A complete outline of the mytho-sociologic organization of the
Zuñi tribe can not in this connection be undertaken. A sufficient
characterization of this probably not unique combination of the
sociologic and mythologic institutions of a tribe should, however, be
given to make plain certain allusions in the following outlines which
it is feared would otherwise be incomprehensible.
The Zuñi of today number scarcely 1,700 and, as is well known, they
inhabit only a single large pueblo--single in more senses than one,
for it is not a village of separate houses, but a village of six
or seven separate parts in which the houses are mere apartments or
divisions, so to say. This pueblo, however, is divided, not always
clearly to the eye, but very clearly in the estimation of the people
themselves, into seven parts, corresponding, not perhaps in arrangement
topographically, but in sequence, to their subdivisions of the "worlds"
or world-quarters of this world. Thus, one division of the town is
supposed to be related to the north and to be centered in its kiva
or estufa, which may or may not be, however, in its center; another
division represents the west, another the south, another the east, yet
another the upper world and another the lower world, while a final
division represents the middle or mother and synthetic combination of
them all in this world.
By reference to the early Spanish history of the pueblo it may be seen
that when discovered, the Áshiwi or Zuñis were living in seven quite
widely separated towns, the celebrated Seven Cities of Cibola, and
that this theoretic subdivision of the only one of these towns now
remaining is in some measure a survival of the original subdivision
of the tribe into seven subtribes inhabiting as many separate towns.
It is evident that in both cases, however, the arrangement was, and
is, if we may call it such, a mythic organization; hence my use of the
term the mytho-sociologic organization of the tribe. At any rate, this
is the key to their sociology as well as to their mythic conceptions
of space and the universe. In common with all other Indian tribes of
North America thus far studied, the Zuñis are divided into clans, or
artificial kinship groups, with inheritance in the female line. Of
these clans there are, or until recently there were, nineteen, and
these in turn, with the exception of one, are grouped in threes to
correspond to the mythic subdivision I have above alluded to. These
clans are also, as are those of all other Indians, totemic; that is,
they bear the names and are supposed to have intimate relationship with
various animals, plants, and objects or elements. Named by their totems
they are as follows:
Kâ´lokta-kwe, Crane or Pelican people; Póyi-kwe (nearly extinct),
Grouse or Sagecock people; Tá‘hluptsi-kwe (nearly extinct), Yellow-wood
or Evergreen-oak people; Ain̄´shi-kwe, Bear people; Súski-kwe, Coyote
people; Aíyaho-kwe, Red-top plant or Spring-herb people; Ána-kwe,
Tobacco people; Tâ´a-kwe, Maize-plant people; Tónashi-kwe, Badger
people; Shóhoita-kwe, Deer people; Máawi-kwe (extinct), Antelope
people; Tóna-kwe, Turkey people; Yä´tok‘ya-kwe, Sun people; Ápoya-kwe
(extinct), Sky people; K‘yä´k‘yäli-kwe, Eagle people; Ták‘ya-kwe, Toad
or Frog people; K‘yána-kwe (extinct), Water people; Chítola-kwe (nearly
extinct), Rattlesnake people; Píchi-kwe, Parrot-Macaw people.
