Native American Hopi Handbuilt and Handetched Pot with Butterfly Maiden

Description

Native American Hopi Handbuilt and Handetched Pot with Butterfly Maiden by Loren Nampeyo

This handbuilt pot with a handetched Butterfly Maiden (Palhik Mana) was created by Hopi potter Loren Nampeyo. Palhik Mana is 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.

Loren has incorporated symbols of the rain and the harvest as well as the pueblo. There is a Longhair who brings the rain by the opening of the pot. A corn plant grows up from the desert, the ears ripe and ready to pick. The pueblo is shown with the Flute Player (Kokopelli) playing his flute for the much needed rains that make the plants grow. This unique piece came from a private collection and is pristine.