Tusayan Snake Ceremonies

Description

Author: Fewkes, Jesse Walter (1850-1930)

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution

Pub Date: 1897

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Fair to Good.  This is a report from the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1894-1895, that was falling apart and I had rebound in paperback.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, bends or folds.  Foxing to all text blocks.

Notes: Originally published in 1897.  “When I began my studies of the Snake dance at Walpi, in 1891, it was said by all the white men whom I consulted that this weird ceremony was confined to the pueblos of Walpi and Micoñinovi, and there was no mention in the literature dealing with the subject of its existence in other villages of Tusayan.  During the course of my researches, however, it was discovered that the same or a closely related ceremony takes place in even years at Oraibi and Cuñopavi, and considerable material was collected regarding the exhibition in the latter village in 1892…we are now cognizant of its celebration in five Tusayan villages–Walpi, Micoñinovi, Cuñopavi, Cipaulovi, and Oraibi.  As the remaining two pueblos, Sitcomovi and Hano, are now known not to have a Snake dance…” (From the Introductory Note)  As near as I can decipher this ceremony is a rain and corn ceremony.  The snake part of it is mytho-historical.