BBBH designed and we redecorated my office recently. (She is an HGTV enthusiast.) Since I was born and raised in Colorado she chose a "Western" theme. During our travels in the West BBBH found the Anasazi very interesting, and the ubiquitous appearance of Kokopelli throughout the Southwest inspired her to choose his image as a recurring motif.Kokopelli is the little dickens depicted here. He is the music-loving flute player who also happens to be a trickster as well as the god of fertility. So it is said. He appears in the legends of the Anasazi and modern tribes such as the Hopi. Historically it has been determined that his image appeared among The People well over 1000 years ago.
Many of the images more clearly suggest the "fertility" aspect of his behavior. Some legends say he carried unborn babies in the sack on his back. The depiction of Kokopelli often shows a distinct hump. He was said to "distribute" these little tykes to young women so that they might bear them into the world. For this reason the girls were often frightened of this being, very reasonably fearing pregnancy.
There is much information about this personage available so if this little vignette has piqued your interest start by entering his name in your browser, and have fun.
6 comments:
I like themed decor, though I don't theme my rooms, and I feel lucky when I paint a wall and it doesn't clash with the furniture.
Explanations for just about every circumstance of life can be found in Native American folklore. It's always interesting to me that the themes are much the same in tribal stories, but the storylines are unique to each tribe.
Vee, I was privileged to have a college roommate who was a Tlingit from Craig, Alaska. We would sit in the dorm room of an evening munching on seaweed from his stash while he related his family heritage and the legends of the kooshtaakaa and other amazing creatures.
I tried to comment yesterday, but no joy.
How interesting that rascally trickster is also the god of fertility.
Chuck, I think that generation after generation of women down through the millennia have suspected that there was a trickster behind that fertility thing.
And I thought he was just an innocent little funster! Ha!
Shark, oh, yes. He's a funster, all right.
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