The Alósaka cult of the Hopi IndiansFewkes, Jesse Walter
Religion
The Alósaka cult of the Hopi Indians
Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Hopi Indians -- Religion
The first group of horn-headed gods to which reference may be
made are the pictures found on altars in the ceremonies called
_Nimán_ and _Powamû_. At Walpi these pictures are said to represent
_Tuñwupkatcina_,[16] a name which may be of Tanoan origin. Figures
of _Tuñwup_ have two lateral horns on the head, to the tips of which
representations of feathers are sometimes appended. On the top of
the head, between these two horns, there is represented a crest of
radiating feathers, and on the forehead a broadheaded arrow which is
sometimes modified to resemble the symbolism on the face of the figures
of the sun painted on disks.
The _Tuñwup_ type of horned gods includes the _Calako-taka_, _Natacka_,
and one or two others. The mask of _Ahole_, who flogs the children
during the _Powamû_ celebration, has the same two lateral horns and
representation of radiating feathers over the crown of the head, but
instead of sagittaform marks on the forehead there is a colored band
from ear to ear across the face, as shown in plate XXVI, _d._
It is probable that these horned gods have close kinship and are
possibly identical, _Ahole_ being simply a name of the personification
by a masked man, and _Tuñwup_ that of the picture of the same on the
altar. The horned _Alósaka_ does not belong to this type of horned
“gods,” although it has two horns on the head both in graven images and
in pictures.
Myths of Alósaka
It will be seen from the preceding account that the _Alósaka_ rites
are well developed in the ceremonies of the New-fire and Winter
Solstice, in which the clans from the south who joined the Hopi are
well represented, or in which religious societies and ceremonial
paraphernalia brought by the _Patuñ_, _Píba_, _Pátki_, and related
clans have preeminence. Study of the _Alósaka_ myths reveals an
explanation of the meaning of this relationship.
During his valuable studies among the Hopi, the late A. M. Stephen
obtained an _Alósaka_ legend which is recorded in his notes on the Keam
collection, and is here quoted with explanations obtained by the author
since Mr Stephen’s death.
“At the Red House in the south[17] internecine wars prevailed, and the
two branches of the _Pátki_[18] people separated from the other Hopi
and determined to return to the fatherland in the north.[19] But these
two branches were not on the best of terms, and they traveled northward
by separate routes, the [later settlers of] Micoñinovi[20] holding to
the east of the [later settlers of] Walpi.
“The _Pátki_ traveled north until they came to Little Colorado river,
and built houses on both its banks.[21] After living there many years
the factional dissensions, which seem to have ever haunted these
people, again broke out, and the greater portion of them withdrew still
farther north and built villages the ruins[22] of which are still
discernible not far from the site of the villages their descendants
inhabit at present.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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