Hopitu-shinumu, Ancient Indian Community - Research Paper Example

Archeoastronomy - Hopi Indians The Hopi, an Indian community whose full is Hopitu-shinumu, basicallymeans people who love peace, or peaceful people. The culture of the Hopi people has been one of the most important people in the various aspects who play a crucial in anthropology. A culture based in minimal civilization, yet a very happy culture and who hold a desirable set of virtues are a culture that not only motivate the modification of contemporary cultural practices but also largely emphasizes on humanism. Very few people know or understand the culture of this Indian community, but the few who understand it, view it as a desirable culture, one that is to be respected and imitated for one to live a fruitfully fulfilled life. Understanding the culture is a very wide scope of learning that cannot be completely covered in this paper. The people have various cultures, various prophesies and countless links to astrological beliefs, which is one of the most cherished aspects about this culture. Their orientation to peaceful living is another factor that makes the tribe unique. As such, the paper will assess a number of areas about this culture, reviewing their most important features and assessing some of the economic activities, or their source of livelihood. The Native American tribe is federally accredited. The Hopi people speak the Hopi language, and their current population is less than 20,000 as per the 2010 American Census. Hopi creation mythology offers that there were two gods for the people: Tawa, who was the sun god and Kokyanwuhti the earth goddess (Stav Academy, 2009). As evidence, this is one of the few tribes that respected both men and women. Despite the fact that man was seen superior, through their mythology, the earth was ruled by a goddess. The myth progresses to show the way these gods devided themselves and married to form other gods, such as the god of germs, the god of hard items – minerals, the god of the youth and several other gods who ran the world. However, focusing on the creation story would only lead to bias from any member of the audience. The paper focuses on some of their virtues and their inclination to astrology. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the Hopi people. The Hopi people are well known agricultural craftsmen whose agricultural activities are largely respected and somewhat mythical and unique (Waters, 1963). The Hopi people have refined their agricultural aspects with them practicing agriculture in the desert and remaining productive. Having lived in northeastern Arizona, productive land is a rare commodity. Regardless, the Hopi people have been able to harvest corn from these unproductive lands for centuries, a fact that is commendable to date. Evidently, their agricultural prowess is superior to all science and technology outcomes, despite their lack of technological access. The Hopi people are currently recognized as the world’s greatest dry-farmers. The people owe all their success in agriculture to their god, Tawa, the sun god. Hopi people began practicing other agricultural practices after the invasion of their lands by the Spanish, such as the rearing or herding of sheep. Agriculture is not only a source of livelihood but also one of the guiding principles of their entire culture. For the Hopi people, agriculture was a way of life, a gift from the world beyond and the only way to which they would reap from the land was if they demonstrated earth stewardship. Hopi people believe held other crucial virtues which included respect, cooperation and humility. Unlike most cultures as previously cited, equality between the man and woman was greatly emphasized. This is one of the few tribes that purely emphasized on monogamy. The division of household labour was done equally as well. While the men herded the sheep and farmed, the women mainly focused on the pottery, raising the children, cooking and caring for the elderly. People can visit these areas, provided that they do not take any pictures, use any drugs or guns, pick features or use alcohol. Besides agriculture, the Hopi people were a very artistic people. Artisanship was very common amongst people in the culture (Waters, 1963). Their pottery to date is recognized as one of the best quality pottery products ever produced in a cultural context. The pottery was then made beautiful through the inscription of artworks on the sides as well as hieroglyphics. One of the key features about Hopi artworks is the complexity they carry in them. Any piece of artwork from the Hopi people, took a lot of time to create and develop. Additionally, besides the complexity of the artwork, the artwork is equally appealing to the eye, as presented in a number of poetry artifacts from the tribe that has been persevered in several museums in the United States. Art was one of the ways through which people expressed themselves and in addition also showed their vision and dreams. In addition to this artistic aspect about the tribe, another artistic feature was the woven rugs they created and the deerskin moccasins which were primarily developed by the men in the culture. To date these products