One source of information in regard to the differences and likenesses between the Zuñi and Hopi ceremonials is the testimony of the chiefs themselves. This does not hold in regard to modified ceremonials primarily the same or derived from a common source, and is only hearsay, not science.
All the Hopi priests say that the Siotü (Zuñis) have no knowledge of the Tcütcübwimi (Snake-Antelope mysteries). The same chiefs likewise claim that the Zuñis have no Mamzraúti, Lálakoñti,[118] Wüwütcímti, and no societies corresponding to the Tátaukyamû, Áaltû, or Kwákwantû.
Although they may not reproduce some of these ceremonials in the form celebrated by the Hopi, it is not clear to me that some of those which they observe may not be differentiations of the same ceremony, as I have shown in my accounts of the women’s dances.[119] There is a marked similarity in many of the myths, which would seem to imply resemblances in ritualistic dramatizations of the same.
It is possible to verify historical data and legendary history by a study of the same ceremony. For instance, the five oldest Tusayan pueblos of which we have accounts in the earliest records are Awatobi, Walpi, Micoñinovi, Cuñopavi, and Oraibi.[120] Awatobi was destroyed in 1700, so that but four original communities of the time of Vargas still remain. It is in these four and at Cipaulovi that the Snake ceremony is still celebrated, and Sitcomovi and Hano are ascribed by Hopi legends to a much later time than the first appearance of the Spaniards; their names do not appear in the early descriptions of the province.
It is a mistaken idea, and one which has led to many misconceptions, to suppose that what is true of one group of pueblos is true of all. While in a general way the mythology and ritual of all may be said to have general resemblances, there is far from an identity between the ceremonials, for instance, of the Hopi and the Zuñi, or those of the Rio Grande pueblos and Tusayan. It is not a question of knowing all by an intimate knowledge of one; but each branch, even individual pueblos, must be investigated separately before by comparative knowledge we can obtain an adequate conception of the character of the pueblo type of mythology and ritual. Moreover, there is evidence that this difference existed in ancient times, and while the differentiation of the manners and customs of different pueblos may have been less rapid in the past than today they were far from being identical. It does not follow, except in certain limits, that the most primitive pueblos today show in their survivals a better picture of the character of life in another pueblo than the existing state of things in the latter. To reconstruct the probable character of the ancient culture we must trace similarities by comparative studies.
In a comparative study of the ceremonials of different pueblos, it is important to decide which are most primitive or nearest the aboriginal condition and which are least affected by foreign influences. The purer the present aboriginal culture, the greater worth will it have in our approximation to a true conception of the primitive pueblo culture. Many of the Pueblos practice a religious system which may be rightly called aboriginal, but in some it has been modified by outside influences. I think no one, for instance, would say that the present Zuñi custom of burial in a churchyard was not due in part to the influence of Catholic priests, for Spanish narratives of three and a half centuries ago are quite explicit in their statement that the Zuñi burned their dead. If one custom has been changed, how are we to distinguish the modified from the primitive? It can be shown that strong influences have been used for the direct purpose of destroying the Katcina worship. Take, for instance, Zuñi, the least changed of all the pueblos except those of Tusayan. It is pagan today, and probably never was profoundly modified by Christianity, but Roman Catholic fathers, with the avowed determination to Christianize it, could not have lived there continuously for over a century and caused the great missions to be built without modifying the religious customs of the Zuñians. It is said that after the priests were driven out the Pueblos returned to their ancient practices, but it must be admitted that no one has yet shown how the pure Katcina practices were preserved over three generations. They returned to an old worship, but who has evidence to say that it was the same as that of their great-great-grandfathers?
In some instances the natives have very willingly adopted Christian teachings and the Christian God, believing that by so doing their own religion would necessarily become strengthened by an addition to their pantheon. Such adoption, however, no matter how regarded by them, made a permanent impression on their primitive condition by changing their mode of thought and life.
They apparently may have abandoned all that the church taught; but what means could have been used to restore the pure worship of pre-Columbian times? The culture which was revived was aboriginal, but could never be identical[121] with that of the times before Coronado.
The question then resolves itself into a historical one—which pueblos were the home of Catholic priests for the shortest time, and in which were their influences least powerful? The historian will of course answer the Tusayan pueblos, and ethnology contributes her quota of facts to indicate that the purest form of Pueblo ceremonials are now practiced by these villagers.
Although there are several ceremonials which the Hopi claim are not performed at Zuñi, and conversely others performed at Zuñi which are not observed in Tusayan, there is a similarity, differing in details, between the Kóko and Katcina dances close enough to show their identity. The Hopi recognize this fact, and to prove it I need only mention that the Áñakatcina in 1891 was danced at Zuñi by some of the Hopi as a Kóko. I have already pointed out the identity of the masks, paraphernalia, and songs of the Kókokshi, performed by the Zuñians, and the Áñakatcina at Walpi. There is no doubt in my mind that they are the same, but I can not accept the dictum that what is observed in one is identical with what exists in the other. There are slight modifications which exist likewise in different Hopi villages, as will be seen by a comparison of my descriptions of the two. One marked difference is that several Kókokshi dances were performed in the summer I spent at Zuñi, and that this identical Katcina (the Áña) is performed but once each summer in any one Hopi village.