![Sacred clown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Sacred_clown.jpg)
The Pueblo clowns (sometimes called sacred clowns) are
jester
A jester, court jester, fool or joker was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain guests during the medieval and Renaissance eras. Jesters were also itinerant performers who entertained common folk at fairs and ...
s or
trickster
In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...
s in the
Kachina
A kachina (; also katchina, katcina, or katsina; Hopi: ''katsina'' , plural ''katsinim'' ) is a spirit being in the religious beliefs of the Pueblo peoples, Native American cultures located in the south-western part of the United States. In th ...
religion (practiced by the
Pueblo natives of the southwestern United States). It is a generic term, as there are a number of these figures in the ritual practice of the Pueblo people. Each has a unique role; belonging to separate
Kivas
A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and underground, ...
(secret societies or confraternities) and each has a name that differs from one mesa or pueblo to another.
Roles
The clowns perform monthly rituals, summer (for rain), November - for the gods, for curing society, black magic. Among the
Hopi/Tewa there are four distinct clowns. The Koyi'msĭ (also called Ho'tomeli'pung Tewa. Ta'chûktĭ); Chüʳkü'wĭmkya; Pai'yakyamü or Koyala; Koyi'msĭ (also called Ta'chûktĭ) and Pi'ptuyakyamü (or "arrivals").
In order for a clown to perform meaningful social commentary via humor, the clown's identity must usually be concealed. The sacred clowns of the Pueblo people, however, do not employ masks but rely on body paint and head dresses. Among the best known orders of the sacred Pueblo clown is the ''Chiffoneti'' (called ''Payakyamu'' in
Hopi
The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...
, ''Kossa'' in the
Tewa
The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. They comprise the following communities:
* ...
language, ''Koshare'' among the
Keres people The Keres people are one of the Pueblo peoples. They speak English, Keresan languages, and in one pueblo Keresan Sign Language.
The seven Keres pueblos are:
* Cochiti Pueblo or Kotyit ("Forgotten"); Cochiti Pueblo people: Kʾúutìimʾé ("Peopl ...
, ''Tabösh'' at
Jemez, New Mexico, and ''Newekwe'' by the
Zuñi). These individuals present themselves with black and white horizontal stripes painted on their bodies and faces, paint black circles around the mouth and eyes, and part their hair in the center and bind it in two bunches which stand upright on each side of the head and are trimmed with corn husks.
The mudheads (called ''Koyemshi'' in Zuni, and ''Tatsuki'' in Hopi) are usually portrayed by pinkish clay coated bodies and matching cotton bag worn over the head.
Anthropologists, most notably
Adolf Bandelier in his 1890 book, ''The Delight Makers'', and
Elsie Clews Parsons
Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons (November 27, 1875 – December 19, 1941) was an American anthropologist, sociologist, folklorist, and feminist who studied Native American tribes—such as the Tewa and Hopi—in Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexi ...
in her ''Pueblo Indian Religion'', have extensively studied the meaning of the Pueblo clowns and
clown society Clown society is a term used in anthropology and sociology for an organization of comedic entertainers ( Heyoka or "clowns") who have a formalized role in a culture or society.
Description and function
Sometimes clown societies have a sacred role, ...
in general. Bandelier notes that the Tsuku were somewhat feared by the Hopi as the source of public criticism and censure of non-Hopi like behavior. Their function can help defuse community tensions by providing their own humorous interpretation of the tribe's popular culture, by reinforcing taboos, and by communicating traditions. A 1656 case of a young Hopi man impersonating the resident Franciscan priest at
Awat'ovi
The Awatovi Ruins, spelled Awat'ovi in recent literature, are an archaeological site on the Hopi Indian Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. The site contains the ruins of a pueblo estimated to be 500 years old, as well as those ...
is thought to be a historic instance of Pueblo clowning.
[Daughters, Anton. "A Seventeenth-Century Instance of Hopi Clowning? The Trial of Juan Suni, 1659. ''Kiva'' Vol. 74, No. 4, Summer 2009]
See also
*
Heyoka
The heyoka (, also spelled "haokah," "heyokha") is a kind of sacred clown in the culture of the Sioux (Lakota and Dakota people) of the Great Plains of North America. The heyoka is a contrarian, jester, and satirist, who speaks, moves and reacts ...
Notes
References
Gutenberg etext of Adolf Bandelier ''The Delight Makers''*P. Farb, ''Man's Rise to Civilisation'', 1971.
*
M. Conrad Hyers The Spirituality of Comedy: comic heroism in a tragic world' 1996 Transaction Publishers
*Elsie Clews Parsons ''Pueblo Indian Religion'', University of Chicago Press, 1939.
*Elsie Clews Parsons and Ralph L. Beals,
The Sacred Clowns of the Pueblo and Mayo-Yaqui Indians'
American Anthropologist
''American Anthropologist'' is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), published quarterly by Wiley. The "New Series" began in 1899 under an editorial board that included Franz Boas, Daniel G. Brinton, and John W ...
, New Series, Vol. 36, No. 4 (October–December, 1934), pp. 491–514
*Pecina, Ron and Pecina, Bob. ''Hopi Kachinas: History, Legends, and Art''. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2013; . Pages 124-138.
*J. H. Steward, ''The Ceremonial Buffoons of the American Indians'', Michigan Academy of Sciences, pp 187–207, 1930.
* Alison Freese, `Send in the Clowns: An Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Sacred Clowns' Role in Cultural Boundary Maintenance Among the Pueblo Indians' (doctoral thesis, University of New Mexico, 1991)
External links
Rainmakers from the Gods: Hopi Katsinam, Peabody Museum online exhibition
{{Clowns
Hopi mythology
Ritual clowns