The Pueblo clowns (sometimes called sacred clowns) are

jester A jester, also known as joker, court jester, or fool, was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch kept to entertain guests at the royal court. Jesters were also travelling performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town ma ...

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 otherw ...

s in the Pueblo religion. 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

kiva A kiva (also ''estufa'') 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 circula ...

s (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 The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...

Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo people, Pueblo Native Americans in the United States, 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 San ...

there are four distinct clowns: the (also called , Tewa ); ; or ; and (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 in

, in the

language, among the Keres people, at Jemez, New Mexico, and 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. A form of the Pueblo clown called the Kosha is described as a sacred being which appears in religious dances and performs many roles within the ceremonial structure, often teaching through their actions. The mudheads (called in Zuni, and 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 Mexico. ...

in her ''Pueblo Indian Religion'', have extensively studied the meaning of the Pueblo clowns and clown society 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 is thought to be a historic instance of Pueblo clowning.

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 The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 m ...

, 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

Roles

See also

Notes

References

External links