FLUTE PLAYER, HEALER, OR PIPE SMOKER?

Kneeling Kokopelli, Kelley Place,

Mancos Canyon, Montezuma County, CO.

Photograph Peter Faris, May 1983.

Kokopelli, near Talus House,

Bandelier National Monument,

Los Alamos County, New Mexico.

Photograph Peter Faris, Sept. 1985.

A particular favorite rock art image of everyone in the American southwest is the flute player commonly known as Kokopelli (the hump-backed flute player). I will save the whole question of who he really is for another time, and in this column will deal with what he represents visually, because, while he is called a flute-player there are actually other possibilities.

Consider the range of items that might be held up to the mouth. More common than flutes were bone whistles, usually made of the wing bone of a large bird. Also, a straight pipe would be held to the mouth to smoke it. And, finally, the present fad for identifying Shamanism in rock art would require us to consider the sucking tube used in healing ceremonies by a Shaman.

Grotto Canyon Kokopelli, Alberta,

Canada. After Keyser and Klassen,

2001, p. 105, Fig. 7.13.

In general, flute-player images shown holding a long, straight object may well be flute-players because the other possibilities (whistle, straight pipe, and sucking tube) are shorter. But many of the images are holding items that are suspiciously short like the example above.

Blackfoot eagle bone whistle.
Internet.

Fremont flute, Range Creek,

Utah. www.flutopedia.com.

Pueblo Bonito flute from Chaco

Canyon, New Mexico.

www.flutopedia.com.

So, since whistles were more common that flutes among Native American tribes, a figure holding a short straight object might indeed be playing a whistle instead of a flute. "The eagle bone whistle is a religious object used by some members of Native American spiritual societies in sacred ceremonies - in the Southwest and Plains cultures. The whistle is used in some Peyote ceremonies of some sects of the Native American Church. The eagle bone whistle is also used by the Lakota people in certain ceremonies, such as Sun Dances." (Wikipedia)

Basketmaker cloud-blower,

New Mexico. Internet.

Another possible subject would be the form of a straight pipe known as a cloud-blower. "In North America, the primary purpose of the tobacco smoke is to serve as an offering to the spirits. Across the Americas, tobacco, offered directly or as smoke, allowed for communication with spirits. Among the Pueblos, Parsons describes smoke being blown onto altars in kivas to give luck for ceremonies. At Santa Clara pueblo, pipes smoke was blown to ask for rain and in hunting ceremonies. More specifically, pipes were used in healing ceremonies among the Navajo and other groups." (Davis 2017:38-9)

Chumash cloud-blower.
Steatite, 5¼".
worthpoint.com.

In the West and Southwest smoke is generally considered to represent the clouds and can carry a prayer to the sky during ceremonial use. Additionally, in the southwest, the most common form of pipe used prehistorically was a straight tube, actually known as a cloud blower for this association of smoke to clouds. Given the importance of the sacred nature of this connection is it not possible that the figures we know as flute-players are actually holding a tubular smoking pipe, or cloud blower?

Shaman's "Sucking Tube" from

San Diego County, California.

O'Neal, 1983, picture from Internet.

The final possibility, although my least favorite, is that the figure holding a short object to his lips is a shaman with the tube that he or she uses to suck illness from a patient. As I have said many times previously, I think that the concept of Shamanism is really badly overdone as an explanation in analysis of rock art. So, what do I think is the explanation? I would usually have to go with the flute-player, however, we should be aware that there are always other possibilities.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Davis, Kaitlyn Elizabeth
2017 The Ambassador's Herb: Tobacco Pipes as Evidence for Plains-Pueblo Interaction, Interethic Negotiation, and Ceremonial Exchange in the Northern Rio Grande, Graduate Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Keyser, James D., and Michael A. Klassen
2001   Plains Indian Rock Art, University of  Washington Press, Seattle. Fig. 7.13, p. 105.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle-bone_whistle

http://www.flutopedia.com/

https://www.worthpoint.com/

O'Neil, Dennis H.
1983  A Shaman's "Sucking Tube" from San Diego County, California, Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropoloty, No. 5, issue 2.