Zeitschrift für Ethnologie: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 93.1968

Globus, 38.1880

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Zeitschrift

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714788

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714788

Persistenter Identifier:: BV035173706

Titel:: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie

Untertitel:: ZfE

ISSN:: 0044-2666

Erscheinungsort:: Berlin

Verlag:: Reimer

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1869

Lizenz:: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

Zeitschriftenband

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-712359

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-712359

Persistenter Identifier:: 1550575639441

Titel:: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 93.1968

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1968

Signatur:: LA 7600

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Zeitschriftenartikel

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: Die Gros Ventres und ihr Hochgott

Sonstige Person:: Hartmann, Horst

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

182 John D. Lof tin Anthropos 81.1986 paaqavi (a type of reed that grows near springs) (Whiting 1939; 65). The tobacco is stored in a tobacco pouch which can be constructed of a variety of materials (Wright 1979: 56). All that is needed to smoke ritually among the Hopi is a pipe, some sacred tobacco, and a source of fire. The participants, almost always male, sit smok ing in a circle or semi-circle. Each person takes in and swallows (“drinks”) four puffs of smoke, each one symbolizing a prayer for clouds and rain from one of the four cardinal directions. Then the pipe is passed to the next person with whom the smoker exchanges appropriate kinship terms, e.g., “my uncle - my nephew,” “my father - my son.” The exchange of proper kinship terms symbolizes the unity of Hopi hearts and breath, a prerequisite for fruitful prayer acts. As I will demonstrate more concretely below, the Hopi feel that prayers are effective only if they embody thoughts of har mony and fertility. Smoking is always referred to as drinking. On the one hand, smoking is perceived as a prayer offering to the Six-Point-Cloud-People. In that context “drink is being given to the clouds” (Parsons [ed.] 1925: 20 n.23). The Hopi understanding of Cloud People is difficult to apprehend for one not raised and initiated a Hopi. However, I do know that the Hopi understand there are six “Cloud chiefs,” each one located at one of the six cardinal directions (Stephen 1898:261-262). The Cloud Chiefs issue forth clouds from themselves which travel to Hopi where they drop their life-yielding essence on the parched ground below. Further more, the spirit or breath (hikwsi) of Hopi, at death, is said to return to the spiritual realm of the underworld from where it periodically returns home to Hopi as cloud, bringing the gift of sacred rain. 13 The spirits or souls of the Hopi return to the underworld for that is where Muy’ingwa, the Cloud Chief of “all colors,” resides. Each Cloud Chief is associated with a 13 For some discussions of Hopi burial customs as well as their understanding of death and rebirth, see: Beaglehole and Beaglehole 1935: 11-15; O’Kane 1953; 240-242; Helen Sekaquaptewa 1969: 148-150; Stephen 1936:824-828; Talayesva 1942:256-257, 262, 270, 284, 288, 313-318; Voth 1912b: 99-103; Yava 1978: 107-109. particular color and direction except Muy’ing wa, who is said to be “speckled with all the colors” (Stephen 1898: 262). Hence, Muy’ing wa is another term for the sacred source of all clouds and rain according to Hopi traditions. 14 In smoking, the clouds are given an offering with the hope that the clouds will bless the Hopi in return with life-giving rains. This prayer form embodies on one level a feeling of reciprocity between the Hopi and the sacred according to Parsons (1924: 147) and later Hieb (1979a: 580). Indeed, Hieb notes that the Hopi under standing of reciprocity is the most fundamental aspect of their “world view” (580). I shall return later to discuss reciprocity, but for now wish only to note that the Hopi are, on one level, supplicating the sacred by and through prayer smokes. Also involved, according to George Nasoftie, is a dimension of suffering and humility for the smoker hopes to evoke the pity of the clouds by holding in the harsh, burning smoke. 15 The smoker hence humbles himself sacrificially before the sacred by exert ing great physical and spiritual effort in the hopes of receiving rain in return. The smoke is perceived as an offering, an indication of sacri ficial humility and as a symbol of that which is desired, that is, primarily, rain. Rain is under stood by the Hopi to be the “spiritual sub stance” of the universe upon which all life and forms depend and hence the prayer for rain is also a prayer for fertility, health - indeed creation itself. 16 On the other hand, Hopi ritual smoking involves participation in the sacred, or what Whorf (1950: 69) calls the “heart of the Cos mos.” There the smokers are said to give each 14 Much more can be said about the nature of Muy’ingwa. For example, Muy’ingwa seems to be both personal and impersonal. On the one hand the Hopi discuss Muy’ingwa as though he were a personal deity who sends forth rain and crops from himself. At the same time, however, the Hopi discuss Muy’ingwa in more impersonal terms by saying that Muy’ingwa reveals himself wherever there is rain and crops. Muy’ingwa thus appears to be both an anthropomorphic deity and a cosmic revelation. 15 See the Hopi production, “Nawatniwa: A Hopi Philosophical Statement.” 16 Hieb 1979a: 577; 1979b: 65. - Hieb drew his con clusions about “spiritual substance” from informants as well as from Voth 1901: 146.

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Volltext: Anthropos, 81.1986,1/6

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