WHITE] SUMMARY COMMENT 141 



On this ceremonial level we can distinguish several organizations 

 of interest, although each one is connected with another at some 

 point. These organizations center around rain and fertility, medicine 

 and disease, war, and hunting. But the organs for serving one 

 purpose frequently assist another; medicine men assist in the kachina 

 dances (and initiate new members) ; they also initiate the war chiefs, 

 and the war chiefs guard the medicine men at their cures; the Hunters' 

 Society ofTieiated at ceremonial hunts; the k'oBictaiya treated weak 

 and sick persons at the winter solstice, etc. There is a quality of 

 sphericity about the organization; any point is connected or con- 

 cerned (more or less directly) with all others. 



The position of Acoma in the southwest.^" — Although differing at 

 many points from the Keresan pueblos of the Rio Grande, Acoma 

 resembles them very much more than she does the Hopi or the Zuiii 

 of the west, or the Tewa villages of the east; Acoma is definitely 

 Keresan in culture. Geographically, Acoma is almost midway 

 between the eastern and the western pueblos and is decidedly pe- 

 ripheral to the Keresan area. One might expect to find this position 

 reflected in Acoma culture, and one does, indeed, find a mingling of 

 the east and the west at Acoma. 



The sLx-ldva system at Acoma (only five now) is like Zuni. The 

 moiety feature which is prominent in the ceremonial organization of 

 the eastern pueblos is absent at Acoma, as at Zuni. The kachina 

 cult shows more affinities to Zuni than to the eastern pueblos. In 

 addition to the presence of certain individual kachinas, the masked 

 ceremonies of the k'atsina fight, and of Curatca, suggest the Zuni 

 kyanakwe ceremony and shulawitsi ritual, respectively. 



Differences in political organization between Acoma and the eastern 

 Keres are: In the east there are two war chiefs; at Acoma there is 

 one and two lieutenants. The cacique at Acoma is always a member 

 of the Antelope clan and is not a medicine man (although this is not 

 prohibited). In the east the cacique is not chosen with reference to 

 clan, but he is usually (and in one or two instances must be) a medi- 

 cine man. The 10 "little chiefs" and the three cooks at Acoma are 

 unique. 



Acoma medicine societies closely resemble the eastern Keresan ones. 

 It is characteristic in the east, however, for the Flint Society to be 

 closelj' associated with the koshare (sometimes amounting to com- 

 pulsory coincidences in membership), and a similar bond between the 

 Ci'k'ame Society and the Quirena. At Acoma the koshare are 

 e.xtinct and so is the Cik'ame Societj'. And the Quirena Society 

 is identical with the kachina organization. These are striking 

 differences. 



w White, Leslie A., Summary Report on Field Work at Acoma, iVmerican Anthropologist, vol. 30, 

 pp. .').'i9-568. 



