Vintage Old Style Hopi Carved Butterfly Maiden Traditional Katsina Doll

Description

1970s Old Style Hopi Carved Butterfly Maiden Traditional Katsina Doll by the Katsinam

Palhik Mana is a Butterfly Maiden; not a Katsina, but a woman dancer. Though at the dances the Butterfly Maiden is not masked or hooded, she generally appears this way when carved as a doll. Her tablita (headdress) carries symbols for corn and butterflies, which pollinate the corn helping to bring a good harvest. She generally appears in August, as that is when the butterflies appear. The Butterfly Dance, a traditional social dance of the Hopi, is held in August after the gathering of the harvest and presentation of the Snake Dance. It is a thanksgiving dance for the harvest, chiefly for the corn crop, and features dancing by young Hopi maidens wearing elaborate headdresses. This beautiful carving was created by the Katsinam and handed out at a dance in the late 1960s to early 1970s. This is a wonderful and classic carving.