE KATCINA ALTARS IN HOPI WORSHIP

INTRODUCTION

The present article is the fifth of a series published in the annual reports of the Smithsonian Institution on the composition of Hopi worship. The Hopi, the name meaning peaceful, belong to the Pueblo stock and are agricultural Indians. They are descendants of the Arizona cliff dwellers and have preserved to the present many survivals of their ancient worship. The object of the series of five papers above referred to is to record a few of their rites in sun, fire, and ancestor ceremonies that have survived to the present time. The Pueblos performed their secret ceremonies in subterranean rooms called kivas that were entered from the roof.

That element of pueblo worship known as the Katcina forms fully one-half of the Hopi ritual, beginning with the arrival of the Katcinas or masked dancers in January or February, and lasting until their departure in July, inclusive. It is distinguished from other components by the presence of masked participants called Katcinas, supposed to be personators of the ancients, or "others." The yearly departure of these worthies from the villages is celebrated in July by a great religious observance called the Niman or Farewell Katcina ceremony; their arrival by several rites, one of the most striking of which is called Powamu, or "Bean Planting." At the times of their arrival and departure there are erected in the kiva of each of the four villages which celebrate them, the same altars, about which certain secret rites are performed. Our knowledge thus far is limited to four of the five Katcina altars, and there still remains the altar of Cu?opavi, regarding which nothing has yet been recorded.

Our knowledge of Katcina altars of the Rio Grande in the other pueblos is very scanty, owing largely to the exclusion of ethnologists from the kivas. Katcina dances in the open plazas are repeatedly figured but the secret rites and accompanying altars, if any, are not known.

The structure of the Oraibi Katcina altar is as follows: The reredos consists of two upright wooden slats united above by a crosspiece which in the illustration is surmounted by a row of four segments of circles with rain cloud pictures representing the four directions, and colored with appropriate pigments, beginning with yellow or north at the right. The decoration of the crosspiece is obscure, but on the uprights there are figures recalling sprouting vegetation, and circles with differently colored quadrants.

Two idols, probably of wood, stand between the vertical slats of the altar, filling nearly the whole space. That on the left evidently represents the Sky God for it has a conical apex to the head, a painted chin, and near its left hand stands a wooden slat of zigzag form, a prescribed symbol of lightning. This image has several short parallel marks of different colors on the body, and wears horsehair, stained red, about the loins.

The other figurine wears a coronet with triangular-shaped rain cloud symbols, which remind one of the headdress of the Lakonemana, a tutelary goddess of the woman's society, the Lalakontu, whose ceremonials in September have been described elsewhere.

The two vertical wooden slats, one on each side of the uprights, bear pictures of the same personage, probably Tunwupkatcina, on whose head is a fan-shaped crest of feathers. On each side the head has a horn, at the extremity of which hangs a symbolic feather.

The human figures have characteristic markings on their foreheads, and their bodies are black, dotted with white spots.

There is no mistaking the symbolism of the remaining idol standing at the right of the altar, as an image of Puukonhoya, the "Little War God," whose characteristic features are the parallel marks on the body, and the weapons of war in his hands.

Several sticks, cut in zigzag shapes with curved appendages and short crossbars at one end, stand between the uprights of the reredos. From their forms, these objects may readily be identified as lightning symbols so common in all Tusayan altars. One of these, which has a complicated tip or head, is placed close to the outstretched arm of Cotokinungwu, with whom it is naturally associated. The straight rod leaning on the same arm is possibly a cornstalk symbol. The rounded stick, tapering at one end, which stands under the extended left hand of the image on the left, is probably a symbol of maize. A somewhat larger pointed object, painted at its base with zones of yellow, green, red and white, and surmounted by a feather, is called "the mound" and suggests the kaetukwi or Corn Mound of the Lalakontu, being similarly situated to an image on the left of this altar. The surface of the latter object, however, instead of being painted, is encrusted with clay covered with different kinds of seeds.

