Calendars and Symbolism: Functions of Observation in Hopi Astronomy

Stephen identifies the four-direction shrines in an undated memorandum on the inside back cover of one of his field notebooks. Stephen Alexander M. , Hopi Notebooks, vi (Old Book N), Columbia University Library, Elsie Clews Parsons Collection.

These shrines across the valley differ from shrines near villages discussed in Fewkes J. W. , “Hopi shrines near the East Mesa, Arizona”, American anthropologist, n.s., viii (1906), 346–75, and Michael Zeilik , “Sun shrines and sun symbols in the U. S. Southwest”, Archaeoastronomy (Supplement to Journal for the history of astronomy), no. 9 (1985), S86–96. Tewa and Zuni evidence suggests that shrines near villages are sometimes used as backsights; the Hopi shrines discussed here serve, at least symbolically, as medium-distance foresights.

Fewkes J. W. , “A few summer ceremonials at the Tusayan pueblos”, in his A journal of American ethnology and archaeology, ii (1892), 24–33. For further details of the Sun Chief house at Walpi see Jeremiah Sullivan, notebook, 1888, Elsie Clews Parsons Collection, Columbia University Library, xxxiii; Fewkes J. W. , notebook on Soyal, 1898 and 1899, Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives (SI/NAA), box 4408 (29); Stephen A. M. , Hopi journal, ed. by Parsons E. C. (New York, 1936), 53–54 (espec. Fig. 33), 71–72.

Crow Wing , A pueblo Indian journal , ed. by Parsons E. C. (Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, xxxii; Menasha, Wis., 1925), 94–95, n. 147; McCluskey S. C. , Hopi Field Notes, 1979. Fewkes, notebook on Soyal, 1898 and 1899, has winter solstice offerings in west, summer solstice in east. I believe his notes are confused on this point; these directions are not given in his published accounts.

On the boundaries between the Hopi villages see Forde Daryll C. , “Hopi agriculture and land ownership”, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, lxi (1931), 357–405, maps 2, 3, and 4.

The pueblo ruins are the only artifacts near the sun's houses likely to remain over long periods. If typical of such sites, this relationship of altar and outlying pueblo within sight of a larger village may be an archaeological indicator for solstice markers.

O'Kane W. C. , The Hopis: Portrait of a desert people (Norman, Oklahoma, 1953), 138 9; McCluskey S. C. , Hopi Field Notes, 1978–79.

All such computations are adjusted for the curvature of the earth and for refraction. Refraction corrections were computed using the formula for apparent altitudes less than 15° given in the Astronomical ephemeris, using values for atmospheric pressure defined by the international standard atmosphere for the height of the sites above sea level and assuming a temperature at Red Cape appropriate for the season and time of day.

The Arizona state grid coordinates of the distant foresights at Kwitcala and Luhavwu Chochomo were read directly from 1:24,000 topographic maps. Coordinates of the shrines at Ponotuwi and Kwatipkya were established by sighting with a pocket transit on both distant and nearby landmarks appearing on topographic maps. A simultaneous solution was used to correct for compass error and obtain the coordinates of the transit and of these sites. These solutions indicated a precision in azimuth exceeding 0.3°.

In the case of the shrines at Ponotuwi two of the nearby landmarks, a house and a crossroads, were ill defined. Alternative solutions including and omitting these landmarks give azimuths from Red Cape of 299.91° and 300.10° for the northern shrine, 299.14° and 299.46° for the southern shrine. The coordinates found by omitting the questionable data preserved the relative locations of the two shrines and were near the 6100 ft contour line marking the mesa edge, from which I had actually surveyed. The other solutions were about 100 metres from the edge and did not preserve the relative locations of the shrines. For these reasons both tables are based on the positions omitting the questionable data.

Stephen , Hopi journal 442, n.1, and 539–40.

Stephen , Hopi journal, 29–31, 62–63, map 4. The name Luhavwu Chochomo (testicle mounds) refers literally to the rounded volcanic cinder mounds to the East of this notch, rather than to the notch itself. Stephen A. M. , letter to J. Walter Fewkes, 21 Dec. 1893, SI/NAA, 4408(4): 1893.

An alternative name for this notch, Wu-ti-ki-pi, which I make to be “old woman's house”, appears on the map “Hopi shrines other than eagle shrines” submitted as evidence in the Hopi-Navajo land dispute case, Docket 196-Hopi, Plaintiffs Exhibit no. 68.

