Kokopelli Comes

Kokopelli Comes

Kokopelli, the seed bringer and water-sprinkler(a reference to his male anatomy), is a common fertility symbol throughout the Southwest. His image is found in petroglyph art particularly in the fourcorners area and along the gorges of the San Juan River in Northern New Mexico and Colorado. He is a personage who is honored as a kachina by most Pueblo cultures. He is associated with fertility, the male principal and physiology, and the concept of the significance of protecting seeds. Usually depicted as old, bent under his heavy load, he visits various communities, impregnating the young women drawn to the tones of his flute playing. He is also related to the cricket, or locust, whose natural music is connected with specific humidity and seasonal temperatures. There are many, very ribald stories of his various exploits. When carved as a kachina doll, he usually has a staff, not a flute, but is also carved hunchbacked. Before the missionaries came to the Hopi mesas in the 1930’s, his kachina disguise and this doll also featured exaggerated male sexual organs although this practice has been curtailed in recent years. Today, he is considered the ambassador of the Southwest, a much less colorful job, by tourists and visitors.

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