Bacavi Village - Third Mesa - Hopi Reservation - Northern Arizona - U.S.A.

Last summer, my daughter and I were invited to attend a Hopi Kachina Dance in Bacavi village on the Third Mesa of the Hopi Reservation in Northern Arizona. We were fortunate to have witnessed one of the  most incredible cultural ceremonies still being practiced in the world today. No one was permitted to take photographs or make recordings, so the only way to experience the ceremony was to be there," in person". What I saw that Saturday afternoon in June continues to resonate and inform my political, cultural and spiritual values, especially during this period of post-modern, post-911, ambivalence.

Modern Times Ancient Traditions

The dance, I was told, was an old "Bear "Dance.The costumes of the dancers resembled the Albino Chakwaina Katsina doll. The dance was being re-enacted for the whole village and  especially the children. The dance took place in the ceremonial plaza throughout most of the day.There were, however, several breaks lasting about an hour. Everyone in the village was in attendance, young and old, grandmothers and teenagers, children and their mothers, even members of the tribal motorcycle gang. We watched the dance from one of the roof tops which provided us with a clear view of the plaza below, outlined in a U-shape by villagers sitting in their lawn chairs outside their mud and cinderblock dwellings. Acompanying us on the flat roof were many Hopi, young and old, acting suprisingly reserve and attentive, even during the breaks.When the dancers came into the plaza everyone got quiet, including the kids. I counted thirty men masked and dressed in kachina costumes representative of this particular "Bear" dance.

Slowly and deliberately they danced single file around the the plaza in a U-shaped formation to a steady drum beat and chant. Thirty, "chubby", disguised kachina dancers (all men)would all slowly turn in unison in response to a dance leaders particular cue. Then, from the rooftops, came the clowns. They were loud and disruptive, like a hecklers from a night club audience. The crowd loved them. They made fun of everyone in the audience, young and old. They scared the children and finally climbed down to the ground and mocked each and every dancer. They were relentless. Amazingly during the whole verbal assault, not one dancer missed a beat. Several sacred clowns, thirty dancers, and a whole village in tuned to an ancient dance exhibiting archaic archetypes

THESIS QUESTIONS

What was the role of the Sacred Clown ( Trickster) during the Hopi Kachina Dance ?

Is there any connection  between the behaviors of the clowns, as tricksters and  Jung's concept of Individuation?

http://www.uwec.edu/geography/Ivogeler/w188/indians/bacavi.htm

http://www.hopi.nsn.us/Pages/Villages/Hopi_2.htm http://www.channel1.com/users/brown/history.html http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~rwj1/HOP/hop10g.html http://www.wrcc.osmre.gov/hopi4.html

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