Of these clans the first group of three appertains to the north, the
second to the west, the third to the south, the fourth to the east,
the fifth to the upper or zenith, and the sixth to the lower or
nadir region; while the single clan of the Macaw is characterized as
"midmost," or of the middle, and also as the all-containing or mother
clan of the entire tribe, for in it the seed of the priesthood of the
houses is supposed to be preserved. The Zuñi explanation of this very
remarkable, yet when understood and comprehended, very simple and
natural grouping of the clans or totems is exceedingly interesting,
and also significant whether it throw light on the origin, or at
least native meaning, of totemic systems in general, as would at
first seem to be the case, or whether, as is more probably the case
in this instance, it indicates a native classification, so to say, or
reclassification of clans which existed before the culture had been
elaborated to its present point. Briefly, the clans of the north--that
is, those of the Crane, the Grouse, and Evergreen-oak--are grouped
together and are held to be related to the north because of their
peculiar fitness for the region whence comes the cold and wherein the
season of winter itself is supposed to be created, for the crane each
autumn appears in the van of winter, the grouse does not flee from the
approach of winter but puts on his coat of white and traverses the
forests of the snow-clad mountains as freely as other birds traverse
summer fields and woodlands, caring not for the cold, and the evergreen
oak grows as green and is as sturdy in winter as other trees are in
spring or summer; hence these are totems and in a sense god-beings
of the north and of winter, and the clanspeople named after them
and considered as, mythically at least, their breath-children, are
therefore grouped together and related to the north and winter as are
their totems. And as the bear, whose coat is grizzly like the evening
twilight or black like the darkness of night, and the gray coyote, who
prowls amidst the sagebrush at evening and goes forth and cries in
the night-time, and the spring herb or the red-top plant, which blooms
earliest of all flowers in spring when first the moisture-laden winds
from the west begin to blow--these and the people named after them are
as appropriately grouped in the west. The badger, who digs his hole on
the sunny sides of hills and in winter appears only when the sun shines
warm above them, who excavates among the roots of the juniper and the
cedar from which fire is kindled with the fire drill; the wild tobacco,
which grows only where fires have burned, and the corn which anciently
came from the south and is still supposed to get its birth from the
southland, and its warmth--these are grouped in the south. The turkey,
which wakes with the dawn and helps to awaken the dawn by his cries;
the antelope and the deer, who traverse far mesas and valleys in the
twilight of the dawn--these and their children are therefore grouped in
the east. And it is not difficult to understand why the sun, the sky
(or turkis), and the eagle appertain to the upper world; nor why the
toad, the water, and the rattlesnake appertain to the lower world.
By this arrangement of the world into great quarters, or rather as
the Zuñis conceive it, into several worlds corresponding to the four
quarters and the zenith and the nadir, and by this grouping of the
towns, or later of the wards (so to call them) in the town, according
to such mythical division of the world, and finally the grouping
of the totems in turn within the divisions thus made, not only the
ceremonial life of the people, but all their governmental arrangements
as well, are completely systemized. Something akin to written statutes
results from this and similar related arrangements, for each region
is given its appropriate color and number, according to its relation
to one of the regions I have named or to others of those regions.
Thus the north is designated as yellow with the Zuñis, because the
light at morning and evening in winter time is yellow, as also is the
auroral light. The west is known as the blue world, not only because
of the blue or gray twilight at evening, but also because westward
from Zuñiland lies the blue Pacific. The south is designated as red,
it being the region of summer and of fire, which is red; and for an
obvious reason the east is designated white (like dawn light); while
the upper region is many-colored, like the sunlight on the clouds, and
the lower region black, like the caves and deep springs of the world.
Finally, the midmost, so often mentioned in the following outline, is
colored of all these colors, because, being representative of this
(which is the central world and of which in turn Zuñi is the very
middle or navel), it contains all the other quarters or regions, or
is at least divisible into them. Again, each region--at least each of
the four cardinal regions, namely, north, west, south, and east--is
the home or center of a special element, as well as of one of the
four seasons each element produces. Thus the north is the place of
wind, breath, or air, the west of water, the south of fire, and the
east of earth or the seeds of earth; correspondingly, the north is
of course the place of winter or its origin, the west of spring, the
south of summer, and the east of autumn. This is all because from the
north and in winter blow the fiercest, the greatest winds or breaths,
as these people esteem them; from the west early in spring come the
moistened breaths of the waters in early rains; from the south comes
the greatest heat that with dryness is followed by summer, and from
the east blow the winds that bring the frosts that in turn mature the
seeds and perfect the year in autumn. By means of this arrangement no
ceremonial is ever performed and no council ever held in which there
is the least doubt as to the position which a member of a given clan
shall occupy in it, for according to the season in which the ceremonial
is held, or according to the reason for which a council is convened,
one or another of the clan groups of one or another of the regions will
take precedence for the time; the natural sequence being, however,
first the north, second the west, third the south, fourth the east,
fifth the upper, and sixth the lower; but first, as well as last, the
middle. But this, to the Zuñi, normal sequence of the regions and clan
groups, etc., has been determined by the apparent sequence of the
phenomena of the seasons, and of their relations to one another; for
the masterful, all conquering element, the first necessity of life
itself, and to all activity, is the wind, the breath, and its cold, the
latter overmastering, in winter all the other elements as well as all
other existences save those especially adapted to it or potent in it,
like those of the totems and gods and their children of the north. But
in spring, when with the first appearance of the bear and the first
supposed growls of his spirit masters in the thunders and winds of that
time their breaths begin to bring water from the ocean world, then the
strength of the winter is broken, and the snows thereby melted away,
and the earth is revivified with drink, in order that with the warmth
of summer from the south things may grow and be cherished toward their
old age or maturity and perfection, and finally toward their death or
sleeping in winter by the frost-laden breaths of autumn and the east.
