We were in Taos Pueblo for the feast of St. Jerome. In the morning we saw the races and in afternoon we saw the sacred clowns and the pole climb. (No photos- forbidden by pueblo).
We went to mass at the pueblo – all pueblo women; the men were in the kivas. The priest gave a good sermon on the gospel “If your hand leads you into sin, cut it off,” by comparing it with the all too familiar surgery the Indians face. Their diabetes leads to gangrene and the amputation of a limb to save their lives.
We processed with the Sacraments and all the moveable statues of the church to a bower overlooking the race course. The pueblo was at its most striking. The women of the pueblo were dressed in colorful shawls and stood on the roofs of the pueblo, ululating. The liturgical ululation is much neglected these days.
The pueblos seemed to have been formed as a reaction to the hierarchical and perhaps brutal Chaco system – in any case they are egalitarian and conformist. The clowns enforce social discipline by pointing out and mocking deviations from accepted behavior.
One Anglo woman was asking for it: she came dressed as a semi-Indian with braided hair and feathers in her hair. The clowns immediately spotted her and went up to her, and made her go woo-woo-woo with her hand and then do an Indian dance. Indians do not like Indian wannabes.
The clowns also got a 19-year-old pueblo male and made him lie fully clothed in the river – I don’t know what he had done – the possibilities for misbehavior of a 19-year-old male are endless.
The young clown who was supposed to make it to the top of the pole cold not quite do it – the other clowns were a little on the heavy side and didn’t have a chance. They had to continue clowning while they located some who could do the climb and get his ready. They used a kiva ladder to shorten the climb up the 60-foot pole. The climber finally made it.
I wonder what St. Jerome thinks of the festivities in his honor.
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The jesters in the Medieval King’s court served the same function as the Taos clowns. The French word (fou) for the Bishop means “fool” because his mitre was like that of a jester. The clowns kept people from taking things too seriously and used humor and sarcasm to control the crowd. The clowns and bishops today can best use their influence to guide and coach proper behavior by example and ridicule improper behavior, rather than demand unconditional obedience. When I lived in Zuni Pueblo, the parents NEVER directly forced their children to obey them by corporal punishment or by yelling at them. The Zuni Pueblo parents simply told the kachinas or clowns about their kids if they behaved badly and that was enough!
The clowns and kachinas are ancestral spirits. I believe the original mexican/Spanish thought they were demons, and forbid the dances, but eventually they realized they were not so they now allow them
most of the local priests are Franciscans, and not that big on theological nit picking.
But alas I don’t know that much about the Taos or other Pueblos, since when I worked in New Mexico I worked further south with the Apaches.
Send in the clowns to the dioceses with the worst sex abuse scandals!
The pueblos … are egalitarian and conformist. The clowns enforce social discipline by pointing out and mocking deviations from accepted behavior.
To me, that typifies the nature of self-styled egalitarian groups: enforced conformity. I’m not talking about misbehavior or anti-social behavior; I’m talking about justifying a kind of totalitarian thought that regards any legitimate creativity as a threat to the community’s identity — sort of like the Nazis’ Volksgemeinschaft or the Soviets before glasnost and perestroika.
To what degree do such clowns, jesters and kachinas serve as a far less brutal form of a secret police?
Joseph, the kachinas especially serve as a kinder and gentler form of control or “secret police”. The last time I went to Mass at Zuni Pueblo, a new Franciscan Friar was preaching to the pueblo people about the shamful sexual practices of some of their children. In Zuni their is a “gay” clan and it is a sacred part of their culture. Also, the Zunis do not get excited about these things. Later the clowns and kachinas encountered the priest and he left the pueblo.
One day while on playground supervision duty at the Zuni Elementary where I taught special education, a Kachina started whipping one of my students. I broke all taboos by touching the kachina and trying to stop the whipping. When I came home from school there was a Mud Head Kachina Doll nailed to my door. It was a warning!
Oso Pious, it seems that the kachinas can be less “kinder and gentler,” if necessary. Who keeps them in check? Who holds them accountable?
Joseph, The Tribal elders, casiques, the governor of the pueblo, the war chiefs and clan chief council all decide policy in each pueblo. In Jemez Pueblo they all decided to ask Father Gino Correa O.F.M. pastor to leave because he was translating their Towa-Jemez language into English and that was strictly FORBIDDEN. At Mass in Jemez pueblo, I was the only non-Indian there when the Pueblo Governor came in after Mass. During Mass I heard babies crying, people sneezing and some noise BUT when the Governor came in to address his people it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop! No one moved and they sat rapt in attention for 20 minutes as their Governor droned on in their Towa language. After Mass I asked one of my pueblo friends what that was all about and he said the Governor was telling them how to VOTE in the next election!
At Laguna Pueblo where I coached a chess team, the boys got permission from the elders to count winning a national chess match as equal to hunting a bear or killing an enemy (e.g. Navajo in past times) as their on path to Warrior status. The Laguna War Chief had his sons on my chess team!