Many, many years ago, the A:shiwi (Ahhhh-she-we, the name the Zuni people call themselves) came up to this Earth from the underworld at a place that is identified as either the Grand Canyon or the Mojave Desert. For many generations, the A:shiwi wandered throughout the area. Finally, they settled in the place they are now. They call this area the center or middle place. The Zuni Indians of today are one of 19 original tribes that once inhabited the area that is now called New Mexico and Arizona - The Zuni River Valley. The Zuni tribe is said to have originated from a tribe that lived in the same area over 1,500 years prior to the coming of the Europeans - 400 AD. This tribe, the Anasazi, was a large society that encompassed large amounts of land, riches and many distinct cultures and civilizations. The Zuni are thought to be direct descendants of the Anasazi. The Zuni are also distinct in that they have managed to remain quite unaffected by outer influences. They still claim the same land they always lived on, an area about the size of Rhode Island. They also mainly reside in one city, Zuni, New Mexico. Although there are Zuni Indians who live outside of the city and the general area, they are few and far between. The tribe has managed to remain intact due to the fact that they were never involved with problems that didnt concern their own people. Because they did not fight in any wars or take sides in any conflicts, they were able to remain autonomous and were unaffected by the changes around them. The three most powerful supernatural beings are Earth Mother, Sun Father and Moonlight-Giving Mother. Sunlight is recognized as vital for life, and the word for daylight and life are the same word in the Zuni language. Sunrise is a special and very sacred time. For the A:shiwi, there are six directions: North, South, East, West, Above and Below. Because of the extra two directions, there is also the middle, which is the connecting point. In addition to ceremonies honoring and thanking supernatural beings and natural forces for health and well-being, there are rituals to mark important times in each persons life including birth, coming of age, marriage and death. The Zunis believe that, while all parts of the universe belong to a single system of interrelated life, degrees of relationship based on resemblance exist. The starting point in this system is humanity, which is the lowest because it is the least mysterious and the most dependent. The animals that most resemble humans are considered closest to them in the great web of interrelatedness. The animals, objects, or phenomena that least resemble them are believed to be the least related and, thus, the most mysterious and holy. A dog, for example, would be viewed as less holy than a snake or other reptile, because dogs and humans live together and have a mutual understanding, whereas reptiles are alien to the human world. Since forces in nature such as wind, lightning, and rain-are very mysterious and powerful, they are believed to be closer to the deities than either humans or animals. While many anthropologists believe that the Zuni are related to the other pueblo tribes that are scattered throughout the Southwest, they are unique in that their language, to this day, is only spoken by them and bares no resemblance to the languages of any of the other surrounding tribes. Their language is often called Zunian.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 23:40:45 +0000
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