Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-06-02

% 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 q men,
Der Of .Jne 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 Zuni
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
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 q 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. It is the Zuni
life Of culture that for all its aborigin-
atty. is so intricately complex that no
volume however thick could hold all
that is to be said about any 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 q week. without Q
public dance in the town, and at no
time q day without some sort of re-
ligious ritual.
The family life of the Zuni il lived
precisely as II no white man had yet
set foot on American soil. TIE peo-
pie are divided into sixteen clans each
named after an animal or plant. De-
scent In these clans IL 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
TIERS 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
Quarrying the rock to laying the roof.
while she does nothing more than plas-
ter the walls; yet let q divorce and
separation take place. and the prop
erty unquestioningly belongs to her.
The Zuni are as homogeneous Q peo-
pie as we. They look with repugnance
not only upon polygamy, but also upon
subsequent marriage with Q former
wife's sister or relative. At the same
time. divorce Is easy. Persons have
only to separate. A man tired of his
wife leaves her. For Q woman the
procedure Is not quite 30 simple ow.
ing to her property right in the house:
but at that. she need only nag and
abuse her husband until he takes his
little bundle of clothes and returns to
his natal home. II misplaced affec-
ton or stubbornness prevent him from
taking the hint. she can have recourse
to the more drastic method Of simply
installing his chosen successor. in
which case nothing remains for the
husband but to leave quietly.
It would certainly seem as II the Zuni
had long ago achieved for themselves
some Of the most radical portions of
even the ultra-feministic program.