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Every sodality priesthood at Hopi and Zuni has its own secret formula for the
making and coding of prayer-sticks . In general, however, Hopi paaho and
Zuni telikinawe are constituted by sticks of various kinds and lengths, com-
bined with various complex combinations of feathers, plants, grains, herbs,
cornmeal, pollens, minerals, and paints .' Because prayer-sticks are one of the
most omnipresent symbols of Pueblo ceremony, their ritual role is essential
for understanding the general principles informing Pueblo religious life and
culture . Don Talayesva describes the importance of Hopi prayer-sticks in
apocalyptic terms : `it is the most important work in the world, that the gods
and the spirits are holding out their hands for paaho, and that if the Soyala
should fail, life for the Hopi might end' . 2
Four models have emerged in Pueblo ethnography to account for the
meaning and function of prayer-stick ritual : (1) magic and its scheme of
analogic reasoning and lawful causation ; (2) the model of the symbolic text
and its reading/writing scheme of communication ; (3) the model of the
prayer-stick as gift and reciprocity ; (4) the model of the prayer-stick as self-
sacrifice . This paper analyzes these models in terms of their interpretive
coherence with Hopi and Zuni data . It also suggests a theory of prayer-stick
ritual and symbolic action that allows us a more comprehensive understand-
ing of their role in Pueblo rites of passage and fetish discourse . Prayer-stick
ritual provides ethnographers with a privileged domain of cultural perform-
ance that allows us insight into the role of symbolic action in transforming
the self and the world . I will argue that prayer-stick rituals are strategies for
the moral transformation of the self into a cosmic center of responsibility .
Pueblo prayer-stick rituals are logical and existential responses to the prox-
imity of self and other, power and moral responsibility . In effect, the re-
centering process of prayer-stick use, fetish discourse, and rites of passage
transforms both the self and the social structure of the cosmos in the ritual
maintenance of life .
and moral obligation . 8 Thus, Hopi and Zuni prayer-stick ritual does have
something to do with causation and compulsion . Pueblo universes are lawful
and causal, but lawfulness and causation is understood within the context of
an animated and radically social cosmos . The Pueblo live in a world ani-
mated by human-like powers, a worldview traditionally glossed by the an-
thropological concept `animism' . In such a world the `effects' of nature and
the universe are caused by living and purposeful beings, rather than imper-
sonal, mechanical laws and processes . For the Hopi and Zuni, clouds and
katsinas are manifestations of deceased ancestors, and of high ranking
members of the ritual sodalities, who participate in the reciprocity and
gifting processes that order this radically social world . In short, the mechan-
ical and impersonal causation of the magical model is inconsistent with the
Pueblo ontologies that inform prayer-stick rituals as performative actions
which constitute mutual relationships between kinds of living beings .
One could agree with Zuesse and others that prayer-stick ritual does
represent certain archetypical forms of behavior with causal and instrumen-
tal ends, and, therefore, might legitimately be called `magical' . But this label
obscures the point that prayer-stick rituals presuppose a self and world of
intersubjectivity and responsibility in which power has its source not in
impersonal laws, but in the responsible actions of creative living beings
acting collectively . In other words, in mythic systems like the Hopi and Zuni,
archetypes originate from the power centers of individuals-in-relationship .
The binary relations personhood/relationship and power/responsibility are
irreducible and axiomatic presuppositions of the Hopi and Zuni social atd
cosmic systems . In effect, then to categorize prayer-stick rituals are either
magic or `magic-religious' obscures the ontological priority of intentionality
and power in Zuni and Hopi worldviews .
Before the Bear shamans at Shipapolima send the Zuni youth home, they
say to him : `The clothing that someone gave us long ago is now full of
holes . We wear feathers in our hair . When you reach your own country,
for as many of us as are here you will make hair feathers . Hair feathers
and prayer-meal, shell, corn pollen, sparkling paint you will prepare .
You will take them down to your field . At the eastern end of your field
[Shipapolima is east of Zuni] you will give them to us . When, with our
supernatural power, we have clothed ourselves with the hair feathers, the
prayer-meal, the pollen, the shell, the sparkling paint, then with our long
life, our old age, we shall bless you . 16
Dennis Tedlock argues that Zuni religion is based upon this model of reci-
procity . 17 As he notes, however, this model cannot be reduced to simple
exchange and barter ." Ritual exchange presupposes different kind of bonds
and ontological relationships between givers and receivers . As V . Valeri
argues, `the offerings always represent more than a simple equivalent in
exchange ; it represents the deities, the sacrificer, their relationship, and the
results required' .' 9 Ritual exchange occurs within a symbolic matrix and
therefore must be understood within its own cultural context .
