Sipapu

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The sipapu is the small round hole in the floor of the kiva. The large round hole is a fire pit. The air intake (square hole), the stones blocking air from the intake, the pit and the sipapu form a line: an intentional design. At Long House, Mesa Verde.

A sipapu (a

Puebloans. The sipapu symbolizes the portal through which their ancient ancestors first emerged to enter the present world.[1]

Hopi mythology (and similar traditions in other Pueblo cultures such as the Zuni and Acoma) states that this is the hole from which the first peoples of this world entered. As they stepped outside of the sipapu, they changed from lizard-like beings into human form.[2][3] It is from this point that the "First Peoples" of the Earth began to divide and separate, becoming tribes. The original sipapu is said in Hopi and some other Uto-Aztecan Puebloan mythology to be located in the Grand Canyon.[citation needed]

References

Citations

Works cited

  • Courlander, H. (1971). The Fourth World of the Hopis. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
  • Waters, Frank (1963). Book of the Hopis. New York: Penguin Group.
  • Wenger, Gilbert R. (1991) [1980]. The Story of Mesa Verde National Park. .

Further reading

  • Sando, Joe S. (1982). The Pueblo Indians. San Francisco: Indian Historian Press.


This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article: Sipapu. Articles is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; additional terms may apply.Privacy Policy