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CONTENTS

Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxii

PART I Foundations of Group Communication


CHAPTER 1 Introducing Group Principles and Practices 1
What Is Small Group Communication? 3
Communication 3
A Small Group of People 5
Meeting with a Common Purpose 5
Feeling a Sense of Belonging 5
Exerting Influence 5
What Is Team Communication? 6
Characteristics of an Effective Team 8
Characteristics of Effective Team Members 10
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Strategies for Becoming
a Competent Team Member 12
Communicating Collaboratively: Advantages and Disadvantages 13
Advantages 13
Disadvantages 14
When Not to Collaborate 16
Me Versus We 17
Communicating in Different Types of Groups 19
Primary Groups 19
Secondary Groups 20
Communicating in Virtual Groups and Teams 21
Channels of Virtual Collaboration 22
Differences Between Virtual and Non-Virtual Collaboration 23
Virtual Group and Team Theory 25
How Can You Become a Competent Small Group Communicator? 26
VIRTUAL GROUPS 27
The Essence of Communication Competence 28
The Nine Core Small Group Communication Competencies 28
CASE STUDY: The Battle Over Working as a Virtual Group 29
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 31

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles and
Practices 32

CHAPTER 2 Understanding Small Group Communication Theory 36


The Nature of Theory and the Theory-Building Process 37
Theory: A Practical Approach to Group Communication 38
Explanatory Function 39

vii
viii Contents

Predictive Function 39
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 39
The Purpose of Communication in Small Groups: Making Sense 40
Complexity 41
Small Groups: More Complexity 41
Theoretical Perspectives for the Study of Group Communication 42
Systems Theory 42
Social Exchange Theory 43
Symbolic Convergence Theory 44
CASE STUDY: How Do You Keep a Group on Task? 46
Structuration Theory 46
Functional Theory 47
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Structuration and the Exercise
of Free Will 48
A Model of Small Group Communication 49
VIRTUAL GROUPS 50

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 52

CHAPTER 3 Facilitating Group Development 55


Why People Join Groups 56
Interpersonal Needs 56
Maslow’s Theory 56
Schutz’s Theory 57
Individual and Group Goals 59
Establishing Mutuality of Concern 60
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 62
Interpersonal Attraction 62
Similarity 63
Complementarity 63
Proximity, Contact, and Interaction 63
Physical Attractiveness 63
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Mutuality of Concern 64
Group Attraction 64
Group Activities 64
Group Goals 65
VIRTUAL GROUPS 65
Group Membership 66
Culture and Group Development 66
Individualism and Collectivism 67
High-Context and Low-Context Cultures 67
High-Contact and Low-Contact Cultures 68
Homogeneity and Diversity 69
Group Formation over Time 70
CASE STUDY: How Do You Manage Conflicting Needs and Goals? 71

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles and
Practices 73
Contents ix

PART II Managing Group Relationships


CHAPTER 4 Preparing to Collaborate 76
How to Develop a Discussion Plan 77
Get Acquainted with Your Group Members 78
Clarify the Goals of the Group 78
Develop a Plan for Gathering Information and Analyzing Issues 79
Follow a Structured Agenda to Accomplish the Task 80
Share Information with Others 81
Determine How to Present Your Information 82
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: What Should You Do with Group
Members Who Don’t Pull Their Weight? 82
How to Formulate Discussion Questions 84
Questions of Fact 85
VIRTUAL GROUPS 85
Questions of Prediction 86
Questions of Value 87
Questions of Policy 88
CASE STUDY: Questioning the Cost of Textbooks 89
How to Use Logic and Reasoning Effectively 90
Inductive Reasoning 90
Deductive Reasoning 91
Causal Reasoning 92
How to Evaluate Evidence in Group Discussions 92
Facts 92
Examples 93
Opinions 93
Statistics 93
Gathering and Evaluating Evidence: A Special Emphasis on Web Resources 94
How to Develop Critical-Analysis Skills 95
Causal Fallacy 95
Either/Or Fallacy 95
Bandwagon Fallacy 95
Hasty Generalization 96
Attacking the Person 96
Red Herring 96
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 97

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 98

CHAPTER 5 Relating to Others in Groups 102


Roles 103
Who Are You? 103
Self-Concept Development: Gender, Sexual Orientation, Culture, and Role 104
Diversity of Roles in Small Groups 105
Group Task Roles 106
x Contents

