Special Value Offer: Hopi Cottonwood Root Soyoko Wuhti (Ogre Woman) Katsina Doll [R]

Special Value Offer: The consignor has requested that we reduce this katsina doll by 25% from the original price of $2500 to a new price of $1875.

"The awesome figure of the Monster Woman appears during the Powamu ceremony as one of the many Soyoko who threaten the lives of the children.  Dressed all in black, with long straggling hair, staring eyes and a wide-fanged mouth, she carries a blood-soaked knife and a long jangling crook—a truly fearsome creature to the children.  When she speaks, it is in a wailing falsetto or with a long dismal hoot of 'Soyokó-u-u-u.' from which her name is derived.  She may reach for the children with the long crook and threaten to put them in the basket on her back, or to cut off their heads with the large knife that she carries in her hand utterly terrifying her young audience.

"On some mesas she may be the ogre that threatens a small child who has been naughty and bargains with a relative to ransom the child, but on others she is not.  In some villages she leads the procession of ogres; in others she remains at the side, content to make threatening gestures." (Barton Wright)

Vern Mahkee lives in the village of Kykotsmovi on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation. He is a nephew of Alvin James Makya, an extremely talented carver, who was Mahkee's mentor.  This carving of Soyoko Wuhti is presented standing on top of a kiva as if exiting or entering.  The two long poles are those of the ladder that descends from the top of the kiva down to the interior.  The basic doll is a one-piece carving.  Several items were probably added after the one-piece carving was complete—particularly the basket, knife, crook and red tongue.

Condition:  The carving is about 20 years old and is in original excellent condition.

Provenance: ex.coll. Tesuque, NM collector of Native arts