Believing, as the Zuñis do, in this arrangement of the universe and
this distribution of the elements and beings chiefly concerned in them,
and finally in the relationship of their clans and the members thereof
to these elementary beings, it is but natural that they should have
societies or secret orders or cult institutions composed of the elders
or leading members of each group of their clans as above classified.
The seriation of these secret and occult medicine societies, or,
better, perhaps, societies of magic, is one of the greatest consequence
and interest. Yet it can but be touched upon here. In strict accordance
with succession of the four seasons and their elements, and with their
supposed relationship to these, are classified the four fundamental
activities of primitive life, namely, as relating to the north and its
masterfulness and destructiveness in cold, is war and destruction;
relating to the west is war cure and hunting; to the south, husbandry
and medicine; to the east, magic and religion; while the above, the
below, and the middle relate in one way or another to all these
divisions. As a consequence the societies of cold or winter are found
to be grouped, not rigidly, but at least theoretically, in the northern
clans, and they are, respectively: ’Hléwe-kwe, Ice-wand people or band;
Áchia-kwe, Knife people or band; Kâ´shi-kwe, Cactus people or band;
for the west: Pí‘hla-kwe, Priesthood of the Bow or Bow people or band
(Ápi‘hlan Shiwani, Priests of the Bow); Sániyak‘ya-kwe, Priesthood
of the Hunt or Coyote people or band; for the south: Máke‘hlána-kwe,
Great fire (ember) people or band; Máketsána-kwe, Little fire (ember)
people or band; of the east: Shíwana-kwe, Priests of the Priesthood
people or band; Úhuhu-kwe, Cottonwood-down people or band; Shúme-kwe,
or Kâ´kâ‘hlána-kwe, Bird-monster people or band, otherwise known as
the Great Dance-drama people or band; for the upper region: Néwe-kwe,
Galaxy people or band or the All-consumer or Scavenger people or
band (or life preservers); and for the lower regions: Chítola-kwe,
Rattlesnake people or band, generators (or life makers). Finally, as
produced from all the clans and as representative alike of all the
clans and through a tribal septuarchy of all the regions and divisions
in the midmost, and finally as representative of all the cult societies
above mentioned is the Kâ´kâ or Ákâkâ-kwe or Mythic Dance drama people
or organization. It may be seen of these mytho-sociologic organizations
that they are a system within a system, and that it contains also
systems within systems, all founded on this classification according
to the six-fold division of things, and in turn the six-fold division
of each of these divisions of things. To such an extent, indeed, is
carried this tendency to classify according to the number of the six
regions with its seventh synthesis of them all (the latter sometimes
apparent, sometimes nonappearing) that not only are the subdivisions of
the societies also again subdivided according to this arrangement, but
each clan is subdivided both according to such a six-fold arrangement
and according to the subsidiary relations of the six parts of its
totem. The tribal division made up of the clans of the north takes
precedence ceremonially, occupying the position of elder brother or
the oldest ancestor, as the case might be. The west is the younger
brother of this; and in turn, the south of the west, the east of the
south, the upper of the east, the under of them all, while the middle
division is supposed to be a representative being, the heart or navel
of all the brothers of the regions first and last, as well as elder
and younger. In each clan is to be found a set of names called the
names of childhood. These names are more of titles than of cognomens.
