Old Style Hopi Carved Heheya Traditional Messenger Kachina Doll (Katsina Doll)

Description

Old Style Hopi Carved Heheya Traditional Messenger Katsina Doll by Manuel Chavarria Jr.

The Hehey'a Katsina has no English name or translation. The people of Awatovi village were being very "un-Hopi" in their behavior and were warned by villagers from other mesas to return to their traditional Hopi ways. The people ignored the warnings and as a result one night many of them were invited into the kiva for a game of chance, to gamble. When the people went into the kiva the villagers from the other mesas threw chili peppers down from the top of the kiva into the fire and the people were poisoned by the chili pepper gas and burned in the fire. One man witnessed this event and ran from Awatovi. When he tried to explain what had happened through his tears, which streaked his face, he babbled incoherently and staggered around. Surely a case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The villagers were very afraid of this being and his erratic behavior. He is seen in contemporary times when the Ogres come to the village homes to take the children. Heheyas will sneak around ahead of the Ogres and suddenly appear in windows to startle everyone. They are frightening reminders of Awatovi and what can happen when the people stray from the traditional Hopi life. Manuel created this carving the way the Katsinam, and in fact most people, appeared in daily life. The Hopi people were always quite comfortable with the human body. It was not until contact with missionaries as well as in later years when the white government made it illegal to have phallic or what were deemed erotic exhibitions that dolls such as these were no longer carved. This simple carving is a nod to a time when the human body was not something to cover and be ashamed of.