The St. Mary banner., 1916-07-01
Typical Indian Village in New Mexico.

every EenSe full member of the tribe
| looked on as such by the Zuni them
selves He took part In their war ex
petitions against the hated Apache
and Navajo raiders: became a mem
Der OF one of the six sacred Kivas. and
was initiated into the religious so
ciety of the priests OF the bow A
host of other students have followed
in his footsteps and the list of an
thropologists who have visited Zun1
includes most of the eminent names
in America, such as Powell, MCGEE
and Mrs. Stevenson, to mention only
some of those no longer living, as well
as Tylor and other famous foreigners.
Know Little Of These People.
With all this study accomplished.
one has however to be at Zuni only a
few days before being aware that our
knowledge OF the life of the people is
very incomplete; in fact that in many
respects the ground has scarcely been
scratched. Mrs. Stevenson for in
stance has published a quarto volume
four inches thick on the ceremonies
and religious system of the Zuni, yet
any tourist in q week can see rituals
enacted with full pomp to which she
barely alludes. 1t is not that the
studies that have been made are in
their nature superficial In fact many
of the published accounts are inten-
sive in their detail. 1t is the Zuni
life Of culture that for all its aborigin-
ality. is SO intricately complex that no
volume however thick could hold all
that is to be said about an one Of its
several phases. No one knows ex-
actly, but there must be nearly two
hundred gods and NEUROLOGICAL char
acters that are impersonated by dis
tinctively masked and costumed dane
ers. There is not q month. and at
certain seasons not a week, without a
public dance in the town, and at no
time day without some sort of re-
ligious ritual.
The family life of the Zuni is lived
precisely as II no white man had yet
oSS AooI OA @AAACllCd SOll. LEG pSO-
pie are divided into sixteen clans each
after an animal or plant. De-
scent In these clans Is not from the
father as we inherit our names and
as titles and royal succession descend
in Europe, but from the mother. A
Zuni is Of his mothers clan but he
recognizes his relationship to his IA
theirs people by calling himself the
child of his fathers clan.
Along with taking precedence over
the men in carrying the group names.
the women own the houses. A man
may, by the labor of his own hands.
erect new house for his wife, from
luarrying the rock to laying the roof.
while she does nothing more than plas
.er the walls; yet let a divorce and
separation take place, and the prop
erty unquestioningly belongs to her
The Zuri are as homogeneous a peo-
Die as we. They look with repugnance
lot only upon polygamy, but also upon
marriage with a former
vife's sister or relative At the same |
ime. divorce is easy Persons have |
'nly to separate. A man tired of his |
wife leaves her. For a woman the |
procedure is not quite so simple ow-
ng to her property right in the house;
tut at that. she need only nag and
lbuse her husband until he takes his
title bundle Of clothes and returns to
lis natal home. II misplaced affec-
ion or stubbornness prevent him from
aking the hint, she can have recourse
o the more drastic method of simply
installing his chosen successor. in
which case nothing remains for the
eposed husband but to leave quietly
t would certainly seem as II the Zuni
ad long ago achieved for themselves
ONE Of the most radical portions OF
ven the ultra-feministic program.