Group-Building and Maintenance Roles 106


Individual Roles 107
Norms 108
How Do Norms Develop? 109
Identifying Group Norms 109
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Establishing Group Norms 110
Conforming to Group Norms 110
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 112
Establishing Ground Rules 112
Status 114
Privileges Accorded to High-Status Group Members 114
Effects of Status Differences 114
Status Differences in Online Groups 115
Observing Status Differences to Predict Group Dynamics 116
Power 116
Power Bases 116
VIRTUAL GROUPS 117
Effects of Power on Group Process 118
Power and Gender 119
Status and Power: A Cultural Footnote 119
Trust 120
Developing Trusting Relationships 120
Trust in Face-to-Face and Virtual Teams 121
The Development of Group Relationships over Time 121
CASE STUDY: Adjusting to Variable Status and Power 122
Gender and Communication 122
Culture 123
Conversational Style 124
Time 124

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 126

CHAPTER 6 Improving Group Climate 129


Defensive and Supportive Climates 130
Evaluation versus Description 131
Control versus Problem Orientation 131
Strategy versus Spontaneity 131
Neutrality versus Empathy 132
Superiority versus Equality 132
Certainty versus Provisionalism 132
Interpersonal Confirmation and Disconfirmation 133
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 134
Disconfirming Responses 134
Confirming Responses 135
Group Cohesiveness 136
Composition and Cohesiveness: Building a Team 136
Contents xi

Individual Benefits and Cohesiveness 137


Task Effectiveness and Cohesiveness 137
Communication and Cohesiveness 137
Cohesiveness in Virtual Teams 138
Communication Networks 138
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Cohesiveness
and Productivity at Harley-Davidson 139
Group Size 140
Group Climate and Productivity 141
VIRTUAL GROUPS 141
CASE STUDY: Avoiding Defensiveness 143

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 145

CHAPTER 7 Enhancing Communication Skills in Groups 148


Verbal Dynamics in Small Groups 149
Words as Barriers to Communication 149
Listening 151
Listening Styles 151
Obstacles to Effective Listening 152
A Guide to Active Listening 154
The Importance of Nonverbal Communication in Groups 155
More Time Is Spent Communicating Nonverbally Than Verbally 156
Emotions and Feelings Are Typically Expressed Nonverbally Rather Than Verbally 156
Nonverbal Messages Are Usually More Believable Than Verbal Messages 156
Applications of Nonverbal Communication Research to Groups 157
Posture, Movement, and Gestures 157
Eye Contact 158
Facial Expressions 160
Vocal Cues 160
Personal Space 161
Territoriality 162
Seating Arrangement 162
Personal Appearance 164
Communication Environment 165
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Improving Nonverbal
Communication Skills 166
Functions of Nonverbal Cues in Groups 167
Nonverbal Messages Influence Perceived Leadership 167
Nonverbal Messages Influence Persuasion Skills 167
Nonverbal Messages Help Synchronize Interaction 167
Nonverbal Messages Provide Information about Perceived Honesty or Dishonesty 168
Interpreting Nonverbal Communication 169
VIRTUAL GROUPS 170
xii Contents

COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 171


CASE STUDY: Interpreting Indirect Communication 172

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 174

CHAPTER 8 Managing Conflict 178


What Is Conflict? 180
Causes of Conflict 180
Misconceptions About Conflict 181
Types of Conflict 182
Pseudo-Conflict: When People Misunderstand One Another 182
Simple Conflict: When People Disagree about Issues 183
Ego Conflict: When Personalities Clash 184
Conflict and Diversity in Small Groups 186
Conflict in Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures 186
Conflict in High-Context and Low-Context Cultures 186
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Strategies for Managing Conflict
in Diverse Groups: Surface and Deep Diversity 187
Approaches to Conflict When There Are Gender Differences 188
Conflict-Management Styles 188
Avoidance 189
Accommodation 189
Competition 190
Compromise 191
Collaboration 191
Collaborative Conflict Management: Principles and Skills 192
Separate the People from the Problem 192
Focus on Shared Interests 193
Generate Many Options to Solve Problems 193
Base Decisions on Objective Criteria 193
When People Are Not Cooperative: Dealing with Difficult Group Members 194
Manage Your Emotions 194
CASE STUDY: Practice in Applying Principles 194
Describe What Is Upsetting You 196
Disclose Your Feelings 197
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 197
Return to the Issue of Contention 197
Groupthink: Conflict Avoidance 199
Symptoms of Groupthink 200
Suggestions for Reducing Groupthink 202
VIRTUAL GROUPS 204
Consensus: Reaching Agreement Through Communication 206
The Nature of Consensus 206
Suggestions for Reaching Consensus 206

