essay
Images of power in a Southwestern pueblo
Anthropology of power : ethnographic studies from Asia, Oceania, and the New World • New York • Published In 1977 • Pages: 195-215
By: Pandey, Triloki Nath.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This document is basically a study of the exercise of power in Zuni between the priests, the governor and his council, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs . Traditionally the Zuni have emphasized the sacred over the secular, thus allowing the priests to make secular political officers appointments in the community. By doing this, they ultimately controlled both the sacred and secular domains of pueblo life. By the mid to late twentieth century these political officers were elected by the people every four years, and inaugurated into office by the priests. Thus, this separation of church and state, an alien concept to the pueblos, has given rise to an independent secular-political realm that is resented by the priests and their sympathizers, but encouraged by the BIA and its supporters. This has created problems in the political life of the pueblo. Some Zuni still believe that the priests have higher status in the society than the politicians (political officers), and in fact have exerted their authority by dispossessing the politicians of their canes of office whenever they feel that the latter transgress their jurisdiction. During the past four decades , the priests have often refused to accept the elected officials and have appointed their own. But the BIA has not accepted their authority in secular matters and has backed elected officials . In this article the author describes a few such crisis situations in which the priests took the canes away from elected official and thus precipitated confusion and chaos in the political life of the peublo (pp. 197-198).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Status, role, and prestige
- Priesthood
- Community heads
- Public welfare
- Elections
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Zuni
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southwest and Basin
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle; 2007
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1964-1968
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1850-1970
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Triloki Nath Pandey
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-215)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 76009150
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Zuni Indians