Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T03:57:37.324Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

They Go Along Singing: Reconstructing the Hopi Past from Ritual Metaphors in Song and Image

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Emory Sekaquaptewa  and
Dorothy Washburn
Emory Sekaquaptewa
Affiliation:
Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Dorothy Washburn
Affiliation:
Arizona State Museum, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article demonstrates how the cosmological metaphors in ritual song texts are an important but unrecognized resource in the repertoire of oral tradition that can be used to reconstruct past lifeways. We test this proposition with a study of 125 Hopi katsina song texts from the 20th century and show how the cosmological principles underlying the Hopi lifeway are embedded in special song word and phrase metaphors. Through the transcription and translation of the content of these song metaphors we reveal a consistency of thought and prescribed social action that has sustained the Hopi people as they have followed a lifeway of corn agriculture done by hand. We then show how these same principles for living expressed metaphorically in words are visually repeated in the same metaphors in mural images on 15th- and 16th-century kiva murals from the Hopi sites of Awatovi and Kawaika'a as well as on associated Jeddito and Sikyatki yellow ware ceramic design.

Resumen

Resumen

Este artículo demuestra como las metáforas cosmológicas de los textos de canciones rituales son una importante pero poco reconocida fuente en el repertorio de la tradición oral que puede ser utilizado para reconstruir antiguos modos de vida. Examinamos esta propuesta con el estudio de las letras de 125 canciones Hopi katsina del siglo XX y mostramos como los principios cosmológicos que subyacen bajo el modo de vida Hopi son parte integral de una especial manera de escribir canciones y frases metafóricas. A través de la transcripción y traducción del contenido de estas canciones metafóricas revelamos una consistencia de pensamiento y una acción social prescrita que ha sustentado al pueblo Hopi en su seguimiento de un modo de vida basado en la agricultura manual del maíz. Después, mostramos como estos mismos principios vitales expresados con metáforas en palabras se repiten visualmente en las imágines de los murales kiva del siglo XV encontrados en los asentamientos Hopi de Awatovi y Kawaika'a, así como en el diseño de la cerámica yellowware de Jeddito y Sikyatki.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , July 2004 , pp. 457 - 486
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Anyon, Roger, Ferguson, T. J., Jackson, L., Lane, L., and Vicenti, P. 1997 Native American Oral Tradition and Archaeology. In Native Americans and Archaeologists: Stepping Stones to Common Ground , edited by Swidler, N., Dongoske, K. E., Anyon, R., and Downer, A. S., pp. 77–87. Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Austin, Michael 1995 Art and Religion as Metaphor. British Journal of Aesthetics 35:145–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernardini, Wesley 2002 The Gathering of the Clans: Understanding Ancestral Hopi Migration and Identity AD 1275-1400. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Black, Mary 1984 Maidens and Mothers: An Analysis of Hopi Corn Metaphors. Ethnology 23:279–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dent-Read, Cathy H., Klein, Gary, and Eggleston, Robert 1994 Metaphor in Visual Displays Designed to Guide Action. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 9:211–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorson, Richard M. 1972 Debate over the Trustworthiness of Oral Traditional History. Folklore: Selected Essays. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Echo-Hawk, Roger C. 2000 Ancient History in the New World: Integrating Oral Traditions and the Archaeological Record in Deep Time. American Antiquity 65:267–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, T. J., Dongoske, Kurt, Jenkins, Leigh, Yeatts, Mike, and Polingyouma, Eric 1993 Working Together: The Roles of Archaeology and Ethnohistory in Hopi Cultural Preservation. Cultural Resource Management 16:27–37.Google Scholar
Ferguson, T. J., and Lomaomvaya, Micah 1999 Hoopoq’yaqam niqw wukoskyavi: Hopi-Salado Cultural Affiliation Study. Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, Kykotsmovi, Arizona.Google Scholar
Fewkes, Jesse Walter 1900 Tusayan Migration Traditions. 19th Annual Report. Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Finnegan, R. 1984 Note on Oral Tradition and Historical Evidence. In Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology , edited by Dunaway, D. and Baum, W., pp. 107–115. American Association for State and Local History, Nashville.Google Scholar
Hays-Gilpin, Kelley, and Hill, Jane H. 1999 The Flower World in Material Culture: An Iconographie Complex in the Southwest and Mesoamerica. Journal of Anthropological Research 55:1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Jane H. 1992 Flower World of Old Uto-Aztecan. Journal of Anthropological Research 48:117–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, R. R., and Kemper, S. 1987 What Could Reaction-Time Studies Be Telling Us about Metaphor Comprehension? Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 2:149–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopi Dictionary Project (compilers) 1998 Hopi Dictionary Hopìikwa Lavàytutuveni: A Hopi–English Dictionary of the Third Mesa Dialect. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell 1992 All There Is to Use. In On the Translation of Native American Literature , edited by Brian, Swann, pp. 83–124. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Kennedy, John M. 1982 Metaphor in Pictures. Perception 11:589–605.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kittay, Eva Feder 1987 Metaphor: Its Cognitive Force and Linguistic Structure. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Krupat, Arnold 1992 On the Translation of Native American Song and Story: A Theorized History. In On the Translation of Native American Literature , edited by Brian, Swann, pp. 3–32. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George, and Johnson, Mark 1980 Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press. Chicago.Google Scholar
