Reading Assignment, Text: Chapter 4, "The Zuni," pp. 114-155

Between A.D. 900 and 1150, groups within the Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) culture began to shift from pit houses to clusters of contiguous-room pueblos closely associated with circular underground kivas. Many villages in the Zuni area were organized around a central area consisting of a public building and a large ceremonial chamber, known as a great kiva. These communities were then linked in a trading network centered at Chaco Canyon in the San Juan Basin; the ruins of one of the outposts of the Chaco Canyon civilization is located on the Zuni Reservation. After the San Juan Basin was abandoned during the 12th century, the people of the Zuni drainage began to trade more with the people of the Mogollon culture, and, between 1250 and 1300, probably for defensive reasons, people began to coalesce into much larger pueblos with 250-1,200 rooms. Zuni Pueblo was founded about 1350, and between this date and 1540, when the Spaniards arrived, people from the Mogollon cultural tradition joined the Zuni. By the end of the prehistoric period, the population of this region had consolidated at Zuni, Hopi, and Acoma, with the Zuni people living in a core area along the Zuni River.

The Zuni pueblo of Hawikku was the first Southwestern pueblo to be sighted by Europeans in their search for the famed Seven Cities of Cibola. At this time, the Ashiwi (Zuni people) lived in six or more villages, and only consolidated their entire population at the time of the Pueblo Revolt in 1680. Fearing reprisals after their role in the revolt, the Zuni took refuge on mesa tops. When the Spanish reconquered New Mexico in 1692, the Zuni moved back into one of their villages, Halona, which became an amalgamation of previously independent towns.

This consolidation may be responsible for the complexity of modern-day Zuni social and ritual organization. As with other Western Pueblos, Zuni is a theocracy. Traditionally, the Zuni social, religious, and political system was a complex structure that interconnected the ceremonial/religious cycles to the kin/clan system. Their elaborate ceremonial life was organized by six esoteric cults, twelve medicine societies, six kiva groups, and twelve priesthoods. The Cult of the Ahayuda, or Twin War Gods, is one of the most important of the six esoteric cults. According to Zuni myth, the Ahayuda were born in a waterfall when the Zunis badly needed military leadership on their way to the Middle Place, where the Zuni now live.

The Katsina Priests, another one of the six esoteric cults, bestows fecundity. Each priests has a distinctive personality and name. The Koyemsi, or Mudheads, show the results of incestuous brother-sister parentage in their grotesque appearance and uncouth behavior. These sacred clowns were said to possess black magic, including love magic.

The Pekwinne presided over the Cult of the Sun. Believed to derive his power directly from the Sun Father, he was ultimately held responsible for the well-being of the entire community. He was responsible for calculating the dates for the solstice ceremonies, managing the ceremonial calendar, installing new priests, and officiating over the priests of all the different cults when they functioned jointly.

In contrast to Hopi villages, which tended to divide and form new villages over time, Zuni villages consolidated, unifying themselves into one large pueblo. Zuni's centralized political system was a theocracy that revolved around the Council of High Priests, which acted as a unit, and the Pekwinne who directed the overall ceremonial and religious cycles. Two Bow Priests served as the executive arm of the priesthood, enforcing its decisions regarding the punishment of crimes. Witchcraft was the only recognized crime and was thought to be the cause of any irregularities in the ceremonial cycle, unusual behavior, or crises such as drought or famine. The Council of High Priests, which included the Pekwinne, decided who the witches were, and the Bow Priests then executed him.

Everyone participates in the Cult of the Ancestors because the ancestors bestow all blessings in life and are the beneficent protectors of the living and guide and nourish their descendants. Even ceremonies that focus on the worship of other beings include the ancestors, who are included through prayers and offerings of food. At Grandmothers' Day (Catholic All Souls Day), for example, great quantities of food are sacrificed in the fire and the river along with prayer meal, smoke, and a special prayerstick.

The Zuni aesthetic system-what a given culture considers to be beautiful and pleasing-is said to be composed of the interplay between the beautiful, which is dynamic, multicolored, and multitextured, and the dangerous, which is old and plain, dark, and untouchable. The multilayered, brilliantly decorated dress of most katsinam is considered to be beautiful. The Rocky Mountain swallowtail butterfly also exemplifies this quality because of the rainbowlike play of colors on its hind wing, where a series of yellow spots are heavily outlined in black paralleled by black-bordered zones of opalescent blue and a large, round, red shimmery spot; both its variegated coloration and its erratic flight course with many instant changes of direction are what make this butterfly beautiful. In contrast, bears-because they have such a keen sense of smell, can run so fast, hunt from ambush, and surprise their victims by swatting them-and ravens-because of their aggressive behavior, their raucous call, and their sleek black appearance highlighted by a sharp roman beak-embody the dangerous. By combining the beautiful and the dangerous in figures such as the Knifewing, a magnificent and dangerous mythical bird that seduces young women, the effect of beauty and danger are intensified.

The Zuni sense of the beautiful finds expression in the distinctive jewelry made by over 80 percent of the families at Zuni. Known worldwide for their needlepoint, with a multiplicity of small settings of turquoise, and petit point, an even finer style, Zuni silversmiths also use the cloisonne technique. Cloisonne or channel jewelry is made by soldering narrow strips of sheet silver to a backplate and then filling the small chambers with carefully cut and polished stones or shell. Zuni potters continue to make bowls although few are as large as the dough bowls and ollas they once made; distinctive Zuni pottery designs include the sunflower medallion and a white-tailed deer with a lifeline-or breathline-running from his nose to a quite visible heart as he poses within the swallowtail butterfly's house that arches over him.

Today, one of the most striking structures at Zuni is Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission Church. The interior, as described in the textbook, is a powerful visual expression of Zuni spiritual beliefs as the katsinam are brought to life in monumental murals that cover both walls. One wall includes a painting of the Shalako, a katsina (kokko in Zuni) who is the great courier of the Rain Gods. The ceremony named after him is held near the winter solstice and is the time when the spirits of all the Zuni who ever lived are believed to be present in the pueblo. The katsinam of the Shalako bear offerings to the ancestors, asking for their help in bringing rain, long life, and peace to the Zuni people.