The following Zuni prayer makes explicit a very important symbolic frame
for our understanding of Zuni (and Hopi) prayer-sticks :
In the context of sodality ritual, both Zuni and Hopi prayer-sticks are
given `human form' . Prayer-sticks have 'faces', 21 they may be `male' or
`female' and are `clothed' in the feathers of sacred birds . 22 Prayer-sticks must
23
have `food' for their journeys to the katsinas and raw people . This ritually
constructed and animated quality of prayer-sticks also qualifies the textual
model and emphasizes the social and oral context of prayer-stick ritual and
communication . It is also the reason why Barbara and Dennis Tedlock argue
that Zuni prayer-sticks are `sacrificial surrogates of the self' . 2 `t I find little
226 J. Fulbright
and her children are the source of sustenance and life . 29 The life of both corn
and of human beings are thought of as `growing' toward perfection, a matu-
ration process which continues after death and into the afterlife, where
morally perfected Hopi and Zuni reincarnate as the person-processes of
nature, especially clouds and rain, 30 a maturation process dependent upon
the transformative power of secret sodality knowledge .
In sodality rites initiates learn that a human being shares important
ontological and moral relationships with the powers animating the cosmos .
The Hopi Wuwtsim, a rite of passage into manhood for all Hopi males,
teaches Hopis that their `flesh and blood', the essential self, is the `moisture
embodied within breath' (hikwsi), which is also identified as the substantive
essence of life, 31 especially corn and clouds . 32 At the center of the Hopi tiiponi,
the most powerful object-person of the Hopi sodalities, is a perfected ear of
`mother' corn, wrapped in feathers and cotton, symbols of the spiritual life of
clouds and moisture . Several nakwakwusi or `rain feathers' are tied to the
tiiponi as symbols of breath-moisture and the morally pure heart .33
Zuni ritual sodalities also conceptually associate breath-moisture, clouds,
and corn with the moral maturity of the self occasioned in sodality rites of
passage . The person-objects ('ettone') of the powerful Zuni Rain Priesthood
(A'shiwani) symbolize the essence of self and life as clouds and moisture : the
ettone are constituted of reeds filled with water and wrapped in cotton . 34
Initiates of Zuni Medicine sodalities learn that their pinanne or breath-soul
(literally `wind' or `air') is substantively identical to the powers animating
the raw people ." At the center of the mili, the primary object-person of the
Medicine sodalities, is a perfected ear of `mother' corn, a symbol of `the
breath of life and life itself' . The mili is said to be the new `mother' or `father'
of the initiates, who, as Barbara Tedlock notes," functions as `superegos' for
the initiates, thus disciplining the initiates toward their new sense of self and
its moral obligations . The individually owned mili is said to be the `new heart
of the initiate', 37 a symbolic indication of the redefinition and recentering
process of sodality rituals .
Object-persons like the Hopi tiiponi and the Zuni mili and ettone concretize
and embody the newly perceived ontological relationships and moral obli-
gations of clan and sodality . They can be understood as hermeneutic icons . 38
Upon receiving a personal mili at initiation, a Zuni breathes from the midi
four times, and will breathe from and blow on his new `mother', or her new
`father', at important ritual times throughout life . 39 In Hopi ceremony, the
tiiponi are owned by the high status shaman-priests of the sodalities, are said
to be the `mothers' of the sodality/clan, and the ultimate source of their
power . 40 The exchange of breath between initiates and the sodality person-
objects reveals these object-persons as centers of a new ontological identity
with, and new obligatory relationships between, humans and non-humans .
22 8 J. Fulbright
embodied in the life of corn and rain, and symbolized in sodality person-
objects, is an important theme of all Hopi forms of ritual giving . Homngumni is
ground white cornmeal symbolic of clouds and purity . It is used by the
common Hopi (and Zuni) as both an offering and a symbolic prayer that
symbolizes the hard work of planting and harvesting, i .e. the sacrifices
necessary throughout the agricultural cycle . Nakwakwusi, the eagle down
breast feathers tied to all Hopi prayer-sticks, not only symbolize the breath-
moisture of all life forms, they also symbolize the hard work necessary to
obtain the feathers from eaglets living in high and dangerous cliff walks .
