The scalp ceremonial of Zuñi / by Elsie Clews Parsons.

  • Elsie Clews Parsons
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The scalp ceremonial of Zuñi / by Elsie Clews Parsons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    against invasion, but the invasion threatened is of ceremonial, of those costumbres in Eastern phrase, upon which it is still generally believed in a degree almost incredible, that the well-being of the town depends. Another not unrelated function belongs to the sometime war organizations, defense against witchcraft. “War captains” or “bow priests” have to guard against witches, whether within or without the town. And as sickness or epidemic, insect pest, drought or windstorm are in large part caused by witches, it is held, this protective function is important indeed. Not only in special instances has witchcraft to be detected, but ceremonials, whether for curing or weather control, have regularly to be safeguarded. At Zuhi two bow-priests belong in theory to every society. At Zuni the bow-priests appear not to have of their own any curing function, as have their Hopi and Isletan homologues; but weather control functions they do have: they hold a springtime ceremony against windstorm, as does the war chief of Jemez, and they conduct the first of the spring kick-stick races for rainfall. Most important of all their contributions to weather control, how¬ ever, is probably the control which is vested in them of the enemy dead. The Pueblo Indians, like other tribes, were scalp-takers and in each town there was a scalp “house.” This was undoubtedly ever thought of as an exceedingly dangerous place to care for; the scalps were a grave risk. In what way were they an asset to the town? In Zuni theology, where the dead figure conspicuously as rain¬ makers, the answer is plain. The dead enemy, as well as the dead townsman, might be a reliable and potent rain-maker — if treated properly. Of such proper treatment the first step would be initiation into the group the sometime enemy was now expected to help, initiation through the familiar ritual of head-washing. This to be followed up by presents of food and of feathers. And these rites are ob¬ served, we are to see, in the scalp ceremonial of which the object is twofold—the initiation and, as we would say, propitiation of the dead enemy, and the maintenance of the war society through add¬ ing to its membership and emphasizing in public ceremony its im¬ portance in the hierarchy.
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