Loftin, John D. 1991 Religion and Hopi Life in the Twentieth Century. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Lowie, Robert H. 1915 Oral Tradition and History. American Anthropologist 17:597–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, Patrick 2003 Ancestral Hopi Migrations. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona No. 68. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Malotki, Ekkehart, and Lomatuway, Michael 1984 Hopi Coyote Tales . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Mason, Ronald J. 2000 Archaeology and Native North American Oral Traditions. American Antiquity 65:239–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nabokov, Peter 2002a Forest of Time: American Indian Ways of History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Norman, D. A. 1988 The Psychology of Everyday Things. Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Olson, David R. 1988 Or What's a Metaphor For? Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 3:215–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortony, Andrew 1981 Understanding Metaphors. In Psychology and the Arts, edited by David, O’Hare, pp. 148–174. Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Roberts, R. M., and Kreuz, R. J. 1994 Why Do People Use Figurative Language? Psychological Science 5:159–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sapir, J. David 1977 The Anatomy of Metaphor. In The Social Use of Metaphor . edited by Sapir, J. D. and Crocker, J. C., pp. 3–32. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sekaquaptewa, Emory, and Washburn, Dorothy Forthcoming Metaphors of Meaning in the Awatovi Murals: A Hopi Perspective from Ritual Song and Ceramic Design. Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Smith, Watson 1952 Kiva Mural Decorations at Awatovi and Kawaika-a with a Survey of Other Wall Paintings in the Pueblo Southwest. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 37. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Swann, Brian (editor) 1992 On the Translation of Native American Literature. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Teague, Lynn S. 1993 Prehistory and the Traditions of the O’Odham and Hopi. Kiva 58:435–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tedlock, Dennis 1983 The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Tilley, Christopher 1999 Metaphor and Material Culture . Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.Google Scholar
Vansina, Jan 1965 Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 1977 A Symmetry Analysis of Upper Gila Area Ceramic Design. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 68. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 1986 Symmetry Analysis of Yurok, Karok and Hupa Indian Basket Designs. Empirical Studies of the Arts 4:19–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 1989 The Property of Symmetry and the Concept of Ethnic Style. In Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity . edited by Shennan, Stephen, pp. 157–173. Allan and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 1990 Style, Classification and Ethnicity: Design Categories on Bakuba Raffia Cloth. Transactions , 80(3). American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 1995 Perception, Geometry, and Style. In Style, Society and Person , edited by Christopher, Carr and Jill, Neitzel, pp. 101–122. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 1999 Perceptual Anthropology: The Cultural Salience of Symmetry. American Anthropologist 101:547–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 2000 The Cultural Salience of Symmetry. In Symmetry 2000 , edited by Hargittai, I. and . Laurent, C.T., pp. 429–444. Portland Press, London.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 2001 Remembering Things Seen: Experimental Approaches to the Process of Information Transmittal. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 8:67–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy 2003 Religious Song Texts as Oral History. Paper presented at the Fifth World Archaeological Congress, Washington, D. C., 23 June.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy (editor) 2004 Embedded Symmetries . University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy, and Crowe, Donald (editors) 2004 Symmetry Comes of Age: The Role of Pattern in Culture. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy, and Matson, R. G. 1985 Use of Multidimensional Scaling to Display Sensitivity of Symmetry Analysis of Patterned Design to Spatial and Chronological Change: Examples from Anasazi Prehistory. In Decoding Prehistoric Ceramics , edited by Ben, Nelson, pp. 75–101. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Washburn, Dorothy, and Petitto, Andrea 1991 An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective on Textile Categories of Identification and Function. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12:150–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiteley, Peter M. 2002 Archaeology and Oral Tradition: The Scientific Importance of Dialogue. American Antiquity 67:405–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zolbrod, Paul G. 1987 When Artifacts Speak, What Can They Tell Us? In Recovering the Word: Essays on Native American Literature , edited by Brian, Swann and Krupat, A., pp. 13–40. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar