Miniature Hopi Ahöla Katsina Doll [SOLD]

“Ahöla is an important chief kachina for both First and Second Mesa as he opens the Powamu ceremony with a kiva performance on the first night.  This performance seems to involve mimetic magic to slow the passage of the sun.  At a shrine in the ‘Gap’ of First Mesa the next day an additional rite is performed as the sun rises.  With daybreak Ahul (or Ahöla) and the Powamu Chief deposit pahos (prayer feathers) at Kachina Spring, for he is the ancient one of the Kachina Clan.  As the ancient one he led the people from the San Francisco Peaks eastward as far as the great river and then westward to where they were stopped by the turbulent waters and where their houses still stand.  After going to the Kachina Spring, Ahöla and the Powamu Chief then visit all of the kivas and houses with ceremonial associations, distributing the Powamu Chief’s bean and corn plants and marking the entrances with four stripes of meal, thereby appealing to the Cloud Chiefs to sit over these places.  At the end of this ceremony Ahöla descends to a shrine where he bows four times to the Sun and asks for long life, health, happiness and good crops for his children.”  Wright 1973

Bess Yanez lives in the village of Hotevilla on Third Mesa and she specializes in making the miniature katsina dolls.  She commented “There’s no problem with females doing dolls now.  Probably further back it wasn’t looked at as being very traditional.”  Schaaf 2008

This Hopi Pueblo carving is from cottonwood root and painted with acrylic paints.  The cape is fabric, the feathers are real, and the red is string.  The doll is signed with the name of the carver.

Reference: Hopi Katsina 1,600 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf 2008

Condition: excellent condition

Provenance: from the collection of a Santa Fe resident