parsons] ceremonial ORGANIZATION 269 



12-18. THE COHN GEOITPS (wAKUAKABEN)^' 



These groups are also all inclusive ; everybody belongs to one of the 

 seven. Theoretically he or she belongs to his mother's group, but 

 not merely from birth; as in the case of the moiety, he or she has to 

 be adopted ritually into the group. And a group, not the mother's, 

 may be selected for the child by the parents, as in the case of Gene- 

 alogy I, 10, whose parents, themselves belonging to the Black Corn 

 group, gave her to the Yellow Corn or Earth people. Initiation or 

 adoption ritual is performed at either the winter or summer solstice 

 ceremonial following the birth. 



The Corn groups have nothing to do with marriage. From the 

 house census ^* I made there appears to be about half as many 

 marriages within the group as without, which would indicate, if any- 

 thing, an endogamous tendency. But about half of the marriages 

 within the group are within the White Corn group, which from its 

 numerical preponderance might be expected and which offsets some- 

 what the impression of a general endogamous tendency. The pres- 

 tige of the White Corn group may possibly affect marriage choices. 



Each group has a chief (kabede), a chief assistant (auki'i) and a 

 varying number of other assistants (k'abnin) or helpers as my inform- 

 ant always referred to them in English. The women assistants are 

 called keide (mother). One of them is thought of as the head. In 

 particular they fetch the water used in ritual, they wash the hair of 

 the male members, they grind the paints for prayer feathers or sticks, 

 and they have charge of the sacrosanct bundles and of the basket of 

 sacred meal. They perform dance steps in ceremonial, but they do 

 not sing. 



Benin is a collective term for all members of the group. The chief, 

 or rather chief assistant who is in training for the chieftaincy, may 

 come into the position from a vow in sickness, as may also the other 

 male or female assistants. Also the chief when he is in need of 

 another assistant may call a general meeting of all his sons (wahkuan) 

 to choose an assistant. The Corn Fathers or Mothers, as they may be 

 referred to in English, "work for the whole world," including Mexicans 

 and Americans. 



" Wakuan, members of the group; imwabu*, my Coni group; wakukabede, Corn group chief. Awakua, 

 cornstalk with ears; wa, all, kua, the alternating ear. 



^ My informant, I should state, was in many cases self-contradictory in regard to a person's Com group 

 affiliation. He was not willfully misstating; I think he was merely guessing at the affiliation, and he 

 would forget what his guess had been. .\s Corn group affiliation does not affect marriage choices, the 

 affiliations are not generally as well known, I surmise, as are clan affiliations, at least in the western pueblos. 

 The usual way of knowing what are the affiliations of people not of your own Corn group is by noticing 

 where they go in at the solstice ceremonials. Of one family of Laguna descent Lucinda remarked, for 

 example, "They are all raeyu hano (Lizard people or clan; i. e., in Isletan terms, Earth people or Yellow 

 Corn group), because we see where they go." 



