508 INTRODtTCTION TO ZTJNI CEREMONIALISM [eth. ann. 47 



galia, which are definitive for each dance. Dancing may be con- 

 tinuous, Uke the initiation dancing of the societies, or may be broken 

 by intervals filled witli clo\vning, jugglery, or other rituals, like the 

 simomer katcinas, or two or more groups may dance in turn. 



Dancing is always semipubhc. Sometimes, for exanaple, the last 

 night of the winter ceremony of the nnedicine societies, specially 

 privileged outsiders (that is, outside the active group) may attend. 

 Other dances are performed in lay houses or outdoors and are free to 

 all who wish to come, inclucUng wliitcs. 



Despite the enormous complexity of Zuiii ceremoniaUsm the ele- 

 ments of which it is built and the underlying patterns are compara- 

 tively simple. The ideology is difficult of comprehension because it is 

 monistic, abstract, and impersonal where we tend to be duaUstic, 

 concrete, and personal, but the philosophical ideas in themselves are 

 neither abstruse nor involved. So also the complexity of ritual is 

 more apparent than real. All ceremonies have five principal aspects — 

 the manipulation and veneration of sacrosanct objects; offerings; 

 purification, abstinence, and seclusion; recitation of sacred formula;; 

 public celebration. Each of the five approaches is itself subject to 

 little variation. The texts recorded in the following pages illustrate 

 how little complexity has been introduced into prayer. Prayers may 

 be long or short, condensed or expanded, but the content, outline, 

 and phi-aseology are always the same. So, too, with other techniques. 

 The complexity of Zuni ritual is a comple.xity of organization rather 

 than content. The baffling intricacy of ceremonies hke the \vinter 

 dance of the Wood Society and associated groups, and the initiation 

 of boys into the Ivatcina society are due cMefly to two processes in 

 organization: The cUversification of fimction and the piling up and 

 telescoping of distinct ceremonies. It is characteristic of Zuni rituals 

 that their different parts are not necessarily performed by the same 

 indi\'iduals or the same groups. The group that makes offerings 

 and goes into retreat may have no control of the sacred object in 

 whose honor the retreat is being held. Everytliing connected with 

 the handhng of fetishistic objects may belong to a second group, 

 while a third group holds the sacred words of the chants, and yet a 

 fourth group manages the public ceremonies. Each of these groups 

 has its own organization, mode of succession, and minor rituals, so 

 that the complete picture of any major ceremony, such as the Ca'lako, 

 with all its ramifications, gives an impression of bewildering and 

 baffling complexity. 



It is more difficult to uncover the ceremonial pattern in ceremonies 

 wliich are the products of coalescence. The winter solstice ceremonies, 

 thought of at Zuni as a unit, are clearly a synchronization of inde- 

 pendent cults. In other cases the essential separateness of parts of a 

 ceremony is somewhat obscured. The dance of the Wood Society 



