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Pitt Rivers Museum

1913.87.82

Doll representing cow katsina.

On display


1913.87.82

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Doll representing cow katsina.
Geographical reference
Arizona Tewa Village (Hano)
Cultural groups
Hopi-Tewa
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1913
Date collected
1913
Acquisition information
Donated: 1913
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Material Bird Feather, Material Pigment, Process Painted, Material Animal Hair
Dimensions
Height: max 250 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1913.87.82 Other numbers: Catalogue number 82
Associated publications
Illustrated in black and white page 28 of 'Primitive Influences on Modern Art', by W. G. Archer and Robert Melville, in 40,000 Years of Modern Art: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern [catalogue of an exhibition organized by the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Held at the Academy Hall, London, from 20 December 1948 to 29 January 1949], London: Institute of Contemporary Arts (no date [1948?]), pp. 9-46. Also listed as number 125 on page 52 of the 'The Art of Primitive Peoples' section of the 'Catalogue of the Exhibition': '*125 Katchina Dolls, representing tribal gods Painted wood and feathers Tewa Hano, Arizona / Lent by Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford'. [JC 19 7 2011] Published. Musees de Marseilles, Kachina Poupees Rituelles des Indiens Hopi and Zuni,1994,pl.187 This object was featured in the Museum’s ‘web gallery’ (‘Selected Objects from the Lower Gallery’) produced during the DCF-funded ‘What’s Upstairs?’ project, 2004–2006, with the following caption: 'A common use of dolls is to teach children about adult lives, roles, and beliefs. This doll from Arizona is a katchina doll. In Hopi culture, a katchina is an ancestral being who comes to the village to assist with crop growing, fertility, and health. There are hundreds of different types of katchina. They are represented during dances by costumed men, and are also depicted as carved dolls, which are given to children. The dolls are intended for play, but also to teach the children about the various katchina and their identities.

Search terms: Toy and Game, Religion, Figure, Doll Figure, Religious Object