PAINTING THE COSMOS: METAPHOR AND WORLDVIEW IN IMAGES FROM THE SOUTHWEST PUEBLOS AND MEXICO Edited by Kelley Hays-Cilpin and Polly Schaafsma Foreword by Robert Breunig MINA Bulletin 67 @ museum of Northern Arizona 2010THE SYMBOLISM OF SUPERNATURAL PASSAGEWAYS IN THE ART AND RITUAL OF MESOAMERICA AND THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST Karl Taube CHAPTERS | GATEWAYS TO ANOTHER WORLD: Introduction ‘A nexus between the world of the living and the supematural realm of the ancestors, the kiva is of | pivotal importance in Puebloan ceremonial life. In this study, I explore some of the more dynamic aspects of | Kiva art, ritual, and architecture, especially its role as a conduit for powers of life and fertility. A replication | ofthe symbolic place of emergence, the kiva is where spirit beings of life, germination, and growth emerge | __ and emanate nto the world panting by the Hopi art Miland Lomakema graphically portrays the kiva as | the earth exhaling the breath of life to the four directions of the horizontal plane (Page and Page 1982:136). ‘As with this contemporary painting, prehistoric kiva murals commonly depict forces of life and abundance surging out of passages and portals including vessels, feathered shields, and petalled flowers. In addition, symbolic roads of cornmeal or feather-bound cotton string provide access and direction for rain-bearing spirits during kiva ritual. Among the most potent vehicles for supematural travel are plumed or horned serpents, Jangw among the Hopi, Kolowisi to the Zuni, and Avanyu among Tewa-speaking peoples of the Rio Grande. ‘Thanks to the discovery of Pueblo IV murals and painted ceramics at Awat’ovi, Sikyatki, Pottery ‘Mound, Kuaua and other sites, itis clear that many aspects of Puebloan ceremonialism are of considerable antiquity in the American Southwest. In addition, many of the symbolic themes and elements of kiva ceremonialism also occur in agricultural ritual of ancient Mesoamerica, Since academics began studying Puebloan religion in the later nineteenth century, comparisons have been made between Puebloan ritual and symbolism to ancient Mesoamerica, Jesse Walter Fewses (1893), for example, related the Hopi snake dance of rain and lightning to a similar performance among ‘he Aztec, and various forms of snake dances are now widely documented for both ancient and contemporary Mesoamerica (Taube 1989; Baudez. 1992). In this study and subsequent work, Fewkes (1893; 1900:622-23) also posited that the great homed and feathered serpent of the Hopi was of Mesoamerican origin. In a far-ranging discussion of parallels between Puebloan and Aztec religious belief and practice, Elsie Clews Parsons (1933:61 1) called attention to the masked impersonation of rain beings. Just as certain Puebloan peoples perform masked katsina ceremonies, Aztec impersonators of the rain god Tlaloc also wore masks. In fact, both the Central Mexican rain deity and the god of wind, Ehecat!- Quetzalcoatl, are essentially masked entities, a trait that is also true for the katsina rain spirits. Masks are an Bessential and inextricable part of the visual conceptualization of both the Puebloan and Aztec beings. Parsons also noted that both Tlaloc and the katsinas are closely related to mountains as sources of rain and fertility. Just as Tlaloc is quadripartite, with aspects oriented to four directions and colors, there are the directional rain chiefs in Puebloan thought. According to Caroll Riley (1963), the highly developed systems of color-directional symbolism constitute one of the most striking features shared between Puebloan peoples and ancient Mesoamerica. Ruth Underhill (1948:17) argued that directional rain gods, including the Maya Chaaks, the Aztec Tlalocs, and Zuni rain chiefs, constitute the most important feature shared between gods of ‘Mesoamerica and the Southwest, and was certainly of Mesoamerican origin. More recently, Polly Schaafsma ‘and I have noted that the many specific traits shared in rain ritual and symbolism between the American Southwest and Ancient Mesoamerica indicate an ancient, shared ceremonial complex (Schaafsma and Taube 2006). Comparisons between ancient Puebloan and Mesoamerican rain ritual and symbolism generally focus on the most recent periods of pre-Hispanic contact, that is, Pueblo TV (ca. AD 1325-1600) and the Late Postelassic period of the Aztec (AD 1250-1521). In the Southwest, Pueblo IV marks a florescence of representational scenes in ceramics and mural paintings, much of which relates to known traditions of contemporary Puebloan peoples. For Mesoamerica, pre-Hispanic codices and early colonial native and ‘Spanish accounts provide excellent documentation of Late Postclassi religious systems. But although this late time period allows for detailed comparisons between Aztec and Puebloan ritual and belief, neither textual nor archaeological evidence indicate that the Aztec were ever in strong contact with the American Southwest. In addition, the shared traits are of far broader distribution both geographically and temporally. In the American Southwest, rain and agricultural symbolism clearly predates Pueblo IV. Roy Carlson (1982) suggests that many components of the Pueblo katsina rain complex, including the plumed serpent and the concept of clouds as breath, were already present in Mimbres pottery scenes, dating to approximately AD 900-1250. ‘According to Carlson, this complex is of still greater antiquity, and constitutes “[u] system of beliefs relating to the increase and perpetuation of rain accompanied the early spread of maize agriculture from Mesoamerica northward to the Mogollon’ (1982:53), Similarly, J. Charles Kelley (1966) suggested that religious beliefs and practices may have been present with the initial introduction of agriculture into the Southwest, although ‘also acknowledging that such a cult cannot be readily documented in the early archaeological record (see also Ellis and Hammack 1968:39, 43). Until recently, our primary source fo: ancient Mesoamerican religion has been sixteenth-century documents pertaining to the Aztec. However, thanks to archaeological discoveries and breakthroughs in epigraphic decipherment and iconographic interpretation, this is no longer the case. For example, our ‘understanding of Classic Maya texts and iconography has increased exponentially in the last several decades. In addition, a great deal is now known about tie religion of the ancient Olmec, regarded by many as one of the founding cultures of Mesoamerican civilization. In light of these recent developments, it is possible to discem broad pattems in the development of agricultural ceremonialism in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. Although the historical reconstruction of this development has obvious merit, such an exercise is 4