Anthropos: Anthropos, 78.1983,1-4

Anthropos, 78.1983,1-4

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Untertitel:: internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- u. Sprachenkunde

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

Zeitschriftenband

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711855

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711855

Persistenter Identifier:: 1513160147092

Titel:: Anthropos, 78.1983,1-4

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1983

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Zeitschriftenheft

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 78, 1983, Heft 3-4

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: [Reports and Comments] Book of the Hopi: The Hopi's Book?

Sonstige Person:: Geertz, Armin W.

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Reports and Comments Book of the Hopi* The Hopis Book? Armin W. Geertz Senior Research Fellow (Department of the History of Religions, University of Aarhus, Paludan-Müllersvej 17, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark) This article is meant as a reply to F. Bornemann’s review of the German edition of Frank Waters’ Book of the Hopi (Das Buch der Hopi, Düsseldorf und Köln 1980: Eugen Diederichs Verlag) in Anthropos 77. 1982: 959-960. My intention is not to criticize Bornemann, rather to use the occasion of his review to attempt to enlighten the scientific community concerning this disturbing enigma called Book of the Hopi. Bornemann’s words of praise are understandable, since the book seems wonderful from a superficial point of view. But Bomemann has gone further, following that natural, nagging sense of doubt which any humanistic scientist has when confronted with literary wonders. His review finishes with a series of questions which reflect a healthy scepticism. Some of the questions are not relevant, but others are exactly to the point, seen from a specialist’s point of view. We can clear the air of those questions which do not apply to the Hopi situation. Bornemann’s surprise concerning the existence of a coherent and seemingly Ur-indigenous religion among the modern Hopi is understandable. He asks whether the Catholics, Mor mons, and Mennonites have really meant so little to Hopi development. The answer is yes, relatively speaking of course. One can refer here to an excellent study concerning these problems by E.H. Spicer (1962). The Hopis have not shared the same enculturative developments such as those of the Eastern Pueblos. As Spicer noted, by 1955 less than 2 percent of the Hopi population had become practicing Christians (Spicer 1962: 207). The indigenous religion had indeed changed, but it is still decidedly Hopi. One finds all the phases of culture contact from disintegration to revitalization, and quite a spattering of eclectic pocket philosophers in between. But there is no doubt to anyone who has lived with the Hopi, that the old ways and the traditional religion are alive and thriving. One can, by way of comparing from a historical perspective, identify most of the motifs found in the mural evidence in the area during the 14th and 15th centuries on the basis of modem Hopi religious ceremonial symbolism (cf. W. Smith 1952). Why is this? Because the Hopi are still living where they have been living for perhaps a thousand years, they still speak their own language, still preserve traditional subsistence activities, traditional authority systems, and traditional moral values. These latter elements are modified, and do pose conflicting contrasts to the urges of the modern Anglo world, but they are not destroyed. The remarkable thing about the Hopi religion is that it has a built-in mythical model which has taken the present cultural situation into account and which, judging by the Aztec traditions, existed since the time of the Spanish Conquest at the very least. It is Bomemann’s questions concerning the authors of Book of the Hopi, their informants and the role of Hopi clans in the construction of and preservation of oral tra dition, that are the most relevant in defining the reliability of this work. And it is along these lines that one must try to understand exactly what Frank Waters has achieved. It must be emphasized here that my intention is not to ridicule. This book demands a res

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