The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical SystemsNuttall, Zelia
Religion
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems
“Zuñi is divided, not always clearly to the eye, but very clearly in the
estimation of the people themselves, into seven parts, corresponding not
perhaps in arrangement topographically, but in scheme to their
subdivisions of the worlds or world-quarters of this world. Thus one
division of the town is supposed to be related to the north and to be
centred in its kiva or estufa which may or may not be at its centre;
another division represents the west, another the south, another the east;
yet another the upper world and another the lower world; while a final
division represents the middle or mother and synthetic combination of the
all in the world.
“By reference to the early Spanish history of the pueblos, it may be seen
that when discovered the Ashiwis or Zuñis were living in seven quite
widely separated towns the celebrated seven cities of Cibola and that this
theoretic subdivision of the only one of these towns now remaining is in
some manner a survival of the original subdivision of the tribes into
seven into as many towns. It is evident that in both cases, however, the
arrangement was and is, if we may call it such, a mythic organization;
hence my use of the term of mytho-sociologic organization of the tribe. At
all events this is the key to their sociology as well as to their mythic
conception of space and universe.
“... There were nineteen clans, grouped in threes, to correspond to the
mythic subdivision. Three to north, west, south, east, Upper, Lower. The
_single_ clan of Macaw is midmost or of middle and also as the all
containing and mother clan of the entire tribe, for in it is ‘the seed of
the priesthood of houses’ supposed to be preserved.(52)
“Finally, as produced from all the clans and as representative alike of
all the clans and through a tribal septuarchy of all the regions and
divisions of the midmost and, finally, as representative of all the cult
societies above mentioned, is the Kaka or A’kâkâ-kwe or Mythic Dance drama
people or organization.
“It may be seen of these mytho-sociologic organizations that they are a
system within a system and that it contains systems within systems all
founded on the classification according to the six-fold division of things
and in turn the six-fold division of each of these divisions of things ...
The tribal division made up of the clans of the north take precedence
ceremonially, occupying the position of elder brother or the oldest
ancestor. The west is the younger brother to this and the south of the
west, the east of south, etc.... while the middle is supposed to be a
representative being, the heart and name of all of the brothers of the
regions, the first and last, as well as elder and younger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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