niNZELl RELIGIOUS LIFE 511 



such. Such special relationships heloiiti' in the realni of special cult 

 activities which will be considered. 



Against this background general nonesoteric religious activities 

 have developed a large number of esoteric cults, each devoted to the 

 worship of special supernaturals or groups of supernaturals, and each 

 having a priesthood, a body of secret ritual, permanent possessions of 

 fetishistic power, special places of worship, and a calendrical cycle of 

 ceremonies. I distinguish six major cults of this tj'pe, which might 

 be named from the supernaturals toward whom their principal cere- 

 monies are directed : 1 , the cult of the Sun ; 2, the cult of the Uwanami ; 

 3, the cult of the katcinas; 4, the cult of the priests of the katcinas 

 (a distinct but closely related cult ^') ; 5, the cult of the Gods of War; 

 6, the cult of the Beast Gods. The functions, activities, and person- 

 nel of these groups overlap and interweave in a bewildering intricacy 

 that baffles analysis. The pekwin who is speaker of the sun is also 

 priest; he has certain specifically priestly functions. Some activities 

 belong to one, some to another, of his affiliations. This is true also 

 of the bow priests, leaders of the war cult, who as guardians of secret 

 rites are associated with fraternities; the fraternities or medicine 

 societies, which are devoted primarily to the worship of the Beast 

 Gods, gods of life, medicine, and witchcraft, have one ceremony 

 devoted entirely to the invocation of the Uwanami. Some are of 

 distinctly warlike character; others possess masks and take part in 

 masked rituals. However, iii spite of this interlocking, there is no 

 difficulty in assigning any major ritualistic group in Zufii to one or 

 the other of these cults on the basis of supernatural sanction, method, 

 and tangible possessions. 



THE CULT OF THE SUN 



The sun is the source of all life. Indeed the word for life is 

 ?eRohanan'e, daylight (te, time or space; Eohana, white; n'e, 

 nominal suffix). The sun is therefore "our father,"'^ in a very 

 special sense, but not in the sense of progenitor. He is associated in 

 worship with the moon, who is "our mother." However, life is not 

 thought of as springing from the union of these two. The moon is 

 "mother" by courtesy only. The animating female principle of the 

 universe is the earth mother, but there is no cult of the earth.^*" 



Each morning as the sun sends his first level beams striking across 

 the houses his jieople come out to meet him with prayers and offer- 

 ings. Men and women stand before their doors, facing the east, 



'• See p. 521. 



'* " Father" in Zuni is a term of respect applied to all supernaturals and to all human beings who have 

 any claim to one's respect or affection. 



'* The phallic element is not absent from the worship of the sun and moon. At the solstices adult males 

 plant blue sticks to the sun, females yellow ones to the moon. The sticks planted in the Ca'lako homes, 

 which are specifically for fecundity, are double; one stick is painted blue, the other yellow, and they are 

 male and female, respectively. Like the sun prayer sticks, they are made with downy feathers of the eagle. 