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 212
Contents xiii

PART III Managing Group Tasks


CHAPTER 9 Leading Groups 218
What Is Leadership? 219
Trait Perspective: Characteristics of Effective Leaders 220
Functional Perspective: Group Needs and Roles 220
Task Leadership 221
Process Leadership 222
Situational Perspective: Adapting Style to Context 224
Leadership Style 225
®
Hersey’s Situational Leadership Model 227
Some Observations on the Situational Approach to Leadership 228
Shared Leadership in Teams 228
Transformational Leadership 228
VIRTUAL GROUPS 229
CASE STUDY: Adjusting Leadership Style to Situation 230
Emergent Leadership in Small Groups 231
The Minnesota Studies 231
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 232
Leadership and Gender 233
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Servant Leadership 233

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 236

CHAPTER 10 Making Decisions and Solving Problems 240


Group Decision Making: Choosing among Alternatives 241
Elements of Effective and Ineffective Group Decision Making 242
Methods of Group Decision Making 243
Group Problem Solving: Overcoming Obstacles to Achieve a Goal 246
Problem Solving Defined 247
Barriers to Group and Team Problem Solving 247
Three Approaches to Group Problem Solving 249
Descriptive Approach 249
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 250
Other Descriptive Models of Group Problem Solving 252
VIRTUAL GROUPS 253
Functional Approach 256
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Real Groups, Real Challenges:
The Bona Fide Group Perspective 258
Communication Functions of Effective Group Problem Solvers 259
Prescriptive Approach 261
CASE STUDY: Keep Tuition Low 262
Cultural Assumptions About Group Problem Solving and Decision Making 263

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 265
xiv Contents

CHAPTER 11 Using Problem-Solving Techniques 269


An Overview of Prescriptive Problem-Solving Strategies 271
The Origin of Prescriptive Problem-Solving Strategies 271
Finding a Balance between Group Structure and Interaction 271
Groups Need Structure 272
Groups Need Interaction 273
Reflective Thinking: The Traditional Approach to Group Problem Solving 274
Step 1: Identify and Define the Problem 274
Tools for Defining the Problem 275
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 276
Step 2: Analyze the Problem 278
Tools for Analyzing a Problem 279
How to Establish Criteria 282
VIRTUAL GROUPS 283
Step 3: Generate Several Possible Solutions 283
Step 4: Evaluate Options and Select the Best Solution or Combination of Solutions 284
Tools for Evaluating the Solutions 285
Step 5: Test and Implement the Solution 285
Tools for Implementing a Solution 286
How to Use Reflective Thinking in Your Group or Team 288
Question-Oriented Approaches to Problem Solving 289
Ideal-Solution Format 289
Single-Question Format 290
How to Use Question-Oriented Approaches in Your Group or Team 290
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: When Should You Make a Decision Based
on Careful Analysis and When Should You Trust Your “Gut Instincts”? 292
Beyond Technique 293
CASE STUDY: Who Loses Their Job 293

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 295

CHAPTER 12 Enhancing Creativity in Groups and Teams 301


What Is Creativity? 302
Why Study Creativity? 303
Myths about Creativity 304
Creativity Myth 1: Creativity Is a Mysterious Process That Can’t Be Learned 304
Creativity Myth 2: Only a Few Gifted People Are Creative 304
Creativity Myth 3: Creativity Just Happens 305
Barriers to Group and Team Creativity 305
Premature Evaluation of Ideas 305
Poor Physical Surroundings 306
Too Many People 306
Poor Timing 306
Stinking Thinking 306
Principles of Group and Team Creativity 307
Appropriately Analyze and Define the Problem 307
Contents xv

Create a Climate of Freedom 308


Listen to Minority Points of View 308
Encourage People to See Things and Themselves Differently 309
Selectively Increase Group and Team Structure 309
Techniques for Enhancing Group and Team Creativity 310
Brainstorming 311
CASE STUDY: Clipping Negative Thinking 313
The Nominal-Group Technique 313
COLLABORATING ETHICALLY: What Would You Do? 315
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: Using Your Whole Mind 316
The Delphi Technique 317
VIRTUAL GROUPS 318
Electronic Brainstorming 318
The Affinity Technique 319
How to Use Brainstorming in Your Group or Team 320

STUDY GUIDE Review, Apply, and Assess Group Communication Principles


and Practices 323

APPENDIX A Principles and Practices for Effective Meetings 326


Giving Meetings Structure 328
Determine the Meeting Goal(s) 328
Identify Items That Need to Be Discussed to Achieve the Goal 328
Organize the Agenda Items to Achieve the Goal 328
Becoming a Meeting Facilitator: Managing Group and Team Interaction 330
Be a Gatekeeper 331
Focus on the Goal 331
Monitor Time 332
Structure Interaction 332
How to Lead Meetings 333
How to Participate in Meetings 334
PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE: How to Make a Meeting
Better When You’re Not the Meeting Leader 335

