EARLY KACHINAS IN ROCK ART?

#1 - Petroglyphs, North of Soccorro, Richard Colman, 2012

#2 - Mystery masks, North of Soccorro, Richard Colman, 2012.

One of the real fascinations of rock art in the American southwest is to try to match features of the faces or mask depictions in rock art to features of the kachinas of Pueblo religion. For instance, the face in the top center of photo #1 has the unique face painting found primarily in the Hopi Polik Mana (Butterfly maiden) (Colton 1959:48) and Salako Mana (Shalako maiden) (Colton 1959:47; and Fewkes 1985:Plate LVI).

Photo #2 shows a row of repeating faces (masks) identically portrayed with what looks like a floppy peaked hat on the head and a horizontal line painted across the middle of each face. While cursory examination of my reference books turned up a couple of kachinas with this sort of horizontal line across the middle of the face I could not find one with both that line and this distinctive headgear. Yet here it was important enough to the artist to repeat it identically three times. What did he have in mind?

These fascinating petroglyphs were photographed by Richard Colman at a site north of Soccorro, New Mexico. Richard has graciously given me permission to use these pictures (as well as others on occasion).

Richard is the source of the spectacular rock art photography in www.westernrockart.org/. Check out his site and share the wonder.

REFERENCES:

Colton, Harold S., Hopi Kachina Dolls, 1959, Univ. of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque

Fewkes, Jesse Walter, Hopi Katcinas, 1985, Dover Pub., New York

A DEATH VALLEY PETROGLYPH:

Death Valley petroglyph boulder, California.

Photo: Richard Colman, 2011.

This photograph was sent to me by Richard Colman, who found it “in a wash in Death Valley National Park, near the Mesquite Springs campground area”. He found the combination of elements to be interesting and odd for Great Basin rock art.

Richard is the moderator for the Yahoo American Rock Art Group. Richard is also an accomplished photographer and takes spectacular photos of rock art. Visit his site http://www.westernrockart.org to see other examples of his wonderful photography.

Thank you for sharing Richard, this is one area that I have not yet been able to visit in person - and happy trails.

POLYDACTYLISM IN ROCK ART – CONTINUED:

Anasazi Ridge, UT. Photograph

by Richard Colman, 2011

On December 9, 2009, I published a posting on polydactylism (extra fingers or toes) in rock art, and explained Marie Wormington’s theory on what it indicates. At that time I wrote:

“Back in 1982 I had the privilege of meeting H. Marie Wormington on a few occasions. During the course of one conversation over dinner we discussed her theory of why so many 6-toed footprints (and 6-fingered hand prints) can be found in rock art.

Marie had joined the Denver Museum of Natural History staff in 1935 as an archaeologist, and was the curator of archeology there from 1937 to 1968. Her knowledge and opinions were extremely influential in early studies of prehistoric cultures of the 4-corners and Great Plains.

She explained to me that her theory had been based upon the circumstances of a Fremont culture burial that she had excavated many years before. This particular male skeleton was found with valuable grave goods suggesting a VIP, and she found that this person had displayed polydactylism - the man had six fingers. She had put those two facts together and theorized that perhaps the presence of the polydactylism had contributed to the person’s status. We frequently hear that among Native American cultures physical and mental differences were looked upon as marking a person as special instead of being a cause for discrimination against them. Following this thought it only made sense that a person born with six fingers might have gravitated to a position of influence in the society, perhaps a shaman or medicine man. And then, to expand on that thought we have to ask who was most likely to have been commemorated in rock art?

It is often assumed that a hand print in rock art represents a person’s signature or identity and, if this is indeed the case, the six-fingered hand print or footprint represents a particular important individual who possessed that trait.”

This particular example was photographed by Richard Coleman in 2011 at Anasazi Ridge, in the area of St. George, Utah. You can see that the two lower footprints each have six toes. Wormington’s hypothesis works for me here as well. Footprints with six toes on each foot would have been made that way on purpose, you just don’t miscount when making something like that. So, I see them as representing someone with polydactylism, someone specific. In other words they serve as a portrait of a certain individual; an individual perhaps memorialized by these images.

Also, at Anasazi Ridge, a pair of what appear to be bear paw prints with seven claws each can be found. Since the claws are the dangerous part, perhaps extra claws are meant to portray greater danger, or an encounter with a bear that involved great risk. Who knows?