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Sipapu
A (a Hopi word) was a small hole or indentation in the floor of a (pithouse). Kivas were used by the Ancestral Puebloans and continue to be used by modern-day Puebloans. The symbolizes the portal through which their ancient ancestors first emerged to enter the present world. Hopi mythology (and similar traditions in other Pueblo cultures such as the Zuni and Acoma) states that this is the hole from which the first peoples of this world entered. As they stepped outside of the , they changed from lizard-like beings into human form. It is from this point that the "First Peoples" of the Earth began to divide and separate, becoming tribes. The original sipapu is said in Hopi and some other Uto-Aztecan Puebloan mythology to be located in the Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. The concept of an underworld is found in almost every civilization and "may be as old as humanity itself". Common features of underworld myths are accounts of living people making journeys to the underworld, often for some heroic purpose. Other myths reinforce traditions that the entrance of souls to the underworld requires a proper observation of ceremony, such as the ancient Greek story of the recently dead Patroclus haunting Achilles until his body could be properly buried for this purpose. People with high social status were dressed and equipped in order to better navigate the underworld. A number of mythologies incorporate the concept of the soul of the deceased making its own journey to the underworld, with the dead needing to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hopi Language
Hopi (Hopi: ) is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Hopi people (a Puebloan group) of northeastern Arizona, United States. The use of Hopi has gradually declined over the course of the 20th century. In 1990, it was estimated that more than 5,000 people could speak Hopi as a native language (approximately 75% of the population), but only 40 of them were monolingual in Hopi. The 1998 language survey of 200 Hopi people showed that 100% of Hopi elders (60 years or older) were fluent, but fluency in adults (40–59) was only 84%, 50% in young adults (20–39), and 5% in children (2–19). Despite the apparent decline, Hopi and Navajo both are supported by bilingual education programs in Arizona, and children acquire the Native American languages as their first language. More recently, Hopi language programs for children on the reservation have been implemented. Teaching and language revitalization efforts The Hopi language has been part of several language revitalization pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 circular and underground, and used for spiritual ceremonies and a place of worship. Similar subterranean rooms are found among ruins in the Southwestern United States, indicating uses by the ancient peoples of the region including the ancestral Puebloans, the Mogollon, and the Hohokam. Those used by the ancient Pueblos of the Pueblo I Period and following, designated by the Pecos Classification system developed by archaeologists, were usually round and evolved from simpler pit-houses. For the Ancestral Puebloans, these rooms are believed to have had a variety of functions, including domestic residence along with social and ceremonial purposes. Evolution During the late 8th century, Mesa Verdeans started building square pit structures tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancestral Puebloans
The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as Ancestral Pueblo peoples or the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture of Pueblo peoples spanning the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. They are believed to have developed, at least in part, from the Oshara tradition, which developed from the Picosa culture. The Ancestral Puebloans lived in a range of structures that included small family pit houses, larger structures to house clans, grand pueblos, and cliff-sited dwellings for defense. They had a complex network linking hundreds of communities and population centers across the Colorado Plateau. They held a distinct knowledge of celestial sciences that found form in their architecture. The kiva, a congregational space that was used mostly for ceremonies, was an integral part of the community structure. Archaeologists continue to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pueblo People
The Pueblo peoples are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among the currently inhabited Pueblos, Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi are some of the most commonly known. Pueblo people speak languages from four different language families, and each Pueblo is further divided culturally by kinship systems and agricultural practices, although all cultivate varieties of corn (maize). Pueblo peoples have lived in the American Southwest for millennia and descend from the Ancestral Pueblo peoples. The term ''Anasazi'' is sometimes used to refer to Ancestral Puebloans, but it is considered derogatory and offensive. "Anasazi" is a Navajo adoption of a Ute term that translates to ''Ancient Enemy'' or ''Primitive Enemy'', but was used by them to mean something like "barbarian" or "savage", hence the modern Pueblo peoples' rejection of it (see exonym). ''Pueblo'' is a Spanish term for "village" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hopi Mythology