But prayer-sticks and prayer-stick rituals embody the necessity of self-
sacrifice and moral perfection for maintaining life processes more than any
other ritual object and symbolic action . This explains why the Hopi often
refer to prayer-sticks as corn (kao), 51 and are said to be `planted' in corn
fields, river mud, springs, mountain shrines and other special locations . 52
Prayer-sticks are the symbolic embodiments of self-sacrifice and the rituals
strategies for the recentering of the self in a social field of cosmic responsi-
bility . Thus prayer-sticks are said to be the `roots' of the home and village . 53
In conclusion, the most important leitmotif of Hopi and Zuni ceremony is
revealed in prayer-stick ritual as the moral necessity of self-sacrifice to main-
tain the maturation and flow of life, the social and moral order of cosmic
processes . This principle of self-sacrifice defines the Zuni Rain Priesthood,
expressing a sense of moral responsibility that transcends even the human
community . Rain Priests devote much of their lives to fasting, prayer, and
exemplary moral conduct . A Rain Priest should respect all forms of life ; their
prayer-stick sacrifices are for the long and happy life of all beings, 'even every
dirty bug' . J4 Prayer-stick rituals reveal certain forms of Pueblo symbolic
action as strategies for transforming or maturing cultural selves into larger
and larger circles of relational bonding . They create integral selves with
secret knowledge of ontological processes and of moral responsibility for
maintaining the cosmic solidarity that animates these processes of self-sacri-
fice .
misunderstanding of Zuni and Hopi value systems that occur when `social
structure' is arbitrarily and ethnocentrically separated from their understand-
ing of ontological processes and the moral responsibilities that those on-
tologies imply . This analysis of prayer-stick ritual necessitates a rethinking of
the effect of person-objects (especially important `fetishes') and symbolic
action on social structure . Prayer-stick rituals must be understood as import-
ant strategies for cultural transformation that recenter the individual within
new webs of `social' relations and moral responsibilties, new wholes which
qualify the old parts and create new worlds of meaning and value . Thus,
while Hopi and Zuni religion may be `religions of structure' 61 and concerned
with `cosmic harmony', 62 they are primarily concerned with the transforma-
tive processes of `social' bonding (communitas) that transcend biological
kinship, and that promote a broad sense of social and cosmic responsibility .
NOTES
1 E . C . Parsons, Pueblo Indian Religion, 4 vols, Chicago, IL, University of Chicago
Press 1939, pp . 276-81 ; D . Tedlock, `Zuni religion and world view', in Handbook
of North American Indians, vol . 9, Washington, D . C ., Smithsonian Institute 1979,
p . 501 ; A . Geertz and M . Lomatuway'ma, Children of Cottonwood : Piety and Cer-
emonialism in Hopi Indian Puppetry, Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press
1987 .
2 From D . Talayesva, Sun Chief: the Autobiography of a Hopi Indian, New Haven, Yale
University Press London 1942, pp . 169-70 . The Soyala is the Hopi solstice
ceremony where constructing and giving prayer-sticks is the ritual priority .
3 See, for example, E . C . Parsons, `Increase by magic : a Zuni pattern', American
Anthropologist 21 :3 (1919) pp. 279-86 ; Patterns of the Southwest, Seattle, WA, Uni-
versity of Washington Press 1948 ; R . M . Bradfield, A Natural History of Associ-
ations : A Study in the Meaning of Community, London, Duckworth Press 1973, pp .
189-97 .
4 See J . G . Frazer, The Golden Bough : A Study in Comparative Religion, 2 vols, London,
Macmillan 1890 . Frazer first formulated the formal theory of magical causation .
Frazer argued that `primitive' ritual was based on an intellectual confusion of
resemblance : the principle of like produces like (mimetic or sympathetic magic)
or the principle that part stands for whole (homeopathic or contagious magic) .
Frazer argued that the universe of the primitive was like modern science in that it
was based on lawful, mechanical, and necessary laws of causation, but was
unlike science in that it was based on the `child-like' confusions of analogic
reasoning or poetic causality .
5 Underhill, op. cit ., p . 50 ; or Bradfield, op . cit ., p . 197 .
6 E . M . Zuesse, `Ritual', in The Encyclopedia of Religion, vol . 12, Mircea Eliade (ed .),
New York, Macmillan 1987, p . 410 .
