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The Zuñi

A Feast Day at Acoma: photograph by Edward S. Curtis
 

The Zuñi are a Southwest American Indian nation. Their spiritual beliefs center around elaborate ceremonies for fertility and rain, comprised of a yearly cycle of ritual dances by masked dancing gods called Kachinas. This section provides detailed ethographic descriptions of Zuñi spiritual beliefs, which permeate every aspect of their culture.

Ruth Bunzel on Zuñi Religion

By Ruth Bunzel:
from The Forty-Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1929-1930:

 

 Table of Zuñi Sounds
 Introduction to Zuñi Ceremonialism 215,769 bytes
 Zuñi Origin Myths 66,114 bytes
 Zuñi Ritual Poetry 310,414 bytes

By Frank Hamilton Cushing:

 Cushing: Zuñi Folk Tales [1901]
 Outline of Zuñi Mytho-Sociologic Organization
Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 367-73, [1891-1892]
 Zuñi Fetiches
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1880-1881, pp. 9-15, 30-31 [1883]
 Remarks on Shamanism
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 36:184-92. [1897]
 Form and Form and the Dance Drama
Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1891-1892, p. 362 and 374-77. [1896]
 Corn Raising: The Decay of the Seed
Millstone 9, no. 5, pp. 75-78. [1884]
 Corn Raising: The Regeneration of the Seed
Millstone 9, no. 6, pp. 93-95. [1884]
 Clowns, Priests, and Festivals of the Kâ’-kâ
Millstone 10, no. 8, pp. 141-44. [1885]
 Creation and the Origin of Corn
Millstone 9, no. 1, pp. 1-3. [1884]