APPENDIX B Principles and Practices for Communicating to


an Audience 337
Panel Discussions 337
Symposium Presentations 338
Forum Presentations 338
Planning What to Say to an Audience 339
Analyze Your Audience 339
Have a Clear Objective 339
Identify Your Major Ideas 340
Support Your Major Ideas 340
Organize Your Ideas 340
xvi Contents

Presenting Information to an Audience 341


Select Your Method of Delivery 341
Use Effective Delivery Skills 341
Consider Using Visual Aids 341
Using Computer-Generated Graphics 342

Glossary 343
Notes 349
Photo Credits 375
Index 377
PREFACE

F
rom our first edition to this, our eleventh edition, our goal in writing this book has
remained the same: to write a book students find interesting and practical, and instruc-
tors find clear and comprehensive. We are pleased that the previous ten editions
continue to be praised and widely used by both teachers and students.
We have written the eleventh edition of Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and
Practices to serve as the primary text for a college-level course that focuses on group communi-
cation. We continue to seek a balanced approach to presenting the latest small group principles,
while also identifying practical practices that bring the principles to life.

New to the Eleventh Edition


In this new edition we have thoroughly updated the research that anchors the principles
and skills we present, incorporated new pedagogical features to enhance student learning,
and added new applications of technology to enhance collaborate. Here’s an overview of
what’s new.

Expanded Emphasis on Virtual Groups and Teams. From the first page of Chapter 1
through the final appendix, we have included additional research-based information about the
role technology plays in facilitating collaboration in contemporary society. Students who have
used technological tools all of their lives are increasingly becoming more sophisticated about
the use of technology. We have revised our coverage of technology and the use of new media to
reflect students’ existing knowledge while also building on it.

Increased Application of Group Skills. Students take a course in group communica-


tion not only to improve their knowledge but also to become more skilled communicators. How
to develop a discussion plan, create an agenda, facilitate a meeting, manage conflict, make ef-
ficient and effective decisions, lead others, and collaboratively solve problems are just a few of
the skill sets that are presented. To help students bolster their communication competence, we
have expanded our application of specific group communication skills throughout the book.
Our “Theory into Practice” feature has been re-titled “Putting Principles into Practice,” and
we’ve added new material and applications to ensure students can increase their group com-
munication skill.

Linking Chapter Objectives with Chapter Headings. To help students learn, review,
and master chapter content, each learning objective that appears at the beginning of a chapter
corresponds to a specific major heading. Students can easily confirm their mastery of each
section of the material by reviewing the chapter objectives.

New Chapter-End Study Guide. We have completely revised our chapter-end material
to help students assess their understanding of chapter content. Our new Study Guide features
use the revised chapter objectives to organize their study. We review information linked to each
objective and help them clinch chapter content; we identify key terms and page numbers where
students can review their understanding of the term. Finally, we present activities and assess-
ment measures—including several new assessment measures—linked with each objective in
the book.

xvii
xviii Preface

Revised Ethics Feature. To help students explore their own values and ethics when col-
laborating with others, we have revised several of the “Collaborating Ethically: What Would You
Do?” features. These mini case studies can be used for student journal entries or spark insightful
class discussions.

Crisp Presentation of Chapter Content. Sometimes less is more. To help students


quickly grasp ideas and information, we have looked for ways to structure the text’s content
using bullets, new subheads, and streamlined prose to assist students’ mastery of the material.

New Inclusion of Contemporary Group Communication Research. As we have


for 30 years, we’ve done our best to find the latest research about small group communication
and add it to our already comprehensive digest of small group communication research ap-
plications. Each chapter includes new and updated references to the latest applications of and
insights into communicating in small groups.

New Diversity Material Integrated into Every Chapter. As we have in previous


editions, we continue to integrate research and application of diversity throughout the text.
For example, in Chapter 8 we offer new, practical strategies for addressing conflict in diverse
groups looking at both surface and deep diversity. Thanks to an increased use of technol-
ogy as well as an increasingly diverse society, we ensure students can adapt and respond to
others from different backgrounds and cultures. Rather than relegating culture and diversity
topics to a boxed feature, we carefully integrate our discussion of culture and diversity into
every chapter.

And Much, Much More. Each chapter includes new examples, illustrations, cartoons,
and updated pedagogy to make Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices the
best learning tool possible. We’ve made a special effort to streamline our coverage of content to
make room for new research and additional pedagogical features so as not to add to the overall
length of the book.

Chapter-by-Chapter Revision Overview


Here’s a brief summary highlighting several specific changes we’ve made to the eleventh
edition:

Chapter One: Introducing Group Principles and Practices


■ New material about the importance of virtual groups and teams.
■ Extensively revised discussion of communicating in virtual groups and teams.
■ New research about best practices for virtual group and team collaboration.

