542 INTRODUCTION TO ZTJNI CEREMONIALISM 



ceremonies which they attend; they are interested in sacerdotal 

 gossip ; and they orient their activities about great reUgious festivals. 

 In early cliildhood boys and girls are especially interested in religious 

 affairs. Sometime between the ages of 5 and 10 boys make their 

 first direct contact with the deeper aspects of religion, on their pre- 

 liminary initiation into the Katcina Society. This makes no change 

 in a child's religious life. It is only after his final initiation, which 

 may occur any time after the age of 10, that active paiticipation in 

 dances begins. Boys of 10 or 12 take part in the winter dancing 

 but rarely in the more strenuous dancing of the summer series. At 

 about the same age girls have their attention diverted from rehgious 

 spectacles to their own adult activities. 



Most adult men engage in other religious activities besides the 

 recpiired minmium of katcina dancing and the semiannual prayer 

 stick plantings recjuired of all persons. The younger men, who find 

 exhilaration in dancing and singing, dance manj' times a year, either 

 with their own groups or with others, and organize extra dances. As 

 their knowledge of dance forms increases they may advance to formal 

 office in one of the six dance societies. Those who display an aptitude 

 in memorizing long prayers, if of exemplary conduct, may be appointed 

 to impersonate one of the gods. 



Membership in curing societies is not ordinarily a matter of indi- 

 vidual choice. Once initiated into one of these groups a man may 

 limit his activities to attendance at the regular winter meetings and 

 initiations. Or if he has sufficient intellectual curiosity to pay high 

 for esoteric knowledge he may, by accumidating knowledge and the 

 supernatui'al power which knowledge gives him, advance to a position 

 of influence in his society. For a successful career as a medicine man, 

 intelligence and ambition seem more important than piety and Adrtue. 

 However, although a man of questionable moral character may build 

 up a good medical practice, he is not likely to be chosen for office in 

 his society. 



Membership in priesthoods is even less a matter of free choice than 

 cui'ing societies. Priesthoods are hereditary in maternal families, 

 and to fill a vacancy the members select the least quarrelsome rather 

 than the most intelligent of the eligible young men. 



The priesthoods are the branch of religious service that carries the 

 greatest prestige and heaviest responsibilities. Because of the heavy 

 responsibilities the office is avoided rather than sought, and consider- 

 able difficulty is experienced in recruiting the priesthoods. As one 

 informant said, "They have to catch the men young to make them 

 priests. For if they are old enough to realize all that is required of 

 them, they will refuse." She was not thixdving of the taboos and re- 

 straints of the priestly life, but of the sense of responsibility for the 

 welfare of the tribe wliich lies so heavily on the shoulders of the 

 priests. The same informant continued: "Yesterday my younger 



