Transcript Air-Spirit People

American Emergence Myths
Air-Spirit People
Anasazi
bow priests
cultural relativism
ethnography
Hopi people
masks in rituals
Navajo people
Pandora
paratactic storytelling
petroglyphs
powakas
Pueblo Indians
shape-changers
sipapuni
Spider Grandmother
Swallow People
Tawa
tricksters
Water Spider
Zuni people
Oral Myths and Enthography
Native American Oral Narrative
http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/colo
nial/native_nar.html
A living oral tradition
Emphasis on oral performance and ritual
Cultural relativism
Ethnographers:
Harold Courlander (Hopi, 1971)
Ruth Fulton Benedict (Zuni)
Paul Zolbrod (Navajo)
Native American World View
Hozho = Navajo principle of harmony and order.
Union with nature
The world not as a place of punishment
but as a place for fulfillment of destiny
Zuni Harmony with the Cosmos
http://www.cliftonunitarian.com/toddstalks/religionofzuni.htm
Native American Myths in Brief
http://www.livingmyths.com/Nativesum.htm
Anasazi = Ancient People
= “Enemy Ancestors”
in Navajo
a Pueblo people
Ancestors of Hopi
and Zuni
Mesa Verde (Colorado)
The Zuni People
Zuni Emergence Myths
• Four Worlds (vertical orientation)
• Four Compass Directions (horizontal orientation)
• Four Trees
pine
spruce
silver spruce
aspen
Trees in Creation Stories
http://www.thetree.org.uk/Sacred%20Grove/cr
eationstories.htm
Tree of Life
Tree of Knowledge
World Tree
http://ascension2000.com/Conv
ergenceIII/c315.htm
Zuni
Zuni Genesis
http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwal
z/Eliade/063.html
Zuni Origin Myth
http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/beckman/we
stern/zuni.htm
Zuni Harmony with the Cosmos
http://www.cliftonunitarian.com/toddstalks/religionof
zuni.htm
Zuni snake priest
Zuni Hero Twins
Ko'wituma (Elder Brother) leads the
Younger Brother (Wats'usi)
Zuni Twins
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/NAANTH/
ZTWINGOD.HTM
Hero Twins
http://www.angelfire.com/trek/archaeology
/twins.html
Prayerstick
Huichol
Huichol Prayerstick
Bow Priests
Emblem of Bow Priest society
http://www.heard.org/rain/prin
ts/bopriest.html
Corn
Itsumawe =
“to increase by magic”
Zuni corn maiden fetishes made of antler)
Twins as Creators
Metamorphosis of humans
originally insect-like
gradual evolution
loss of animal features
(webbed fingers, tails and horns)
Water Spider as helper
MIGRATION
Finding the Middle (Halona)
Hopi Emergence Myth
http://www.hopi.nsn.us/emergence.asp
The Fourth World of the Hopis
(by Harold Courlander, 1971)
http://www.bsu.edu/classes/magrath/205resources/h
opi.html
Similarities to Zuni:
Spider Grandmother as helper
Insect creatures evolve
Ritual of corn
Migration of the peoples
Hopi Sipapuni
This spot is thought by some to be Sipapu, entrance to the Hopi
Underworld. It is a sacred place of pilgrimage for the Hopi, at the bottom
of the Canyon of the Little Colorado above its junction with the Colorado
River. Copyright © 1974. The Arizona Board of Regents.
Myth and Ritual
A kiva at Mesa Verde with sipapuni.
Coyote: Another Hopi Helper
Daniel O Stope. Coyote Howling at the Moon
The Navajo Nation
Descendants of the
Athapaskan, not the
Anasazi
Navajo Terms
hozho = Overarching principle of harmony and order.
K'e (prefix in spoken Navajo = universal harmony)
Diné:
1) diyin kine'i = supernaturals, holy people;
Creators of humans
2) nihokaa dine'e = earth surface people, naturals.
Ana'i = non-Navajo. Various kinds of non-Navajo.
3. Diné bahané = Navajo creation story
Navajo Creation Myth:
Nílch'i dine'é = Air-Spirit People
Swallow People / Yellow Grasshopper People
Kiis'áanii = People Who Live in Upright Houses (Pueblo communities?)
Haashich'ééh dine'é = Holy People
Talking God
Áltsé hastiin = First Man / Áltsé asdz´q´q = First Woman
Bilagáana = White Man
FOUR WORLDS OF THE NAVAJO
First/Black World
Second/Blue World
Third/Yellow World
Fourth/ Black and White World
THE FOUR DIRECTIONS OF THE
NAVAJO
East:
This is the direction of the dawn and it is our thinking direction. We should
first think before we do anything. When the sun comes up, we look to the...
South:
This is our planning direction where we plan what we are going to do. The
sun sets in the...
West:
This is our life, and is where we do our living. Here is where we act out our
plan and our thoughts of the east and south directions of our lives. The sun
goes down in the. North:
North:
This is the evaluation portion of our lives. This is where we get our
satisfaction and we evaluate the outcome of what we first started in the east.
Here is where we determine to change things to make it better, or to see we
are on the right path and should continue the cycle.
Navajo Sacred Mountains
The Navajos belief is that their Creator placed them on the land between the
following 4 mountains representing the 4 cardinal directions:
Mount Blanca (Tsisnaasjini' - Dawn or White Shell Mountain)
Sacred Mountain of the East (near Alamosa in San Luis Valley, Colorado)
Mount Taylor (Tsoodzil - Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain)
Sacred Mountain of the South (north of Laguna, New Mexico)
San Francisco Peaks (Doko'oosliid - Abalone Shell Mountain)
Sacred Mountain of the West (near Flagstaff, Arizona)
Mount Hesperus Dibé Nitsaa (Big Mountain Sheep) - Obsidian Mountain
Sacred Mountain of the North (La Plata Mountains, Colorado)
http://www.lapahie.com/Sacred_Mts.cfm
Mount Blanca (East)
Mount Taylor (South)
San Francisco Peak (West)
Mount Hesperus (North)
Diné bahané
Similarities to Zuni and Hopi
Four worlds
original humans are insects
Vertical movement
search for sipapuni
Differences
Air-spirit people fly rather than climb
Air-spirit people are expelled for their sins
Need for Hozho
Navajo Creation Story
by Joe Ben Jr
Kiis'áanii = People Who Live in
Upright Houses
Creation of Humans
diyin kine'i = supernaturals,
holy people
These supernaturals create
humans from two ears of corn
Male (white corn)
Woman (yellow corn)
(metamorphosis)
Note birth of TWINS
Aetiology of masks
Two supernatural holy people
flank the sacred maize plant on
this 19th Navajo ceremonial
blanket.
American Emergence Myths
Air-Spirit People
Anasazi
bow priests
cultural relativism
ethnography
Hopi people
masks in rituals
Navajo people
paratactic storytelling
Pueblo Indians
sipapuni
Spider Grandmother
tricksters
Water Spider
Zuni people
Add:
Harold Courlander
Ruth Fulton Benedict
Paul Zolbrod
Mesa Verde
hozho
Twins
Trees
itsumawe