Hopi Pueblo Clown Possibly Impersonating Kawanitaqa [SOLD]

This carving appears to be a Koshare clown impersonating Kawanitaqa, The One Horned God.  This is based on the headdress with a single horn turned back.  Whether the clowns do such impersonations is not known to me, but I have no other explanations for the appearance of this carving.

Kwanitaqa guards the gate to the Hopi underworld, where the departed spirits go, and directs the souls on two paths, one for righteous people and one for evil people.  He is a kind god and helped the Hopi come from the underworld.  [Colton, 1959:79]

“The religion of the Hopi Indians in certain ways resembles that of the ancient Greeks.  It is polytheistic, because there are many gods, and animistic because of the belief that all animate objects, plant and animal as well as some inanimate things, have spirits that the Hopi visualize in human form. . . The spirits of men, animals, and plants are the kachinas which are often impersonated.  The spirits of some of the deities appear as kachinas and are impersonated, but most of the deities are never impersonated or even represented by images.” [ibid, 77]

What is a Kachina?

Condition: good condition with no broken and repaired parts.  There appears to have been something at the tip of the horn, but it is missing.

Provenance: this Hopi Pueblo Clown Possibly Impersonating Kawanitaqa is from the collection of a gentleman from California

Reference: Colton, Harold S. Hopi Kachina Dolls with a Key to their Identification

Relative Links: Kachina – Katsina Doll, Hopi Pueblo