Hopi Mongwa Wuhti - Female Great Horned Owl Katsina Doll [SOLD]

The Hopi Mongwa (Great Horned Male Owl) Katsina, as a warrior, is relentless in persecuting the clowns. He stands to the edge of the dance circle while the clowns are performing and watches disapprovingly of their antics. Near the end of the dance, a group of Mongwa swoops down on the clowns and beats them with yucca whips, douses them with water, and leaves them piled up in the center of the plaza in pain.

This Hopi Mongwa Wuhti is the Great Horned Female Owl Katsina.  She has only been published in Fewkes' article on Hopi Katsinas and has appeared nowhere else. Present-day Hopi are not aware of the female version, so perhaps it has not been seen in over a hundred years.

This version of the Mongwa Wuhti is simply carved and painted. She wears a traditional pueblo manta and has a shawl draped over her shoulders.  Her head is painted to resemble feathers, and there are two feathers standing upright on the side of the face.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: from the extensive Katsina doll collection of a family from Oklahoma

Reference: Fewkes, J. W. Tusayan Katsinas, Bureau of American Ethnology, 15^th Annual Report, 1897