They are determined upon by sociologic and divinistic modes, and are
bestowed in childhood as the "verity names" or titles of the children
to whom given. But this body of names relating to any one totem--for
instance, to one of the beast totems--will not be the name of the
totem beast itself, but will be names both of the totem in its various
conditions and of various parts of the totem, or of its functions, or
of its attributes, actual or mythical. Now these parts or functions, or
attributes of the parts or functions, are subdivided also in a six-fold
manner, so that the name relating to one member of the totem--for
example, like the right arm or leg of the animal thereof--would
correspond to the north, and would be the first in honor in a clan
(not itself of the northern group); then the name relating to another
member--say to the left leg or arm and its powers, etc.--would pertain
to the west and would be second in honor; and another member--say the
right foot--to the south and would be third in honor; and of another
member--say the left foot--to the east and would be fourth in honor;
to another--say the head--to the upper regions and would be fifth in
honor; and another--say the tail--to the lower region and would be
sixth in honor; while the heart or the navel and center of the being
would be first as well as last in honor. The studies of Major Powell
among the Maskoki and other tribes have made it very clear that kinship
terms, so called, among other Indian tribes (and the rule will apply no
less or perhaps even more strictly to the Zuñis) are rather devices for
determining relative rank or authority as signified by relative age,
as elder or younger of the person addressed or spoken of by the term
of relationship. So that it is quite impossible for a Zuñi speaking
to another to say simply brother; it is always necessary to say elder
brother or younger brother, by which the speaker himself affirms
his relative age or rank; also it is customary for one clansman to
address another clansman by the same kinship name of brother-elder or
brother-younger, uncle or nephew, etc.; but according as the clan of
the one addressed ranks higher or lower than the clan of the one using
the term of address, the word-symbol for elder or younger relationship
must be used.
With such a system of arrangement as all this may be seen to be,
with such a facile device for symbolizing the arrangement (not only
according to number of the regions and their subdivisions in their
relative succession and the succession of their elements and seasons,
but also in colors attributed to them, etc.), and, finally, with
such an arrangement of names correspondingly classified and of terms
of relationship significant of rank rather than of consanguinal
connection, mistake in the order of a ceremonial, a procession or a
council is simply impossible, and the people employing such devices
may be said to have written and to be writing their statutes and laws
in all their daily relationships and utterances. Finally, with much
to add, I must be content with simply stating that the high degree of
systemization which has been attained by the Zuñis in thus grouping
their clans severally and serially about a midmost group, we may see
the influence of the coming together of two diverse peoples acting
upon each other favorably to the development of both in the application
of such conceptions to the conduct of tribal affairs. It would seem
that the conception of the midmost, or that group within all these
groups which seems to be made up of parts of them all, is inherent in
such a system of world division and tribal subdivision corresponding
thereto; but it may also well be that this conception of the middle
was made more prominent with the Zuñis than with any other of our
southwestern peoples through the influence of the earthquakes, which
obviously caused their ancestors from the west again and again to
change their places of abode, thus emphasizing the notion of getting
nearer to or upon the lap or navel of the earth mother, where all these
terrific and destructive movements, it was thought, would naturally
cease.
Be this as it may, this notion of the "middle" and its relation to the
rest has become the central fact indeed of Zuñi organization. It has
given rise to the septuarchy I have so often alluded to; to the office
of the mortally immortal K‘yäk´lu, keeper of the rituals of creation,
from which so much sanction for these fathers of the people is drawn;
to the consequent fixing in a series like a string of sacred epics, a
sort of inchoate Bible, of these myths of creation and migration; and
finally, through all this accumulated influence, it has served to give
solidarity to the Zuñi tribe at the time of its division into separate
tribes, making the outlying pueblos they inhabited subsidiary to the
central one, and in the native acceptation of the matter, mere parts of
it.