Religious Beliefs of the Hopi

The Pueblos, comprised of many linguistic families, are primarily found throughout the area now known as New Mexico. Sedentary agriculturists, they lived in stone or adobe community houses which made up villages called pueblos and were noted for their complex ceremonial calendar of rituals. "Among the 1>ueblos, cyclic rituals, which were intended to generate community health and wellbeing, were the ultimate prescribed rituals in their annual ceremonial calendars" (Jorgensen 257).

In 1>ueblo ideology, individual persons, kinship groups, and all elements of society were part of the important ceremonial cycle and the gods that were represented in the various rituals (Jorgensen 258). while certain crisis rites were public affairs, such as initiation ceremonies, death was a private ritual. It occupied a very special place in this belief system. "Death served to tra

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ors. Prayer sticks covered with feathers are planted in the fields and at springs to carry prayers upward to the spirits (Ortiz 177). The Hopi kachinas come throughout the year at special times tied to the growing season. Their first appearance each year is in December to celebrate the winter solstice and again in February when the bean-planting ceremony "reawakens the sleeping earth" (Ortiz 177). For six months the kachinas will live in the village and dance for rain and other blessings. The Snake Dance held in August is the most important ceremony for it is the ultimate prayer for rain. Throughout the ritual, the dancers carry live snakes which have been 4 collected from the desert and are released after the ceremony is over so that they can carry the prayers of the people to the proper spirits (Gridley 136-7). The kachina could also be a carved and painted likeness of a spirit and is known as a "kachina doll.,, Though.all Pueblos recognize kachinas, the Hopi have the largest number - more than two hundred and fifty (Ortiz 181). They take many forms - demons, ogres, animals, birds and clowns. By mid summer the kachinas leave the Hopi villages. They return to their homes where they visit the dead underground who wil
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)