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Here's some good background music to
go with the text and images.
Here's some good background music to
go with the text and images.
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Edited from PUEBLO BIRDS AND MYTHS
by Hamilton A. Tyler
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Pueblo Indian thinking has a style of its own, which is
usually just as recognizable as a style of house or of village architecture. These styles seem to carry across the linguistic distinctions that divide the Pueblos into the Hopis, Zunis, Keres, Tewas, Tiwas, and Towas. Such a diversity of tongues indicates at the very least a variety of separate influences that have been drawn together in the common Pueblo culture. The gods were found to express this diversity, and it was only the style of relating to these divinities that showed a common religion.
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When we turn from the gods to another aspect of the surrounding world - that of the role of animals, birds, snakes, and lesser creatures - the common style of Pueblo thinking draws closer together. Although the subject is too complex for simple formulas, it was evident that these animals provide a basic frame of reference in Pueblo ceremonialism. Birds, in contradistinction to animals, have an advantage for use as simpler signs, because even individual feathers can stand for the bird or for the thought to be expressed.
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The Pueblos have been watching their birds for centuries
and during that time have incorporated these creatures into every aspect of community life. Even such mundane tasks as building a room or planting a field require the presentation of feathers from particular birds, while in the rituals that support religious ceremonialism birds and their feathers become counters that keep a complex symbol system in order. As signs, birds relate to gods, act as messengers between men and gods, or stand as signals between man and man. As a part of the surrounding world, birds relate to all manner of natural phenomena and to weather control.
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When the spirits are addressed, prayer-sticks mounted with feathers are "planted" in fields or elsewhere to carry these messages. Or again, detached feathers may be offered, in which case they are tied to strings of native cotton or placed around a wooden altar. Less frequently loose feathers are offered by placing them under stones or by casting them into streams and lakes.
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Most of the feathers used for this and other purposes are specified, not only the kind of bird but also the type of feather - whether primary wing, tail, downy breast, or whatever. Because prayer-sticks relate to gods and spirits, all of the attached feathers are thought of as "breath-feathers." Breath is the spirit part of any living thing, so it must hold the meanings and intentions that flow back and forth between men and spirits. Birds are like the breath in that they travel through the air and become media for these breath messages.
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Most of the feathers used for this and other purposes are specified, not only the kind of bird but also the type of feather - whether primary wing, tail, downy breast, or whatever. Because prayer-sticks relate to gods and spirits, all of the attached feathers are thought of as "breath-feathers." Breath is the spirit part of any living thing, so it must hold the meanings and intentions that flow back and forth between men and spirits. Birds are like the breath in that they travel through the air and become media for these breath messages.
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If one is telling a myth or a story, the names of certain birds will be mentioned. In folktales it may be only a "just-so" reference, telling how the woodpecker got his head bloodied and the like. But more often there is a serious note; the birds name will signal to the listener one or more ideas for which that bird stands. Many times ritual poetry is recited by Pueblo priests as part of a ceremony, and when a bird's name occurs in the poem it conveys an important meaning reference.
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From the sky, eagles survey the entire world, so these birds
or their abstractions become Beast gods of the Zenith. Eagles are the only birds elevated to a place among other deities, but other birds are the forms gods take when traveling, so the point is not always distinct. Between eagles flying within the sky's dome and the earthly turkeys, there are all of the other feathered kinds that fly close to man. Some are related specifically to the sun, while others speak to the sun's seasons.
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Hummingbirds have rainbow hues and suck nectar from flowers. Nectar is a quintessential liquid representing all the moist forces in growth and life. Macaws or parrots likewise exemplify the wedding of sun and rain, because they are multihued. None are found in the Pueblo area, but there is abundant archaeological evidence that imported macaws and parrots were kept in the villages from at least 1100 A.D., possibly earlier, which indicates that their feathers were as important then as in modern ceremonialism where they rank with those from eagles and turkeys.
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Beyond the complexities and symbols there is a simpler Pueblo view that shines out at every turn as a pervading feeling of reverence for all wildlife. Birds have many roles, but often they are simply spokesmen within a quiet cosmos, their voices an expression of processes that
flow around mankind.
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A song from the Pueblo of Acoma sets the
notes of a swallow, as it flies along a stream,
to native words:
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Beni chi, beni chi, beni nu tsoutr,
Western river, western river, coming from the west,
Soya ta.
I sing of you.
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In the blending of bird notes with human voices
there is always a harmony that
all men can share.
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If one is telling a myth or a story, the names of certain birds will be mentioned. In folktales it may be only a "just-so" reference, telling how the woodpecker got his head bloodied and the like. But more often there is a serious note; the birds name will signal to the listener one or more ideas for which that bird stands. Many times ritual poetry is recited by Pueblo priests as part of a ceremony, and when a bird's name occurs in the poem it conveys an important meaning reference.
.
From the sky, eagles survey the entire world, so these birds
or their abstractions become Beast gods of the Zenith. Eagles are the only birds elevated to a place among other deities, but other birds are the forms gods take when traveling, so the point is not always distinct. Between eagles flying within the sky's dome and the earthly turkeys, there are all of the other feathered kinds that fly close to man. Some are related specifically to the sun, while others speak to the sun's seasons.
.
Hummingbirds have rainbow hues and suck nectar from flowers. Nectar is a quintessential liquid representing all the moist forces in growth and life. Macaws or parrots likewise exemplify the wedding of sun and rain, because they are multihued. None are found in the Pueblo area, but there is abundant archaeological evidence that imported macaws and parrots were kept in the villages from at least 1100 A.D., possibly earlier, which indicates that their feathers were as important then as in modern ceremonialism where they rank with those from eagles and turkeys.
.
Beyond the complexities and symbols there is a simpler Pueblo view that shines out at every turn as a pervading feeling of reverence for all wildlife. Birds have many roles, but often they are simply spokesmen within a quiet cosmos, their voices an expression of processes that
flow around mankind.
.
. notes of a swallow, as it flies along a stream,
to native words:
.
Beni chi, beni chi, beni nu tsoutr,
Western river, western river, coming from the west,
Soya ta.
I sing of you.
.
In the blending of bird notes with human voices
there is always a harmony that
all men can share.
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.
.
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