Kachinas

Hermes Histoires de Carres > Autumn - Winter 2019

Kachinas are ritual dolls used by the children of the Hopi First Nation - Native American Pueblo peoples living in the southwestern United States. The peace-loving Hopi - Hopituh Shi-nu-mu means peaceful people - live in close connection with the spirits. Ancestors, clouds, the gods of fire and rain, and malicious or benevolent spirits are personified in religious ceremonies undertaken by boys from the age of six as part of their initiation. Forming a link between the worlds of the real and the invisible, the brightly painted wooden dolls with their myriad symbolic designs are given to children to familiarise them with ancestral rituals and culture.

Le Carre Hermes Paris >> Printemps - Ete 1992

These dolls represent household spirits. A kachina, to the Hopi Indians of the south-west United States, is some sort of Santa Claus, except that we have but one Santa and he only comes to visit in December. The Hopis have over a hundred kachinas, each with a special function - one to bless good children, another to punish the bad ones, a third to bring rain, a fourth to guide the hunter's hand ... There's division of labor for you !