7 J . Loftin, `Supplication and participation : the distance and relation of the sacred
in Hopi prayer rites', Anthropos 81 (1986) pp . 177-202 .
8 Ibid ., p . 188-92.
9 A . M . Stephen, Hopi Journal, E . C . Parsons (ed .), New York, Columbia Univer-
sity Press 23 1936, p . 164, emphasis mine .
10 Loftin, op. cit ., pp . 188-91 .
232 J. Fulbright
11 D . Tedlock, The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation, Philadelphia, PA,
University of Pennsylvania Press 1983 .
12 S . Gill, Native American Religions : An Introduction, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth Press
1982, p . 6 .
13 L . Heib, `The ritual clown : humor and ethics', in Forms of Play of Native North
Americans, Edward Norbeck and Claire Farrer (eds), St . Paul, MN, Saint Paul
Press 1979 .
14 A . Geertz, Children, p . 67, fn . 17, writes `the pure heart is the foundation of Hopi
religious life, and it is the basic ingredient of any successful endeavor' ; see also
Loftin, op . cit ., p . 182, 189-90 ; Stephen, op . cit ., pp . 1271-2 ; R. Bunzel Introduc-
tion to Zuni Ceremonialism, Forty-seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ameri-
can Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution 1932, p . 498 ; Parsons, Religion, p . 285 .
15 Bunzel, op . cit ., p . 500; Stephen, op . cit ., pp . 1271-2 ; D . Tedlock, Zuni Religion,
op . cit ., p . 501 .
16 R . Bunzel, Zuni Texts, Publications of the American Ethnological Society, vol .
XV, Franz Boas (ed .), New York, Stechert 1933, p . 240 .
17 D . Tedlock, Zuni Religion, p . 501 .
18 Modern ethnographers like A . Geertz, Children, pp . 29-30, fn . 23, still use the
magic/barter models to explain prayer-stick ritual : `One might sum it up by
saying that prayer-offerings serve as objects of barter between man and god, as
vehicles of mimesis within the cultural context, and as apotropaic powers them-
selves' .
19 V . Valerio, Kinship and Sacrifice : Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii, Chicago, IL,
University of Chicago Press 1985, p . 67 .
20 Bunzel, Introduction, pp . 484, 799 .
21 R . Voth, `Traditions of the Hopi', Field Museum of Natural History Publication 96,
Anthropological Series 8, p . 117 ; Stephen, op . cit ., pp . 75 ; Bunzel, Introduction, p .
126 ; A . Geertz, Children, p . 30, fin . 23 .
22 Voth, op . cit., p . 29 ; Bunzel, Introduction, p . 500 .
23 Loftin, op . cit ., p . 189 .
24 B . Tedlock, Prayer Stick Sacrifice at Zuni . Unpublished manuscript in the
library of the Department of Anthropology, Wesleyan University, 1971, refer-
enced in D . Tedlock, Zuni Religion, p . 501 .
25 Stephen, op . cit ., pp . 1271-2 ; Loftin, op . cit ., p. 190 .
26 Voth, op . cit ., p . 791 .
27 P . Qoyawayma, No Turning Back : A True Account of a Hopi Indian Girl's Struggle to
Bridge the Gap between the World of Her People and the World of the White Man .
Albuquerque, NM, University of New Mexico Press 1964, p . 86 .
28 See E . Brandt, `On secrecy and the control of knowledge : tags Pueblo', in Secrecy :
a Cross-Cultural Perspective, New York, NY, Human Sciences Press ; and Peter
Whiteley, `The Interpretation of politics : a Hopi conundrum', Man 22 :4
(December) pp . 696-714 .
29 M . Black, `Maidens and mothers : an analysis of Hopi corn metaphors', Ethnology
XXXII : 4 (October 1984), p . 286 ; Bunzel, Introduction, p. 277 ;
30 Black, op . cit ., p . 280 .
31 B . L . Whorf, An American Indian Model of the Universe, International Journal of
American Linguistics 16(1950), p . 69, n . 2 .
32 E . A . Kennard, `Metaphor and magic : key concepts in Hopi culture', in M . E .
Smith (ed .), Studies in Linguistics in Honor of George L . Trager, The Hague 1972, p .
471 ; Black, op. cit ., p . 282 ; Heib, op . cit ., p . 577 ; Loftin, op . cit ., p . 184 .
Hopi and Zuni Prayer-sticks 233