While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Dolls. Dolls were common among all the American tribes.
They were fashioned from stone, wood, clay, skin, dough, corncobs, plants, and
rags. Those used merely as playthings were frequently elaborately dressed by the
mother in accordance with tribal costumes. Human hair was sometimes fastened to
the head and arranged in the tribal style, the face was painted, the eyebrows
were marked, and tattoo lines were indicated. Labrets of bone or shell were put
in place among the tribes which used these objects, and the doll was further
adorned with ear rings, bracelets, and necklaces. The Eskimo father carved the
small bone or ivory dolls more or less elaborately, and made them stand upright,
to the great delight of the children. Among these people there was a festival in
which small figures or dolls were used to represent the dead, at which time the
people prepared and partook of food in their presence in memory of the time when
those represented were living. The corncob and rag dolls were usually of the
child s own manufacture. Those made of dough were used in a social ceremony
among the Iroquois. Dolls were provided with cradles, clothing, tents, and
vessels and utensils of clay.
In the S. W. and the extreme N. little figures were made for ceremonies in which
mythic ancestors or dead relatives were remembered. Travelers have sometimes
mistaken these figures for idols. Among the Hopi these little figures are of
soft cotton wood, so cut and painted as to indicate in miniature the elaborate
head dress, decorated face, body, and clothing of those who represent kachinas,
or impersonations of ancestral breath bodies or spirits of men. These dolls are
not worshipped, but are made by the priests in their kivas during the great
spring ceremonies as presents for the little girls, to whom they are presented
on the morning of the last day of the festival by men personating kachinas
(Fewkes). In this way the young become familiar with the complicated and
symbolic masks, ornaments, and garments worn during tribal and religious
ceremonies. See Amusements, Child life, Games.
Consult Dorsey and Voth in Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 55 and 66; Fewkes in
17th, 19th, and 21st Reps. B. A. E., and Iriternat. Archiv. Ethnog.,
vii, 1894; Mooney in 17th Rep. B. A. E., 1898; Nelson in 18th Rep.
B. A. E., 1899; Turner in 11th Rep. B. A. E., 1894. (A. C. F.)
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
