Date of Award

1-1-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Anthropology

First Advisor

Christina Kreps, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Richard Clemmer-Smith

Third Advisor

Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh

Fourth Advisor

James LaVita

Fifth Advisor

Clark Davis

Keywords

Hopi, Kachina, Katsina, Language, Museum

Abstract

Museums collect and care for material culture, and, increasingly, intangible culture. This relatively new term for the folklore, music, dance, traditional practices, and language belonging to a group of people is gaining importance in international heritage management discourse. As one aspect of intangible cultural heritage, language is more relevant in museums than one might realize. Incorporating native languages into museum collections provides context and acts as appropriate museology, preserving indigenous descriptions of objects. Hopi katsina tihu are outstanding examples of objects that museums can re-contextualize with native terminology. Their deep connection to Hopi belief and ritual as well as their diverse origins are part of the etymology of katsina names, which can be inaccurate of simplified in museum catalogs. I consulted historic ethnographies and the Hopi Dictionary to create a database of Hopi katsina tihu names, demonstrating how museums might incorporate intangible heritage into their collections through language and etymological context.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

Rights holder

Rachel Elizabeth Maxson

File size

216 p.

File format

application/pdf

Language

en

Discipline

Museum studies, Cultural anthropology, Linguistics

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