Outlines of Zuñi Creation Myths: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 321-448Cushing, Frank Hamilton
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Outlines of Zuñi Creation Myths: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 321-448
Cushing, Frank Hamilton
Zuni mythology
Now peoples like those of the round towns, no less than primitive
peoples generally, conceive of everything made, whether structure,
utensil, or weapon, as animistic, as living. They conceive of this life
of things as they do of the lives of plants, of hibernating animals, or
of sleeping men, as a still sort of life generally, but as potent and
aware, nevertheless, and as capable of functioning, not only obdurately
and resistingly but also actively and powerfully in occult ways, either
for good or for evil. As every living thing they observe, every animal,
has form, and acts or functions according to its form--the feathered
and winged bird flying, because of its feathered form; the furry and
four-footed animal running and leaping, because of its four-footed
form, and the scaly and finny fish swimming, because also of its fins
and scales and form appropriate thereto--so these things made or born
into special forms of the hands of man also have life and function
variously, according to their various forms.
As this idea of animals, and of things as in other sort animals, is
carried out to the minutest particular, so that even the differences in
the claws of beasts, for example, are supposed to make the difference
between their powers of foot (as between the hugging of the bear and
the clutching of the panther), it follows that form in all its details
is considered of the utmost importance to special kinds of articles
made and used, even of structures of any much used or permanent type.
Another phase of this curious but perfectly natural attributive of
life and form-personality to material things, is the belief that the
forms of these things not only give them power, but also restrict their
power, so that if properly made, that is, made and shaped strictly as
other things of their kind have been made and shaped, they will perform
only such safe uses as their prototypes have been found to serve in
performing before them. As the fish, with scales and fins only, can
not fly as the duck does, and as the duck can not swim under the water
except so far as his feathers, somewhat resembling scales, and his
scaly, webbed feet, somewhat resembling fins enable him to do so, thus
also is it with things. In this way may be explained better than in
any other way, I think, the excessive persistency of form-survival,
including the survival of details in conventional ornamentation in the
art products of primitive peoples--the repetitions, for instance, in
pottery, of the forms and even the ornaments of the vessels, basketry,
or what not, which preceded it in development and use and on which it
was first modeled. This tendency to persist in the making of well-tried
forms, whether of utensil or domicile, is so great that some other
than the reason usually assigned, namely, that of mere accustomedness,
is necessary to account for it, and the reason I have given is fully
warranted by what I know of the mood in which the Zuñis still regard
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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