Kachina | tihu

Kachinas represent animals, plants, natural phenomena or spirits of the deceased. They communicate the requests of the people to the gods - especially for rain and fertility in the arid landscape of their Arizona homelands. They reside in the underworld. From there they return to the Hopi villages once a year at the beginning of the sowing season. This is when Hopi religious ceremonies commence, in which the Kachina spirits are embodied by masked dancers. It lasts from January to July. The figure, carved from burl wood and painted, represents Sipikne, a warrior kachina. The Hopi have adopted this type of figure from the neighbouring Zuñi. He acts as a guardian and is considered to be the protector of other kachinas. He also represents the six cardinal points including the zenith and its opposing nadir. The faces painted black are assigned to the nadir. Zuñi-Kachinas appeared in large groups, among other occasions during the opening ceremony, known as the return of the Kachinas. Their acrobatic, rapid and lively dance could only be performed by young men. During the ceremonies, kachina figures are distributed to the girls as fertility symbols. Furthermore, they function as an induction into approximately 350 different types of Kachina. With increasing demand from art collectors, Hopi men started to make Kachina figures commercially, and their production as a handcraft became an important source of income. Author: Heike Gerlach, Translation: Timothy Connell