The Hopi And The Tlingit

To the typical American, Indian tribes seem rather peculiar and enigmatic. That is why we need to expose ourselves to these unfamiliar cultures to diminish this stigma. The Hopi and the Tlingit are two groups of people that live in very different physical, social, and cultural environments compared to Americans. They have unique traditions, spiritual rituals, and beliefs that we should learn about.

The Hopi is an Indian tribe indigenous to Northeastern Arizona and New Mexico. They live in four different villages, those being: the Oraibi, New Oraibi, Bakavi, and Hotevilla. (Brandt, 1954: 17). The villages are located on top of mesas, surrounded by rocks and desert land. The dry land allows them to grow an abundant amount of maize, beans, squash, and primarily blue corn. Hopi men and women are both responsible for different tasks in the tribe. While the men do the farm work, hunting, religious ceremonies, and sheepherding, the women have the authority to own houses, farmlands, and cisterns. Their society is matrilineal; Hopi households revolve around the women of the family. As a result of this, children are always part of the mother’s clan (Nanda & Warms, 2012: 111, 170).

Religious ceremonies, sorcery, and myths are all prevalent in traditional Hopi culture. These ceremonies are believed to produce rainfall, promote fertility, bring luck in hunting and warfare, or assist the sun in moving from winter to the summer (Brandt, 1954: 18). The Hopi also believe in the supernatural and in afterlife. They have sorcerers who are said to have two hearts, one derived from an animal, which gives them powers, and the other a human heart. Myths are reality to the Hopi; they are both spiritual and practical. (Brandt, 1954: 32)

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Works Cited

Brandt, Richard B. Hopi Ethics: A Theoretical Analysis. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1954. Print.

Emmons, George Thornton., and Frederica De Laguna. The Tlingit Indians. Seattle: U of Washington, 1991. Print.

Grinev, A. V. The Tlingit Indians in Russian America, 1741-1867. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2005. Print

Klein, Laura F., and Lillian A. Ackerman. Women and Power in Native North America. Norman: U of Oklahoma, 1995. Print.

Loftin, John D., and John D. Loftin. Religion and Hopi Life. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2003. Print.

Mauzé, Marie, Michael Eugene Harkin, and Sergei Kan. Coming to Shore: Northwest Coast Ethnology, Traditions, and Visions. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2004. Print.

Nanda, Serena, and Richard L. Warms. Culture Counts: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.