The crook at the extreme left of the altar has attached to it an object which resembles the paddle carried by a participant in the Heheakatcina, or public ceremonial of the Niman at Walpi.

Four pahos, or prayer-sticks, are placed at intervals in hillocks of sand before the images on the altar. The Katcina tiponi, or badge of the chief, stands on the floor before the altar.

Just in advance of the left-hand idol--the image with a coronet--there is a small oblong basket in which are laid a number of sticks with feathers, seeds, and pinches of meal. This is called the "Mother," and recalls similar objects which have been observed on the Lalakontu altar, whose contents have been described elsewhere.

I need not dwell on the other accessories of the Powamu altar at Oraibi save to note that they are common to other altars, and in no respect characteristic. I refer to the basket tray of sacred meal, the rattles, a medicine bowl, aspergill, and six ears of corn used in special rites.

The strange object at the extreme right, surrounded by a tablet, symbolic of a rain cloud, bears the picture of the head of Ho'katcina. It is supported on a pedestal, and appears to be peculiar to Oraibi.

COMPARISON WITH THE NIMAN ALTAR AT CIPAULOVI

Cipaulovi, the smallest of all the Hopi pueblos, is situated on the Middle Mesa, and its Katcina altar is the poorest in paraphernalia, as shown by a comparison with the altar at Oraibi, the most complicated in Tusayan.

Omitting the medicine bowl, rattles, sacred meal, and pahos, the Cipaulovi Niman altar consists of a figure of seven rain clouds, with parallel lines representing falling rain, drawn on the floor with sacred meal, and a row of five vertical sticks, symbols of growing corn. Upon the meal picture which represents the falling rain, there are four stone implements arranged in a row. The tiponi, or palladium of the Katcinas is placed on a hillock of sand at the right of the same picture. There are no idols or images of anthropomorphic forms on this altar, and unless the stone implements may be so interpreted, no lightning symbols. The Niman altar at Cipaulovi is very simple, but the essentials of a Katcina altar are included. The two prominent symbols are those representing rain clouds and growing corn, which are elaborated in the more complicated Katcina altars and may be regarded as embodying the two main aims of Katcina celebrations.

COMPARISON WITH THE NIMAN KATCINA ALTAR AT WALPI

The Walpi Katcina is next in simplicity to that of Cipaulovi. It has instead of a meal picture, however, a reredos upon which are depicted rain and rain cloud symbols, and the two supplementary uprights, with pictures of Tunwup referred to in the Oraibi altar. There are zigzag slats, symbols of lightning, and rounded sticks with emblematic corn designs, neither of which, however, is as complicated as at Oraibi.

The Katcina tiponi is prominent, but there are no images on the altar, no basket with seeds and feathered sticks, and no crook with attached handle. While, therefore, the altar of the Walpi Niman Katcina is more complicated than at Cipaulovi, it is not as rich in accessories as that at Oraibi.

COMPARISON WITH THE NIMAN KATCINA ALTAR AT MICONINOVI

The Katcina altar in this, the most populous village at the Middle Mesa, is simpler than at Oraibi, but more complicated than the Walpi representative. It has, in addition to the objects found on the Walpi altar, two idols or images, one on each side. The zigzag sticks are lacking, but stone implements similar to those on the far simpler Cipaulovi altar are present. There are two emblems of maize, as at Walpi, and numerous sticks, representing growing corn, recalling the same symbols of the Cipaulovi equivalent.

It will be seen, therefore, that while it is the nearest of all to the Oraibi altar, an additional idol, the "Mother" or basket of seeds, etc., the crook , and the picture of Ho'katcina are unrepresented at Miconinovi.

