NOTES ON MODERN BURIAL CUSTOMS OF THE 

 HOPI 1 OF ARIZONA 



i. Introduction. 



The belief in a future state and in a continued existence after death 

 is well defined in the religious conception and in many rites and cere- 

 monies of the Hopi. That part of man which they believe to be im- 

 mortal they call hikvsi. The fundamental meaning of this term seems 

 to coincide with that expressed by the Hebrew "ruach," the German 

 "Hauch" or the Greek "pneuma." In its practical application the 

 hikvsi is to the Hopi what to us is the soul in its ethical sense. At 

 death the hikvsi leaves the body. When asked whether it is this 

 hikvsi or the deceased person that continues to live in the skeleton 

 house, the average Hopi may get confused. He knows that the body 

 of the dead decays, and believes that it is by virtue or through the 

 part that escapes from the body through the mouth at death, that the 

 dead continue their existence in the future world. The details, with 

 regard to this fact, are more or less vague in the mind of the Hopi, and 

 vary considerably in the different traditions, clans and villages. 



This belief in a future state is not only manifested again and again 

 in the different ceremonies of the Hopi, but it also plays a conspicuous 

 part in their burial customs, as will be seen in the following pages. 



2. The Death Chamber. 



While with civilized nations illness and impending death usually 

 draws sympathy and helping hands to the place of affliction it is, 

 as a rule, not so with the Hopi. To be sure, families visited by severe 

 sickness or death will usually not be left entirely to themselves, but it 

 is, generally, only either father or mother or some other of the older 

 relatives of the bereaved that manifest sympathy or renders assistance. 

 As a rule the sick, for whom little hope of recovery exists, and the 

 dying are deserted by most of the relatives and friends. A few cases out 

 of very many that came to the notice of the author, may be cited to 

 illustrate this fact. Case i : Coming into a room one day I found two 

 young women whom I was well acquainted with, sitting close together, 

 silently weeping. They were sisters. Before them lay a beautiful 



1 While these customs are essentially the same on the three mesas, these brief observations refer 

 more particularly to the village of Oraibi. 



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