On this astronomical consideration see Michael Zeilik , “Anticipation in ceremony: The readiness is all”, in Astronomy and ceremony in the prehistoric Southwest, ed. by Carlson J. B. Judge W. J. (Papers of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, no. 2; Albuquerque, 1987), 25–41.

Stephen , Hopi journal, 53–60, 71–82. The ceremonies at Oraibi pueblo of making and offering pahos to the sun at Soyal are described by Don Talayesva in Simmons Leo W. (ed.) Sun Chief: The autobiography of a Hopi Indian (New Haven, 1942), 170–7.

Fewkes Walter J. , Awatovi Field Notes, SI/NAA, 4408(13); cf. Fewkes , “A-wa-to-bi: Archaeological verification of a Tusayan legend”, American anthropologist, vi (1893), 363–75, Plate IIIa. Forde, “Hopi agriculture”, Fig. 7.

The absolute values of computed declinations for these two sites differ by only 0.02°. Since this corresponds to two days' motion of the sun from the solstice and since variations in refraction are of the same order of magnitude, the Hopi could have, given their known precision in fixing festival dates in their calendar, located these sites with such precision. Nevertheless, the site surveys are not sufficiently exact to justify a claim for such precision for the Hopi.

Some support for this hypothesis may be found in a migration legend told by a man from Oraibi, Wikvaya, who said that the Patki people “came from where the sun rises”. Voth H. R. , The traditions of the Hopi (Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological series, viii; Chicago, 1905), 29.

The notch is defined on the right by the point (35°59′52“N, 109°57′57”W) facing Smoke Signal Point at the entrance of an unnamed wooded canyon in the west side of Balakai Mesa. Its left edge is marked by a precipitous drop (36°00′58“N, 109°55′11”W) overshadowing the fork of the canyon leading up to Atsadahsidahi peak. USGS Topographic Maps, Beeshsikad Spring and Toadindaaska Mesa Quadrangles, 7.5 minute series.

Stephen A. M. , Letter to Fewkes, Tewa, 30 November 1893, SI/NAA, 4408(4) 1893. Cf. Stephen's earlier investigation of Hopi architectural nomenclature where he defined hitcúyiwa as “an opening to pass through”; a narrow passageway between two houses, p. 221 in Mindeleff V. , A study of pueblo architecture: Tusayan and Cibola , Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of [American] Ethnology, 1886–87.

Cf. Stephen , Hopi journal, map. 12, where there are two separate depictions of this notch. Although the horizon profile given by Forde, “Hopi agriculture”, Fig. 6A, p. 386 includes a point marked “main corn planting/kwitcala”, this is not the gap noted by Stephen. The apparent reason for this discrepancy is that Forde's research concentrated on agricultural practices down in the valley, from which the notch and other distant horizon markers cannot be seen. It is only from the mesa top where Stephen lived and studied Hopi ritual that these precise markers become visible. A map drawn in 1913 by Leslie Agayo of the Tewa Corn clan for Barbara Freire-Marreco includes an accurate, albeit unconventional, depiction of this gap. It is there labelled “the Lane”, the marker for late corn planting (Forde, “Hopi agriculture, Fig. 7, p. 387).

Stephen , Hopi journal 390. In 1921 Crow Wing gives no indication of Tewa participation; perhaps this was one of the reasons that Crow Wing, a Tewa, asserts that the sun-watcher was not a very good man. Crow Wing , A pueblo Indian journal, 74–95.

The change in azimuth of the centre of Kwitcala is 0.48°; this corresponds to a change of declination of 0.35° and a change of longitude of 1.6°.

Crow Wing , A pueblo Indian journal 87. Note that the Patki clan, of which the Sun Watcher is a member, has the first plantings. This places their crops at greatest risk if the Sun Watcher is in error. If astronomical knowledge contributes to priestly power, this power has concomitant risks. Cf. Jonathan Reyman, “The predictive dimension of priestly power”, Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science, lxxii (1980), 40–59.

On sacred space and sacred time see Mircea Eliade , The sacred and the profane (New York, 1959), 20–76.

For extensive discussions of this topic, see Lindberg David C. Numbers Ronald L. (eds), God and Nature: Historical essays on the encounter between Christianity and science (Berkeley, 1986), passim.

An Oraibi Tawa mongwi's life and values are presented, although from the editor's Freudian perspective, in Simmons (ed.), Sun Chief..