Customer Reviews

Kachinas in the Pueblo World

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4 star:		(1)
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... The author/editor has compiled a very scholarly work on the Hopi and the place of the kachina in their life and spirituality. Each contributor has done extensive research in his/her field of expertise. If there is a negative side to the book, I would say it is TOO SCHOLARLY for the average reader. It is not a book which one should consider for pure enjoyment and 'light' reading. It reads much more like a graduate text book ... for which many of these articles were intended. If you are looking for indepth material, this is the book for you. If you like to relax and curl up with an 'enjoyable read' ... you won't find it here.

As an avid student of Native American Folklore, as well as an amature anthropologist this book is often my "goto" resource for a quick check of details when helping friends and colegues identify various Kachinas they have either been given or haf found and purchesed during travels through the South Western United States. My only regret is that this volumn is not published in a hard back format, as I have worn out 2 copies already.

Polly Schaafsma, an expert on Ancestral Puebloan rock art, edits 16 chapters that look at various aspects of the kachinas of the Puebloan world.

This includes:
1. Just what are kachinas?
2. Whence did the kachina phenomenon come from/arise?
3. What led to it landing on fertile soil in the late Ancestral Puebloan world?
4. What was the relation in kachina development between western pueblos and Rio Grande pueblos?
5. How did kachina worship/cult survive the Spanish missionary effort to wipe it out? Related to that, how much survived, and can we trace what changes happened?

The intellectual level on some pieces may be fairly high, but I have to disagree with another person; you do not need to be an anthropology or archaeology grad student to get a welter of information out of this book.

One should have a basic knowledge of Ancestral Puebloan history, but any reaonably informed "Southwest buff" probably is OK as a starting point.