{"id":1012,"date":"2008-04-29T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2008-04-29T19:51:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T19:51:00","slug":"the-hopi-orpheus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1012","title":{"rendered":"The Hopi Orpheus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing my post about the Inquisition and the church at Quarai<\/a>, I reviewed the history of the Pueblo Revolt<\/a>, which led me to the work of Ekkehart Malotki<\/a>, a specialist in Hopi<\/a> language and oral literature<\/a>. I ended up reading his Hopi Stories of Witchcraft, Shamanism, and Magic<\/a>\"\", which are full of shapeshifting, potions, evil sorcerers–all the usual stuff. Malotki collected these stories in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

One story, “The Man Who Traveled to Maski, Home of the Dead, to Bring Back His Wife,” maps almost perfectly onto the story of Orpheus and Eurydice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I could make several stories out of that coincidence:<\/p>\n

1. Aha, it’s another example of trade links between Mediterranean world and the American Southwest 2,000 years ago, but the tenured professors won’t accept the evidence that is in front of their eyes!<\/p>\n

2. Or maybe a century ago some Hopi kid got sent off to boarding school<\/a>, found solace in a book of Greek myths in the school library, and came back and told the story, giving it a Hopi gloss, and soon it became “traditional.”<\/p>\n

3. Or maybe going to the Land of the Dead to bring home your dear one is not a good idea and usually ends up tragically, regardless of the culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing my post about the Inquisition and the church at Quarai, I reviewed the history of the Pueblo Revolt, which led me to the work of Ekkehart Malotki, a specialist in Hopi language and oral literature. I ended up reading his Hopi Stories of Witchcraft, Shamanism, and Magic, which are full of shapeshifting, potions, evil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-gk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5398,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5398","url_meta":{"origin":1012,"position":0},"title":"Some Items of Interest","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Some Pagan, occult, and academic news items of interest: \u2022 I did not know that any of the \"Group of Seven\" were Theosophists \u2014 plus other influential Canadian Pagans and occultists in one list. \u2022 \"Unintended Consequences of the Affordable Health Care Act\" for part-time college and university faculty. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":647,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=647","url_meta":{"origin":1012,"position":1},"title":"Gallimaufry: Tab Clearing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Having been knocked down by a head cold the past week, I am just cleaning out some old links. \u2022 Should you use digital cameras for ghost-hunting? I notice that a lot of the ghost-hunting articles in Fate magazine count \"orbs\" as evidence of spirits. But are they just artifacts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9896,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9896","url_meta":{"origin":1012,"position":2},"title":"The Pueblo Revolt and Pagan History","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Some time in the early 1980s, M. and I were traveling through northern Arizona on one of our VW Bug-and-cheap tent tours, when we stopped for lunch at the Hopi Cultural Center, a\/k\/a The Cafe at the Center of the Universe. We could not afford much at the gift shop,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/virigil-ortiz-art.jpg?fit=605%2C605&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/virigil-ortiz-art.jpg?fit=605%2C605&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/virigil-ortiz-art.jpg?fit=605%2C605&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8780,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8780","url_meta":{"origin":1012,"position":3},"title":"When Pagans Fought Back and Won (Sort of)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Today's Pagans, particularly those who inspired by an ancient polytheistic tradition, often wonder why their Pagan ancestors gave up their beliefs. It's a complicated story. Some, like the Saxons conquered by Charlemagne, were in a convert-or-die situation, and thousands died. Sometimes, as in the Roman West, you get the feeling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Arizona\"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=arizona"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/greatpueblorevolt.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2234,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2234","url_meta":{"origin":1012,"position":4},"title":"Los Matachines at Yule","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"You hear different languages. There are French tourists, German tourists, and some guy in a Rasta tam. Another man looks like he came straight from the nearby Overland Sheepskin Co. store, pausing only to snip the tags off his coat. 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