Old Style Hopi Carved Butterfly Maiden Traditional Kachina Doll (Katsina Doll)

Description

Old Style Hopi Carved Butterfly Maiden Traditional Katsina Doll by the Katsinam

Palhik Mana is a Butterfly Maiden; not a Katsina, but a woman dancer. Though at the dances the Butterfly Maiden is not masked or hooded, she generally appears this way when carved as a doll. Her tablita (headdress) carries symbols for corn and butterflies, which pollinate the corn helping to bring a good harvest. She generally appears in August, as that is when the butterflies appear. The Butterfly Dance, a traditional social dance of the Hopi, is held in August after the gathering of the harvest and presentation of the Snake Dance. It is a thanksgiving dance for the harvest, chiefly for the corn crop, and features dancing by young Hopi maidens wearing elaborate headdresses. This Katsina is unsigned because it was given to a young girl at a dance by a Katsina dancer. As a young woman with children she was forced to ask the Katsinam to help her one more time. She had to sell the gifts she received to feed herself and her family. These are some of the most difficult purchases we make, and it is important for the Hopi women to help them survive.