Our posts this week have reflected the earth tones and autumn hues of this high desert land. For today’s Friday Feature, it seems appropriate to continue that theme, in the form of a piece that embodies yet another aspect of this season: of young people returned to school, where they will (one hopes) learn what they need to grow into adult members of their communities.
Over the past week, we have also been blessed with entirely unseasonal rain, five nights in a row (as well as some daytime storms). Rain is so rare in October in this place as to be nearly unheard-of; rain overnight, when it does the most good, is rarer still. So, as our Friday Feature series this month is devoted to the katsina carvings of Josh Aragon, it seems an appropriate time to highlight the apprentice Bringer of Rain, the Zuni Young Boy Longhair.
I’ve written before about the role of the Longhairs in Hopi (and Zuni) cosmology:
The photos at [the link] demonstrate the visual relevance of the term “Longhair”: You can clearly see the spirit being’s long, straight locks cascading down its back, enfolding its shoulders like a second blanket; and, in the front, its beard falling from the chin of its case mask. It’s Native hair in its most basic, iconic form, long and luxuriant.
Here, it has specialized symbolic significance, as well.
We talk a lot here about the challenges of living in this arid high-desert climate. It’s a daily striving for survival, one that, in human terms, is as old as time itself. In places like Hopi, it’s especially acute: At an elevation of roughly 5,000 feet, Hopi regularly averages summer temperatures in the 90s, yet the entire area gets fewer than ten inches of annual rainfall, on average.
To call rain a blessing is a masterpiece of understatement.
And this is the Longhair’s role. He is a Bringer of Rain, and, indeed, his long locks symbolize the blessed water cascading from the sky.
At Zuni, there are some differences, of course. The Zuni and the Hopi are entirely separate peoples, though related by blood and geography, which means they are also linked by tradition and belief, in certain ways. Most of those ways are best left closed to the outside world, and they hold them very close indeed.
Still, there are some aspects of their respective cultures to which both peoples have allowed a limited degree of public access, in part via certain ceremonial dances that outsiders are allowed to attend. Through these dances, we are permitted to see the katsinam, personified by certain men and boys of the tribe, as they dance in the traditional manner for purposes of the invocation of certain blessings, and of thanks and celebration.
As I wrote last December, of this particular piece:
As we saw yesterday with Hopi, the Longhair is a largely benevolent spirit being, one who brings the rain that sustains life in this harshly beautiful desert climate. Whereas Hopi sits in northern Arizona, adjacent to the Navajo reservation, Zuni rests on the New Mexico side of the state line. It, too, is near Navajoland, both the Big Rez and Ramah, further south. Zuni itself just a short drive south of Gallup, at an elevation of a little under 6,500 feet. Rainfall levels are reportedly a bit better than at Hopi, averaging not quite 13 inches annually (compared to fewer than ten). I’ve been to Zuni during the monsoon season, and the clear, clean smell of wet sage on the air is quite literally breathtaking.
Zuni’s big annual ceremonial — one of the few that outsiders can attend — was held just within the last couple of weeks. Shalako, as it is called, is held on a specific schedule that puts it in early December, although not on the exact same date every year. It’s a veritable pageant, an all-night display of stunningly beautiful traditional dance, of culture and celebration. [As an aside, Josh has in the past made a Shalako katsina for us; it sold on the first day.]
There are other dances at other times of the year, some of which involve the obvious need for the blessings of rain. One of the Zuni spirit beings is a horned water serpent known [with spelling variants] as Kolowisi. This spirit being, associated with water, provides a significant piece of the instruction of young boys who are being initiated into their kiva societies. And it is only upon initiation that young boys are introduced to the fact of adult personification of the katsinam, including the sacred masks.
This means, of course, that the katsina Josh has created here would be personified by a young boy who is, in actuality, in the process of becoming a young man: one who has undergone his initiation and is permitted to know of the practice.
As I said above, it seems a perfect time, with children and youth newly back to school for the year, to feature a student of his tradition. As you can see from the carving itself, he is young; he lacks the luxuriant beard of the “adult” Longhair katsinam. Youth notwithstanding, he is nonetheless arrayed in traditional garb, including stone and shell beads, with a painted feather in his hair and an eagle feather clasped in his right hand. From the description in the Other Artists: Katsinam gallery here on the site:
This smaller “Young Boy Longhair” katsina is done in a traditional style found at Zuni Pueblo. By master carver Josh Aragon (Hopi/Laguna), the carving is done the traditional Hopi way, of a single piece of cottonwood root, and is painted in symbolic colors and patterns. Carving stands 12-1/8″ high, including 3/4″-high base and tip of feather; figure is 2″ wide; base is 3-1/4″ wide (dimensions approximate). Front view shown at top.
Hand-painted cottonwood root
$355 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Fragile; extra handling charges apply
On a bright and sunny October morning, when the students are at their last day of classes for the week and the rain has at least momentarily departed, we are nonetheless feeling particularly blessed. After weeks of scouting by an enormous ferruginous hawk, he and his mate have returned this morning, with the apparent intent of making our land their winter home this year. They may not be bringers of rain, but they are indeed bringers of blessings.
In the meantime, our students are being taught the traditional ways, just as they are at Hopi and at Zuni, and the spirits will continue to be personified, as they must. It’s another kind of blessing to see that sort of apprenticeship continue, whether for the express purpose of bringing the rain, or simply for the more existential purpose of cultural continuity.
~ Aji
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