The Hopi maintain a complex religious and mythological tradition stretching back over centuries. However, it is difficult to definitively state what all Hopis as a group believe. Like the oral traditions of many other societies, Hopi mythology is not always told consistently and each Hopi mesa, or even each village, may have its own version of a particular story, but "in essence the variants of the Hopi myth bear marked similarity to one another." It is also not clear that the stories told to non-Hopis, such as anthropologists and ethnographers, represent genuine Hopi beliefs or are merely stories told to the curious while keeping safe the more sacred Hopi teachings. As folklorist Harold Courlander states, "there is a Hopi reticence about discussing matters that could be considered ritual secrets or religion-oriented traditions." Major deities Most Hopi creation myths, creation stories center around Tawa, the sun spirit. Tawa is the creator, and it was he who formed the "Fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zuni People
The Zuni (; formerly spelled ''Zuñi'') are Native American Pueblo peoples native to the Zuni River valley. The Zuni people today are federally recognized as the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico, and most live in the Pueblo of Zuni on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Little Colorado River, in western New Mexico, United States. The Pueblo of Zuni is south of Gallup, New Mexico. The Zuni tribe lived in multi level adobe houses. In addition to the reservation, the tribe owns trust lands in Catron County, New Mexico, and Apache County, Arizona. The Zuni call their homeland ''Halona Idiwan’a ''or Middle Place. The word ''Zuni'' is believed to derive from the Western Keres language ( Acoma) word ''sɨ̂‧ni'', or a cognate thereof. History Archaeology suggests that the Zuni have been farmers in the general area for 3,000 to 4,000 years. It is now thought that the Ancestral Zuni people inhabited the Zuni River valley from the last millennium B.C., when the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acoma Pueblo
Acoma Pueblo ( , ) is a Native American pueblo approximately west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. Four communities make up the village of Acoma Pueblo: Sky City (Old Acoma), Acomita, Anzac, and McCartys. These communities are located near the expansive Albuquerque metropolitan area, which includes several large cities and towns, including neighboring Laguna Pueblo. The Acoma Pueblo tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity, whose historic land of Acoma Pueblo totaled roughly . Today, much of the Acoma community is primarily within the Acoma Indian Reservation. Acoma Pueblo is a National Historic Landmark. According to the 2010 United States Census, 4,989 people identified as Acoma.U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Census 2000 American Indian and Alaska Native Summary File (AIANSF) - Sample Data, Acoma alone, H38 The Acoma have continuously occupied the area for over 2,000 years, making this one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai, Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and the Navajo Nation. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the preservation of the Grand Canyon area and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery. Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their Stream channel, channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was Tectonic uplift, uplifted. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde National Park is a national park of the United States and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, and the only World Heritage Site in Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan ancestral sites in the United States. Established by Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, the park occupies near the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. With more than 5,000 sites, including 600 cliff dwellings, it is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. Mesa Verde (Spanish for "green table", or more specifically "green table mountain") is best known for structures such as Cliff Palace, one of the largest cliff dwellings in North America. Starting BC Mesa Verde was seasonally inhabited by a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians known as the Foothills Mountain Complex. The variety of projectile points found in the region indicates they were influenced by surrounding areas, including the Great Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Native American Religion
Native American religions, Native American faith or American Indian religions are the indigenous spiritual practices of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Ceremonial ways can vary widely and are based on the differing histories and beliefs of individual nations, tribes and bands. Early European explorers describe individual Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices. Theology may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, shamanistic, pantheistic or any combination thereof, among others. Traditional beliefs are usually passed down in the oral tradition forms of myths, oral histories, stories, allegories, and principles. Nowadays, as scholars note, many American Natives are having a renewed interest in their own traditions. Overview Native American religions were prevalent in the pre-Columbian era, including state religions. Common concept is the supernatural world of deities, spirits and wonders, such as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
