Pueblo clown

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Ceramic sacred clown by Kathleen Wall Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico

The Pueblo clowns (sometimes called sacred clowns) are

Kivas
(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.[1] 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; and Pi'ptuyakyamü (or "arrivals").[2]

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, Kossa in the Tewa language, Koshare among the Keres people, 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.[3]

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.[4]

Anthropologists, most notably

Awat'ovi is thought to be a historic instance of Pueblo clowning.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N.s., 36, 1934: p494] https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1934.36.4.02a00020
  2. ^ AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N.S., 36, 1934:pp 492,493] https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1934.36.4.02a00020
  3. .
  4. ^ Roediger, Virginia More (1991). Ceremonial Costumes of the Pueblo Indians: Their Evolution, Fabrication, and Significance in the Prayer Drama. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 229.
  5. ^ Daughters, Anton. "A Seventeenth-Century Instance of Hopi Clowning? The Trial of Juan Suni, 1659. Kiva Vol. 74, No. 4, Summer 2009

References

External links