The two images of the Miconinovi altar are apparently the Little War God and the Germ Maid. There may be a doubt of the accuracy in identification of the latter, but she has the symbols of rain clouds on the head and in the hand. The other image has the parallel marks on the body, symbols of Puukonhoya, but it must be confessed that the same marks are found on the Cotokinungwu idol although the latter image has the characteristic cone on the head which is not present in the Miconinovi image. The evidence would thus favor the conclusion that the right hand figurine of the Miconinovi altar represents Puukonhoya rather than Cotokinungwu, and as far as known Oraibi is the sole pueblo which has an idol of Cotokinungwu on the flute altars, of which those of four pueblos are known.

A comparative study of the symbolism, simple and elaborate, of the Katcina altars leads me to the conclusion that the most complicated altar, that at Oraibi, is the result simply of elaboration of the less developed altars, of the introduction of new elements. Analysis reduces this composite symbolism to rain clouds, fertilization, growth, and maturity of corn, the elements which dominate the whole Hopi ritual.

A somewhat more detailed statement of this point is perhaps desirable. In the Hopi ritual three methods of representing supernatural personages are adopted. First, personifications by men, women, and children. Second, representations by images or idols. Third, representations by pictures, conventionalized objects, or symbols. These three methods may coexist; they are interchangeable, and may be phylogenetically connected in the development of rituals. In the public ceremonials the first method is almost invariably adopted, but in secret rites all three are employed. The representations on the Katcina altars at Cipaulovi and Walpi are limited to the third method; those at Miconinovi and Oraibi include likewise the second.

There is no need of going into detail regarding the meanings of the symbols of the third method of representation as used on Katcina altars. The simplicity of this method, here applied, is apparent, and the symbols are those of rain clouds, lightning, and corn in various stages of growth.

A discussion of the second method, or representation by images and what they mean when used on Katcina altars, will bring out several points of interest. These images, commonly called idols, occur on the Katcina altars of Oraibi and Miconinovi and represent the same conceptions as the symbols. The idol with the raincloud coronet is a representation of a corn-rain supernatural personage who has many names and appears in ceremonials both public and secret of many different priesthoods. In the ceremony called the Lalakontu she is either personated by women in the public dance or represented by images on the altar and is called Lakonemana . In the October ceremony, called Mamzrauti, she is likewise represented by the first and second methods, and is called Mamzraumana. The same is true of the Owakulti, still performed at Oraibi, although extinct at Walpi, where she is known as Owakulmana.

During the dramatization in the Antelope kiva of the Snake Ceremonials at Walpi she is personated by a maid called the Tcuamana and no effigy of her is employed in this archaic ceremony. The Flute Society represent her in their rites in both the first and second ways, with two girls in the public dance, and images on the altars in the secret observances, where she is called Lenyamana . In Pal?l?konti she is personated by the first method, and is called Calakomana. The most elaborate images of this being, also called Calakomanas, are secular in character, and are used as dolls. All her different names, and some others which might be mentioned, are aliases, sacerdotal society names of the same mythological conception, which may more accurately be called Muiyinwu, the Germ Goddess, who is likewise associated with rain.

The symbolism of images on the left side of the Katcina altars of Miconinovi and of Oraibi is highly conventionalized, but clearly enough developed to show that the images represent the same Rain-Germ Goddess who, in some ceremonials, is personified by a girl; in others by a similar image. This image is called the Rain-Germ Maid because in the most elaborate representations of her this bifid nature is strongly indicated by symbolism. Her idol on the Miconinovi Flute altar has four symbols of corn on the body, and bears three rain cloud tablets on the head. In numerous dolls she has a symbol of an ear of corn on the forehead and an elaborate raincloud tablet with a rainbow on the head.

The other idol, likewise known in various ceremonials by tutelary sacerdotal aliases, is the male cultus hero, the fructifying principle symbolized by lightning and personified according to the society, by such supernaturals as Cotokinungwu, Puukonhoya, Tcuatiyo, Lentiyo, and the like.

In this totem-pole-like doll we have Hehea, the male, with two Calakos, females, as their symbolism clearly indicates. The Hopi have a legend that the Calako maids brought the first corn to their ancestors, and in that legend it is said that Calakotaka, or the male Calako, a sun god, initiated the youth into the Katcinas by flogging them, as Tunwup still functions in Powamu.

