sipapu
{{Short description|Small hole or indentation in the floor of a kiva}}
{{distinguish|Sipapu (ski area)}}
Image:Sipapu (small round hole) in floor of ruined kiva in Mesa Verde National Park.jpg}}. The large round hole is a fire pit. The air intake (square hole), the stones blocking air from the intake, the pit and the {{lang|hop|sipapu}} form a line: an intentional design. At Long House, Mesa Verde.]]
A {{lang|hop|sipapu}} (a Hopi word) was a small hole or indentation in the floor of a {{lang|hop|kiva}} (pithouse). Kivas were used by the Ancestral Puebloans and continue to be used by modern-day Puebloans. The {{lang|hop|sipapu}} symbolizes the portal through which their ancient ancestors first emerged to enter the present world.{{sfn|Wenger|1991|p={{pn|date=November 2021}}}}
Hopi mythology (and similar traditions in other Pueblo cultures such as the Zuni and Acoma) states that this is the hole from which the first peoples of this world entered. As they stepped outside of the {{lang|hop|sipapu}}, they changed from lizard-like beings into human form.{{sfn|Waters|1963|p={{pn|date=November 2021}}}}{{sfn|Courlander|1971|p={{pn|date=November 2021}}}} It is from this point that the "First Peoples" of the Earth began to divide and separate, becoming tribes. The original sipapu is said in Hopi and some other Uto-Aztecan Puebloan mythology to be located in the Grand Canyon.{{cn|date=June 2023}}
References
=Citations=
{{Reflist}}
=Works cited=
- {{cite book |last=Courlander |first=H. |year=1971 |title=The Fourth World of the Hopis |location=Albuquerque |publisher=University of New Mexico Press}}
- {{cite book |last=Waters |first=Frank |year=1963 |title=Book of the Hopis |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Group}}
- {{cite book |last=Wenger |first=Gilbert R. |title=The Story of Mesa Verde National Park |publisher=Mesa Verde Museum Association |location=Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado |year=1991 |orig-year=1980 |isbn=0-937062-15-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofmesaverde00weng }}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last=Sando |first=Joe S. |year=1982 |title=The Pueblo Indians |location=San Francisco |publisher=Indian Historian Press}}
{{Native american styles}}
Category:Native American religion
Category:Puebloan architectural elements
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