Hopi Resonating Gourd Chamber and Rasping Stick [SOLD]

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Wilson Tawaquaptewa, Hopi Pueblo Katsina Carver

Because the Hopi live in a desert environment, their religious ceremonies are invariably a plea for rain.  During the Niman ceremony, the katsinam present presents to the boys and girls— rattles and bows and arrows for the boys and katsina dolls for the girls— and these are tied to cattails which are a water plant.  The Hemis Katsina carry watermelons and corn in a plea for rain for the crops. Their kilts carry rain symbols. The beard on a Long Hair Katsina represents falling rain. The white wedding sash has long cotton cords that represent rain.  This analysis can continue indefinitely but the point has been made.

In Hopi ceremonial dances in the open plaza, a line of male katsinam, usually arranged in a circular pattern, stand facing a few females who are kneeling.  In front of each is a gourd bowl, a rasping stick and a sheep or goat scapulae. The kneeling women place the rasping stick over the gourd and scrape the stick, which has notches, with a sheep or goat scapulae.  The result is a deep sound reverberated through the gourd, a sound like that of croaking frogs—water creatures pleading for rain. The designs on the gourd often are rain symbols as well.

In this gourd with rasping stick, made by Hopi village chief or Kikmongwi Wilson Tawaquaptewa, in the early part of the twentieth century, the gourd represents a painted turtle, native of Arizona, which is a water creature.  Tawaquaptewa painted the turtle in the colors of the rainbow. There is a tail on the back side, and arms in the front. The turtle’s head was carved from wood and the body was made from a large dried gourd. The two round posts on the top are for positioning the rasping stick.

Wilson Tawaquaptewa was born of the Bear Clan in the Hopi village of Oraibi, Third Mesa in the year 1873. Oraibi was the largest and most important Hopi village at the time of Tawaquaptewa's birth, and the Bear Clan was among the most significant clans at Hopi.

In 1904, Tawaquaptewa became the Kikmongwi, and remained the village chief despite health issues and political imprisonment (October 1906 - Summer 1909) until his death in 1960.  After the split between the Friendlies and the Hostiles at Oraibi in 1906 Tawaquaptewa began to produce Katsina figures, rattles, tabletas, dance wands, and other traditional Hopi accouterments.  Walsh 1998


Condition: this Hopi Resonating Gourd Chamber and Rasping Stick is in very good condition with some loss of paint.

Provenance: from a gentleman in Albuquerque

Reference: Walsh, Barry. “Kikmongwi as Artist: The Katsina Dolls of Wilson Tawaquaptewa.”  American Indian Art Magazine, Winter 1998, p.53.


Wilson Tawaquaptewa, Hopi Pueblo Katsina Carver
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