Chapter Two: Understanding Small Group Communication Theory


■ Updated, more cotemporary case study.
■ New research on gender and culture.
■ New application and assessment chapter-end materials to help students grasp the theories
presented.

Chapter Three: Facilitating Group Development


■ More streamlined discussion of individual and group goals and motivators.
■ Enhanced treatment of formation in virtual teams.
■ New discussion of homogeneity and diversity in groups.
Preface xix

Chapter Four: Preparing to Collaborate


■ Revised discussion on how to develop a discussion plan including a new review box that
lays out specific suggested steps and actions.
■ Updated information about how to ensure that all group members share what they know.
■ New assessment activity to help students review their understanding of types of
reasoning.

Chapter Five: Relating to Others in Groups


■ Expanded treatment of gender and culture.
■ New discussion of structuration and formation of group norms.
■ Enhanced focus on status and power in groups.

Chapter Six: Improving Group Climate


■ New research on the costs and benefits of diversity.
■ Updated material on the relationship of group size to group climate.
■ New research-based recommendations about building cohesiveness in virtual teams.
■ New assessment of group cohesiveness.

Chapter Seven: Enhancing Communication Skills in Groups


■ Updated practical nonverbal skills section.
■ New nonverbal virtual communication feature.
■ New review section on word barriers and how to avoid them.
■ New section on backchannel communication.

Chapter Eight: Managing Conflict


■ New discussion about the causes of conflict.
■ New information about how group members often respond when trust is violated.
■ Revised and streamlined discussion of pseudo, simple, and ego conflict.
■ New research inclusion about conflict in virtual groups and teams.
■ New assessment activity of pseudo, simple, or ego conflict.
■ New assessment activity about identifying advantages of different conflict styles.

Chapter Nine: Leading Groups


■ Updated, more contemporary examples.
■ Expanded coverage of transformational leadership.
■ New research on shared leadership in teams.
■ Additional research on leadership and gender.
■ New material on traits of “servant leaders.”

Chapter Ten: Making Decisions and Solving Problems


■ New discussion of the elements of effective and ineffective group decision making.
■ Streamlined description of group problem solving.
■ New research conclusions about virtual groups and problem solving.

Chapter Eleven: Using Problem-Solving Techniques


■ New discussion of how to conduct a SWOT analysis.
■ Streamlined discussion of group problem analysis techniques.
■ New applications of problem-solving techniques in virtual groups.
■ New material about when to trust “gut instincts” in groups.
xx Preface

Chapter Twelve: Enhancing Creativity in Groups and Teams


■ New revised discussion of principles of group and team productivity.
■ New research on how to enhance team creativity.
■ New references to the value of introverts in solving problems creatively.

Balanced Coverage: Principles and Practices


We provide a carefully crafted integration of both principles and practices that provide a strong
theoretical scaffolding for the “how to” practical skills needed for communicating in small
groups. Theory without application can leave students understanding group principles but not
knowing how to enhance their performance. On the other hand, presenting lists of techniques
without providing an understanding of the principles that inform their skill would result in a
laundry list of do’s and don’ts without insight as to when to apply the skills. The balanced ten-
sion between theory and application, structure and interaction, as well as task and process is
especially evident in all communication study, but especially in the dynamic context of a small
group. We believe that emphasizing theory without helping students apply principles can result
in highly informed yet under-skilled group members. And while it’s true that our students often
clamor for techniques to enhance their skills, such approaches alone do not give students the
underlying principles they need to inform their newfound applications.
When we summarize research conclusions, we hear our students’ voices echoing in our
heads, asking, “So what?” In response to those, we ask ourselves how the research conclusions
we cite can enhance the quality of collaboration. We seek to provide principles and practices of
small group communication that make a difference in our students’ lives.
We both abhor boring meetings that are adrift. Consequently, we draw upon our almost 75
years of combined university administrative and teaching experience as we sift through clas-
sic and contemporary group communication research to keep our focus on application while
anchoring our prescriptions in principled theory. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive yet
laser-focused compendium of the latest thinking about group and team communication.

Popular Features We’ve Retained


A hallmark of this book, according to educators and students, is our get-to-the-point writing
style coupled with our comprehensive distillation of contemporary and classic group com-
munication research. We continue to receive praise for the clear applications of the research
we describe. We’ve done our best to keep the features instructors and students like best about
our book: a lively, engaging writing style, references to the most recent research, and not over-
whelming readers with unnecessary rambling narratives. As we have in previous editions, we’ve
revised and updated all of our pedagogical features, including chapter objectives, discussion
questions, and end-of-chapter activities.