are up for purchase when one visits the various Messas where the Hopis still exist to date. The artistic nature of most of the Hopi people can be expressed through their astrological connections. One of the richest sources of archeological artifacts of the Hopi people is the ancestral lands of the Hopi people. Hopitutskwa, otherwise known as the Hopi lands, is the key source of historical information pertaining to the Hopi people. These landscapes had the springs, footprints and trails, which were termed as itaakuku (Kurt, Jenkins & Ferguson, 1993). Former architectural and archeological villages hold rich sources of Hopi history and are to date set aside as memorable areas which have been preserved as historical sites. Some rocks have Hopi petroglyphs at Tutuveni, located in areas around the Great Canyon. Other sites include the Wukoskyavi, around the Tonto Cliff. Another commonly accredited emphasis about the Hopi people is their connection to astrology. In their argument, they view the world as coming to an end and a new world is about to begin. In Hopi’s prophesy, they view the world as to have had come to an end three times before and currently we are living in the fourth generation of the world (1963). Still they view that the fourth world is coming to an end and the fifth world will begin once more. This mythology existed a long time ago, prior to the coming of the whites into their native lands. As such, their astrological views were connected to a number of signs. The primary sign of the world coming to an end in their astrological perspective was the coming of white-skinned men, which has come and passed with the Spanish settlers and explorers settling in the Native American land. The second sign that the astrology of the Hopi people had foreseen was the coming of spinning wheels with voices, which are the wagons and the vehicles being introduced to their land. Thirdly, the other sign that was going to be buffalo like animals with long horns coming in large numbers, a prophesy that was fulfilled by the coming of Longhorn cattle a breed that was introduced by the settlers (Waters, 1993). Snakes of iron were another metaphorical sign, which represented the coming of the railroad. The other sign that had been foretold by the Hopis was the fact that the land would be interconnected with a spider web, which was realized by the establishment of telephone and electricity lines. The sixth sign according to the Hopis astrology was the rivers of stone, which were the tarmac and concrete roads (Welcome Home, 1993). This mythology so far happened in that exact order. The other sign was the blackening of the sea and the dying of sea creatures, which in this case is a symbolism of oil spills in the lakes. Now that most pipelines are located at sea, this is a major threat that has happened recurrently, considering some issues such as the tsunami in Japan that saw a considerable amount of animals die from oil spills and radioactivity (Morningsky, 2009). The other sign that was presented was the coming of a generation that valued long hair, who wanted to learn the ways of the natives, who are the hippies. The most astonishing aspect about the mythology was the fact that everything happened in that exact sequence since their prediction. However, the final sign that was presented by the Hopis was that a heavenly body would fall on the earth in the form of a blue star, which would kill all the people of the Hopis community. This was the coming of the world war 3, which according to their astrological beliefs is the final war. Before this, the Hopis had foreseen the rise in immorality, the destruction of the respect based culture amongst the people in these areas as well as the overall resilience, such as through terrorism and demonstration resulting from government’s lack of concern for the people. This prophesy is seen as frightening prophesy developed to warn people from their selfish attitudes. The astrological foresee shows contemporary issues that have affected our land such as pollution, immorality, and corporate lifestyle that has driven industrialized countries to forsaking the overall good for the world’s future. In their prophesy, money will be worthless and all the damage inflicted on the earth will be unsustainable and as such, people will die. Currently, this is where the world is headed. The Hopis history, lifestyle and their virtues are desirable since the contemporary world has forsaken mother nature, a key attribute or a respectable philosophy by the Hopis. References Welcome Home. (December 31, 1993). Hopi Prophecy. Retrieved on April 17, 2014 from http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/prophecy/hopi1.html Waters, F. (1963). Book of the Hopi. New York: Ballantine Books, Inc. Stav Academy. (2009). Hopi Creation Myth. Retrieved on April 17, 2014 from http://www.stavacademy.co.uk/mimir/hopicreation.htm Morningsky, R. (2009 -2014). Parallels Between the Hopi Indians and the Sumerians and the Hopi Prophecies. Retrieved on April 17, 2014 from http://www.in5d.com/hopi-and-sumerians.html Kurt, D., Jenkins, L. & Ferguson, T. J. (1993) “Understanding the Past through Hopi Oral History.” Native Peoples 6-2:24-31. Read More