American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Images of kachinas and clowns are found throughout books, journals, and magazines that celebrate the arts of American Indian peoples, including the Hopi. As familiar as we are with these visual images, for the most part they are one-dimensional and suggest little of their meaningful contexts in Hopi thought and ritual. There are other more subtle contexts that contribute to the meaning of tsukulalwa (clowning), including the plaza in which the ceremony is performed and the events the clowns address through their humor. This article provides an introduction to the narrative and ritual contexts of the clown ceremony and considers the changing historical circumstances of clowning. Here in the spring and early summer the katsinas (katsinam) come to the Hopi villages as “messengers” to receive the prayers and prayer offerings of the Hopi people in complex two-day ritual performances called katsina dances (katsintithu) and to reciprocate with food and assurances that their prayers have been heard. These masked figures are the spirits of the ancestors and the spiritual essence of all things and beings within the Hopi world. As intermediaries, they not only carry human prayers to the gods, but also they return as rain for the corn plants that sustain Hopi life. The katsinam are spoken of as “beautiful beings” for they are the embodiment of the Hopi way (hopi): “Katsina soosok qatsit yuwsi’ta, katsinas wear all things of life.” Clowns (tsukskut) participate in a ritual drama called tsukulalwa during these katsina ceremonies. In their being and behavior the tsukskut are the opposite of the katsinas. The katsinam embody the colors of the cardinal directions and the six varieties of Hopi corn—a form of “chromatic prayer,” while the tsukskut are “earth-colored” and wear strips of cast-off clothing and corn husks in their hair. More importantly, the clowns “depict life as it should not be,” that is, behavior that is qahopi (bad, misbehaving, nonconforming). Although they are clowns, these tsukskut are also priests whose role is sacred and serious.