Supplemental Resources for Instructors


An Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank (0133809323) accompanies Small Group Communication.
The Instructor’s Manual portion of the IM/TB includes the following resources: Sample syllabi
for structuring the course, an outline and summary for each chapter which includes the major
ideas covered, chapter objectives, discussion questions and experiential activities. The Test
Bank portion of the IM/TB contains approximately 300 multiple-choice, true/false, and essay
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with our friend (saukin) here? He has no feathers. We must give him
some of our feathers.” So they gave him of their feathers. They flew
to the top of the mesa. They drank. Then they said, “Let us take
back our feathers! Let us leave Coyote here!” They took all their
feathers away from him. He roamed about looking for a way down.
He began to jump. It was steep. He fell and killed himself. The
bluebirds wondered what had become of him.[166]

The Serpent, the Man, the Ox, the Horse, and the
Coyote (From Acomita)[167]
Once a man, while going through a meadow, found a serpent
trapped under a stone. The man had compassion for it and took
away the stone.
At that time the animals spoke the same as we, and the serpent
said to the man: “Now I am going to eat you: I am very hungry.”
“Why do you wish to eat me after I did you such a great benefit?”
But the serpent insisted on eating him and at last the man said to
him: “Wait a little while. Wait until that ox gets here and then you
may eat me.” “Good,” the serpent replied.
And as soon as the ox arrived the man said to him: “Where has it
been seen that a good deed is repaid with evil?” “In me,” replied the
ox. “After I served my master for many years he unkindly turned me
out here to get fat so that he can kill me.” And then the serpent said
to the man: “So you see it is right that I should eat you.”
“Wait a little until that old horse comes, and then you may eat
me,” the man said to him. Good; so they waited, and as soon as he
came the man said to him, “Where has it been seen that a good
deed is repaid with an evil one?” “In me,” said the horse, “for after
serving my master for many years they left me here for the wild
beasts to eat me.” “Now you see how right it is that I should eat
you,” the serpent said to the man. “Wait a bit until that coyote
comes and then you may eat me.”
Good; so the coyote came and the man said to him: “Where has it
been seen that good is repaid by evil? This serpent was trapped
under a stone, and because I did him the benefit of taking away the
stone he now wishes to eat me.” “It is quite right that he should eat
you,” said the coyote, “but first I wish to see how the serpent was
trapped.”
The serpent then consented that they should roll back the stone
so that they might see how he was trapped. And as soon as he was
well trapped, the coyote said: “Was it like this that he was trapped?”
“Yes, it was like this,” they all replied. “Good,” the coyote said to
them, “if that is the way it was, let him remain so, so that the devil
may not cause him to eat me also.”

