LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Zuni Indians: People
built 643 days ago
It has been emphasized by all observers that religion plays a central role in Zuni life. Ruth Benedict, whose Patterns of Culture is largely responsible for making Zuni so famous, says that "The Zuni are a ceremonious people, a people who value sobriety and inoffensiveness above all other virtues. Their interest is centred upon their rich and complex ceremonial life . . . and no field of activity competes with ritual for foremost place in their attention" (1934: 60). Ruth Bunzel, who worked in Zuni with Benedict, adds: "All of Zuni life is oriented about religious observance and ritual has become the formal expression of Zuni civilization" (1932: 509). The foundation of Zuni ceremonialism is the cult of the ancestors (alacinawe). Everybody participates in their worship, and they are involved in almost every ceremony.
Source:
Nancy Yaw Davis, in the Zuni Enigma, and Gavin Menzies, have suggested that the Zuni share some affinities with the Japanese people, due in part to genetic, linguistic and cultural similarities. However, this theory should not be taken as fact.
Source:
"The NWTF started the gun drawing for Zuni Feather Project donors to increase feather donations," said Jennifer Tapley, NWTF wildlife biologist and Zuni Feather Project coordinator. "The program began in 2000, and we've collected 1.4 million feathers. When people donate their feathers, they are entered in an annual drawing for a gun."
Source:
With the dramatic increase in population in the twentieth century, it is remarkable that today the Zuni remain in a single large town rather than reoccupy multiple villages. There is a slight but increasing trend for people to move to the farming village of Pescado, where electricity, running water, and paved roads provide the modern amenities desired by most Zuni. By and large... the occupation of the farming villages is now restricted to day-use, a pattern facilitated by the availability of pickup trucks and the improvement of the road network on the reservation. A few elderly people and sheepherders still reside at the farming villages on a seasonal basis, but virtually the entire tribe now resides in Zuni Pueblo and the adjacent settlement of Blackrock throughout the year.
Source:
This is a Zuni man. He is wearing a head wrap, and animal skin cape over a woven wool shirt, and skin leggings. Notice the wide silver cuff on his wrist. The southwest people became good silversmiths.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
People