Abstract
This paper will examine the political nature of myth in Hopi culture. The control of ritual and of the interpretation of myth in Hopi culture is the control of power. The paper will also examine the conflict between the Hopi Traditional Movement and the Hopi Tribal Council and how that conflict was played out as an intra-tribal attempt to control prophetic myth. This means the Hopi have at different times interpreted their anticipated savior and sign of purification as a US citizen, a Mormon, and, at one point, Hitler. The Hopi village of Hotevilla was founded in 1906. Many Hopi view this village’s leaders as having transformed Hopi myth without the required knowledge or authority; however, it is Hotevilla’s version of the emergence myth, through the Hopi Traditionalist Movement and their recruitment of outside groups, that most Hopi outsiders and non-Hopi believe is the authoritative version.
How to Cite
Rubin, J., (2015) “Boundary Objects in Hopi Prophecy and Myth”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 28(2).
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