San Pascual
A poor man who lived in a city had no family but his disconsolate
wife.
In the course of time they had a little child. And as they were so
poor there was no one they could ask to be godfathers. Near the city
lived a rich man who had many sheep, and they determined to ask
this rich man to be the godfather.
The rich man consented with much pleasure, and they took the
child to the chapel of the same city and baptized him. They named
him “Pascual the destitute.”
Not long afterwards, in three months, death came and carried
away the mother of the child, and the father then decided to go and
deliver the orphan to the godfather. And as at the same time the
farm foreman arrived with his party, the godfather gave the child to
him and said: “See here, man, take this child with you, so that you
may rear him with a goat, in order that he may be of some service
to you when he is a man.”
Good; so they took him to the steward and told him what his
name was and that the patron had said that they were to rear him.
And then they took him.
The steward was a very religious man and whenever he could he
went to divine services, but he never took the child.
When Pascual was ten years old and was now very useful, the
steward ordered the farm foreman to go to the house of the patron,
for he did not need him any longer.[168]
One day the steward went to mass, and left Pascual alone taking
care of the cattle. Pascual began to think, and said to himself: “But
what can mass be?” Finally he decided that if he left him alone again
he would follow him to find out what mass was.
He did so. The steward went away and Pascual followed him.
When he lacked only a mile to arrive in the city he saw a man
coming in a cart for wood. As the poor little fellow had never seen
carts, he said, “Now I know what mass is. This is it.”
As soon as the woodman came up he said to him, “May God give
you good days, kind sir.” “Good days to you, good boy.” Then Pascual
asked him: “Where is mass?” Said the woodman, “Go straight along
this road until you come to the plaza, there where it is seen to
coloriar, and the great house which is in the little square in the
middle is the church, and inside of it they say mass.”
“And what does one do in mass?” asked Pascual. “Everything that
you see done, you do,” the woodman told him.
Good; he then went straight to the plaza and soon found the
chapel. Outside was an old woman, and he took her shawl from her
and covered himself. And he took off his breeches and covered them
up. Then he entered the church. And when they all prostrated
themselves they saw him without breeches, and some of the
mischievous ones pricked him behind. And then Pascual pricked the
old woman, who was in front of him, saying: “Prick, prick, for they
are pricking behind.”[169]
When everybody went out he remained alone, much frightened,
and when he saw the Lord nailed on a timber he said, “This poor
man killed or robbed.” The sacristan did not see him and locked all
the doors, leaving him shut in.
Then Pascual went to where the Lord was and said to him:
“Friend, do not be sad. I am going to work and I will bring you food
to fatten you. Where can I find work?” “Look,” said the Lord, “go
along the main street until you find a great house. Ask for work
there.”
The door opened and Pascual went out and came to the great
house, which was where the curate lived, and the sacristan came
out and asked him what he wanted. “I am looking for work.” The
curate then came out and said to him: “What kind of work do you
want?” “I do not know how to do anything but take care of sheep,”
replied Pascual. “Then come here. How much pay do you want?”
“Nothing but food for myself and a friend of mine.” “Good, then take
this hoe and weed the garden.” “How weed?” “Level it all,” said the
curate.
And Pascual weeded the garden, leveling it all, chili, onions, and
everything, he cut down level. The sacristan saw the destruction and
went to tell the curate. But when the curate came he saw that all
the pulled-up plants were flowering and giving fruit. And the curate
said to him: “Surely this is a servant of God, who comes to test my
gratitude.”
And he called Pascual to come and eat with him. “No, I only want
food for myself and for my friend.” They gave it to him and he went
away. When he returned the curate said to him: “To-morrow I am
going to make a great feast, and I wish you and your friend to come
and eat at my table.” They went, and the curate made a very great
feast.
And the Lord said to Pascual: “Tell the father to invite to-morrow
all the people to a feast except your godfather, because he was
ungrateful.”
The next day the gentleman made the feast, and when the people
were coming Pascual was much ashamed because he saw that
nothing was ready, and he said to the Lord: “But, men, nothing is
ready. That is why they have you a prisoner, because you are a
deceiver.” “Go bring a barrel of water,” the Lord said to him. “And
where shall I go to bring water?” “Go, Pascual, on one side of the
street and you will find it.” And Pascual went out and returned with a
barrel of water.
When he returned there was a large table well set out and full of
all kinds of viands. And Pascual said to the Lord: “With reason they
regard you as a witch.” “Be silent, Pascual; take this barrel and
follow me.” And Pascual followed him, and when he turned around
he saw dead persons lying on all sides, and he said to the Lord:
“With reason they held you prisoner, for you are a regular murderer.”
“Be silent, Pascual; follow me.” And they went on, scattering water
on all sides until everybody was dead.
And when Pascual died he was raised to the celestial mansions.
And his godfather went to the eternal abyss for his ingratitude.

If it is true
He is over there;
If it is a lie
Then he is fooled.

Short Folk-Tales and Anecdotes


(From Acomita)
22. A man who was very poor and had a very large family was
once talking with his children, and he said to them: “When I have
money I am going to build a house with balustrades.” One of his
sons came to him and said: “I am going to climb on the balustrade.”
Another said: “And I also.” And still another said: “And I am going to
sit on the balustrade.” The man became angry and told them: “This
disorderly family will wear out the balustrade.” And he gave them all
a good beating.
27. A man was riding horseback one day. It was raining, and he
wished to smoke his pipe. He had no matches, so he waited till there
was a lightning flash, when he put spurs to his horse and went to
light his pipe by the light of the flash.
29. A little coyote was going along with a chicken in his mouth,
and on the way the chicken said to him: “Why don’t you say
‘cheese’?” And the coyote said ‘cheese’ and away goes the chicken
to the top of a tree. “Come down,” said the coyote to her. “A
command has come for all the animals to assemble.” “Good,” said
the chicken. “There are some hounds coming now.” “That is not in
the command,” said the coyote, and ran off.
36. They say that a Mexican of Alameda went to Albuquerque to
sell eggs. The American of the store said to him: “Sit down.” “No sir,
they are not to be given away (no se dan), they are for sale,”[170] he
said to this. Then the American, who did not understand him, said:
“Are you crazy?” And he replied: “No sir, they do not grow, the hens
lay them.”[171]
30. Un pastor le diju al cura que quería pagar por una misa
tutanada con alaridos (cantada) en el palo gueco (pulpito), con
regaños en el tapanco (sermon) y con jumaderas en l’oyit’ el cuajo
(incensario).
A shepherd told the curate that he wished to pay for a mass
(tutanada) with shouts (sung) in the hollow stick (pulpit) with
scoldings in the stall (sermon) and with smokes in the little hole of
the bladder (censer).
42. A woman had a neighbor who everybody said was a witch.
One night when she went to sleep with her she could not sleep
because she was so frightened.
About midnight the witch got up, took out her eyes and put them
on a plate, took off her arms and legs and hung them up carefully,
and then herself turned into a wolf and went out by the chimney.
(In another version the woman goes away, unchanged, riding on a
broomstick. Collected by Miss Matilda Allen.)

