Accession Number

Title

Medium

Culture

Object Date

Dimensions

Classification

Credit Line

Museum Expedition 1903, Museum Collection Fund

Description

Wooden kachina doll was identified as Chilchi by Stewart Culin however this kachina's mask and dress does not correspond to the kachina with the closest name, Chilili-and Chilili never carries or plays a flute. It is probably Paiyatemu, a kachina representing one of four youths who has two roles. One is during the corn grinding and fertility rituals in the Summer Dance series. When four maidens take their places to dance they play this type of flute as the maidens' song begins. Ribbons represent flowers. When he arrives with a different kachina, Hekshiva Shelowa, his body is black which may be why this kachina has black arms. He represents prayers and the return of good crops. He is also thought to be a powerful figure, an original medicine man. This elaborately dressed doll has a feather headdress and a fringed buckskin collar with a Maltese cross painted on the front. He has a bustle with ribbons on his back and carries a song flute and rattle.

Label

Among some Pueblo groups of the southwestern United States, supernatural beings that represent a life force or the embodiment of natural phenomena such as the sun, the moon, plants, animals, or insects are called Kachinas. During complex, multistage rituals integrating music and dance that are performed in ceremonial calendrical cycles, men don the masks, clothing, and paraphernalia of these spirits and are believed to actually become them. <br /> <br /> Kachina dolls, such as this example of Paiyatemu, the Zuni Sun Youth, represent these beings and are given to audience members during the ceremonies and dances. In the corn-grinding ceremony of the Zuni Summer Dance, four Paiyatemu Kachinas play bell-shaped flutes, similar to the one seen here, to accompany singing by Corn Maidens kneeling at <i>metates </i>(grinding stones). <br /> <br /> <br /> Entre algunos grupos Pueblo del sudoeste de los Estados Unidos, seres sobrenaturales que representan fuerzas de vida o la encarnaci&oacute;n de fen&oacute;menos naturales, como el sol, la luna, plantas, animales, o insectos son llamados Kachinas. Durante complejos rituales de varias etapas, que integran m&uacute;sica y danza y que se realizan en ciclos ceremoniales dictados por el calendario, los hombres se ponen las m&aacute;scaras, vestimentas y parafernalia de estos esp&iacute;ritus y se cree que realmente se convierten en ellos. Las mu&ntilde;ecas kachina, como este ejemplo de Paiyatemu, el Joven Sol Zuni, representan a estos seres y son regaladas a la audiencia durante las ceremonias y danzas. En la ceremonia del molido del ma&iacute;z, de la danza del verano Zuni, cuatro Kachinas Paiyatemu tocan flautas acampanadas, similares a la que se aprecia aqu&iacute;, para acompa&ntilde;ar el canto de las Doncellas del Ma&iacute;z arrodilladas frente a los metates (piedras de moler).<br />