The etymology of the word Calako is unknown to me, and it may have been derived from the same source as the Zu?i word. A corn husk, and by derivation a cigarette paper, is called by the Hopi a calakabu.

The symbolism of the male Calako is identical with that of Tunwup and resembles that of the Zu?i Shalako. The Hopi celebrate their sun-prayer-stick making in July, the Zu?i in December, or at different solstices. The Hopi say that they derived their celebration from the Zu?i . When this interesting ceremonial is performed at Sitcomovi the Calako maids do not appear, and the four giants with avian symbolism apparently personate a sun drama, but as a derivative from Zu?i we must await an interpretation of the original for conclusive evidence of its meaning.

The images of the altars as well as symbolic designs depicted upon them show us that fructification, growth and maturing of corn, and rain clouds are predominant in representations on Niman Katcina altars.

I have not offered a suggestion in regard to the identity of the strange being, Tunwup, nor am I quite sure that he can be interpreted, but I strongly suspect that he is none other than the Sun, a worship of whom pervades the whole Katcina ritual.

The element which predominates in the worship at the Powamu ceremony is the fructification of germs; and as beans figure so conspicuously in it as symbols, it's popularly called the "Bean Planting," while a ceremony following it is Pal?l?konti, in which corn is sprouted, is called the "Corn Planting." As in Hopi conceptions the Sun is father of all life, a ceremony called the Powalawu, appropriate to the object or aim of Powamu, precedes the planting of beans in the kivas. The ceremony is strictly a part of Powamu, showing it is a form of direct sun worship. In it a special sun altar is made of a sand mosaic upon which, during ceremonial songs, a tray of meal composed of all kinds of seeds used by the Hopi is copiously sprinkled on the picture of the sun; medicine water is then thrown upon the same to typify the rains which under the sun's action causes these seeds to germinate and grow.

My comparative study of the Hopi Katcina altars has therefore led me to the following conclusions: Their symbolism, whether in pictures, rites, or of images, refer to two elements, or supernaturals, which control rain and growth of corn. The latter are male and female, representing the sky god and the earth goddess, the father and the mother, the lightning and the earth, the two sexes without whose union life is impossible.

The ceremonials performed about the Katcina altars admit of the same interpretation, and it remains for me to indicate their nature and bearing on the above conclusions.

ALTAR OF ORAIBI POWALAWU

A sand picture of the great paternal deity, Tawa, the Sun, has never been reported from any Tusayan altar except Oraibi. Such a picture is made in Powalawu, the opening ceremony of Powamu and described by Mr. Voth.

The altar is made on the floor of the kiva, and is placed on a layer of valley sand on which are made four concentric zones of different colored sands surrounding a middle circle of white sand on which is drawn a stellate figure of the sun. These different concentric zones are yellow, green, red, and white, beginning with the smallest, and ending with a peripheral in white. They are separated by black lines, and a quartz crystal to which a string, with attached feather, is tied, is placed in the middle of the picture of the sun. A quadrant apart on the periphery of the picture, beyond the white zone, there are four arrow-shaped projections, colored yellow, green, red, and white, following a circuit with the center of the whole sand painting on the left hand. These, like the zones, are made of differently colored sands and are rimmed with black. Across the yellow arrow-headed figure extend several parallel red lines of sand; across the green, white; across the red, yellow; and across the white, green.

On the supposition that the inner figure represents the sun, the four peripheral arrow-shaped appendages are supposed to represent heads of the lightning snakes of the four cardinal points, north, west, south, and east, as their colors indicate.

The accessories used in the celebration of the Powalawu are arranged on the floor radially about this sand picture, and fall into two groups, one on lines in continuation of the rays of the central figure, the others on intermediary lines. There are, therefore, four sets of both groups alternating with each other.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet