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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
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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

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