The Alósaka cult of the Hopi Indians

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

In the Flute ceremony the cult society ancestors are called the Leñya-tiyo (Flute-youth) and Leñya-mana (Flute-maid), who are represented symbolically by images on the altars and by a boy and two girls in the public exhibition.

In the Lalakonti ceremony these two ancestral personages are represented in a symbolic way by images on the altar and by sand pictures on the floor, and by a man and two girls in the public dance. These personages are called by the Lalakonti society the Lakone-taka and the Lakone-manas respectively.

In the Mamzrautû society they are called the Marau-taka and the Marau-manas, and are symbolically represented on the altar by figurines and in the public dance by a boy and a maid called the Palahiko-mana whose headdress with symbolic clouds and squash blossoms so closely resembles that of Calako-mana, or the Corn-maid,[31] that it is difficult to distinguish the two.

In the great katcina cult these two personages are called Anwucnoshotaka and Hahaiwuqti, or “Man of all the Crow clans,” and “Mother of katcinas,” respectively; but as this cult is very complex in the East Mesa towns, and is celebrated by many amalgamated cult societies, there are various other names for these two ancestors.

It is instructive to consider somewhat more in detail this aspect of the Hopi katcina cult in the two great characteristic festivals called Powamû and Nimán.

Reviewing the Hopi calendar it is found that katcina worship appears in ceremonies from December to July, inclusive, and while none of the festivals between July and December is a true katcina, the majority of those during the remainder of the year bear this name. As expressed by the Hopi priests, the Nimán ceremony celebrates the departure of the katcinas from the pueblos, to which they do not return for about six months. This Nimán (“Departure”) ceremony of the katcinas is celebrated in July, and no katcinas are personated in the Hopi pueblos until December. The time of the return of these supernaturals is not as distinct as that of their departure, and they may be said to straggle back in the December and January rites; but their return in force takes place in the February ceremony called Powamû which is made up wholly of characteristic katcina exhibitions.

It is of some interest to determine the month of the return, for there are katcina personations in December (Soyáluña) and during the January moon, and it may be held that their appearance in the former proves that the advent of these worthies occurs in the month named. The chief participants in the December rite (and the same may be said of the January ceremony) are not distinctive katcinas, or rather there are other ceremonies not belonging to this cult in their composition, and no special distinctive katcina altars are erected. In the Powamû, however, there is a true katcina altar which is essentially the same as that set up in the Nimán when the katcinas leave the pueblo. Powamû may thus be regarded as the official celebration of the return, and from that time to July these personages dominate the ritual. But the rites of intervening moons are not all necessarily pure katcinas, even if katcinas participate in them. Thus, in the March ceremony, Palülükoñti (Unkwanti), they are again subordinate. This is not a pure katcina, but that of another cult into which they have straggled or to which they have been added in the course of evolution. There are only two great katcina celebrations, Powamû and Nimán, both controlled by the katcina chief, both with a true katcina altar, both free from other Hopi cults.

Some of the differences between the Powamû at Walpi and the other Hopi pueblos are due to the introduction of masked personifications at Walpi which are absent elsewhere. This may be explained as follows: Near Walpi there are two other pueblos—one Tanoan, the other peopled by descendants of Tanoan clans, neither of which has exerted an influence on the other pueblos. These Tanoan colonists have brought their own katcinas to the East Mesa of Tusayan, and while they possess no altar of this cult they contribute their distinctive katcinas to the Walpi Powamû. In the January ceremony they do the same, and while the Walpi priests are celebrating in that month a true Hopi Flute or Snake rite, Hano and Sitcomovi contribute masked katcinas which complicate the ceremony.[32] Hence the Powamû rites at Walpi became more complicated than those performed elsewhere at the same time, because of the proximity of two pueblos in which there are variations in the katcina cult that are peculiar to them; and as it is probable that the katcina rites in other pueblos have not been affected by Ása and Hano clans, we should expect to find in them a less complex presentation of the rites of the katcina cult.

This is also in accordance with tradition, for the Honani clans, which introduced the katcina cult from Kicuba, went first to Oraibi, from which pueblo the cult was distributed to the other pueblos. The Walpi katcina altar is simple as compared with that at Oraibi; it has no figurines because it is derivative, and the same fact may explain why Walpi has but one Powamû altar while Oraibi has several. The Walpi katcina altar is simpler than that of Oraibi,[33] because derivative, but the katcina personations in this pueblo are more numerous and varied because the Ása and other Tanoan clans have contributed many new forms.

If we separate from the Walpi Powamû the elements introduced by Ása and Hano clans, we find in it the same personages as in the Oraibi celebration—Ahole, a Sun-god who flogs the children; the katcina cultus hero; Hahaiwuqti, the old woman, and Eototo. The last mentioned, a cultus hero of the Kokop people and a tutelary god of Sikyatki,[34] was an early addition to the Walpi ritual before the Powamû was celebrated. He was historically the first katcina to come to the pueblo, as he now leads the procession of masked priests in their dramatization of their advent and exit. Under the name Masauuh he invaded the Snake rites, and as Eototo he became a masked personage in the Powamû and the Nimán when these ceremonies were added to the Walpi ritual.