A Story of Long Time Ago at Ácoma[172]


or,
The Melons of Discord
(Ácoma Pueblo)
A long time ago, the people of Ácoma used to live on the mesa
below the present village. One day during that time the governor
announced to his people that there would be a rabbit hunt on the
following day and advised them to get their shoes, clubs, bows, and
arrows ready. So early the next morning the whole village, except
the governor’s daughter, whom he commanded to stay at home, set
out for the hunt.
But the daughter did not like to remain behind alone, so shortly
after the others had gone, and contrary to her father’s wishes, she
followed the party. That afternoon as the villagers were cleaning
rabbits for their evening meal, she overtook them and hid behind a
rock. A young man coming in late to join the others passed near by
and startled her so that she made a movement that betrayed her.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I am trying to get a rabbit out from under this rock,” she
answered.
Then the young man, who had many rabbits strung around his
belt, gave a number of them to the girl and they went together to
join the rest of the party. The people were surprised to see that the
girl had killed so many rabbits; but her father, the governor, was
angry.
The hunt lasted four days. After they returned the governor,
together with all of the villagers, scolded the daughter for her
disobedience and ostracized her.
On the following day when everyone was busy preparing to dance
a kachina dance in celebration of the success of the hunt, the
governor’s daughter ran over to the Zuñi village, four miles to the
west of Ácoma, and told the Zuñis that her people were having a
dance. She invited them to come and dance too.
The Zuñis accepted the invitation and went to Ácoma loaded with
melons, colored corn, and some of all of the fruits of their harvest.
The Ácomas did not have any real melons. They danced with the
melons made of dyed buckskin; and so when the first relay of their
dance was over and the Zuñis danced in with their melons, the
Ácomas were jealous. They demanded to know why the Zuñis were
intruding themselves into their fiesta. Angry words followed and the
Zuñis returned home enraged.
Then the Ácomas urged their governor to prepare for war, but he
refused to do so; and the villagers, remembering the spirit in which
the Zuñi Indians had left them, hastily removed their possessions to
the top of the high mesa, and built the present village of Ácoma,
leaving the governor alone on the mesa below.
Shortly thereafter the Zuñis came in their war paint and, finding
only the governor in a deserted village, they slew him and returned
home again.
Six days later the governor’s daughter went back to Ácoma and
perhaps lived happily ever after. Because a governor mistreated his
daughter and she avenged herself is the reason that Ácoma occupies
its present inaccessible position.
Chapter XIV
KERESAN MYTHS

Curiosity and credulity are the characteristics of the savage intellect.


When a phenomenon presents itself, the savage requires an
explanation and that explanation he makes for himself or receives
from tradition in the shape of a myth.—Andrew Lang.

Although it is possible to regard the current beliefs of the Indian


concerning his origin, his migrations, and his religion, as largely
mythical, all such events are of a grandiose and serious character.
Besides these major beliefs, there exists a vast number of lesser
myths and superstitions, as well as familiar folk-tales, which are not
to be overlooked, since they have almost as much power over the
primitive mind as the more essential matters in his history and his
faith. Careful inquiry has proved that a myth is rarely or never
confined to a single tribe, and that certain myths can be traced from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is common knowledge also that as a
myth travels its poetic factor tends to predominate. We should
expect to find, as we do, that myth forms are most nearly alike in
contiguous tribes, and most unlike in those separated by great
distances. Hence the myths of Ácoma are part of the general lore of
the Southwest. One group of scholars considers that myths should
be restricted to such tales as have an explanatory tendency (which is
easily overestimated), and would differentiate between mythical
tales on the one hand, and mythical ideas or concepts on the other,
for they say we can gain much information about the first of these
but very little about the second. Of “explanatory myths,” moreover,
there are two forms,—inclusive and particularistic. The first is well
exemplified by a culture-hero who “taught the people all the arts,”
and the second by a culture-hero who taught the people merely one
art, hitherto unknown, such as basket making. Another illustration is
the myth of the Thunder Bird, so widely believed in that it is used by
some authorities as a typical mythical concept. The conventionalized
figure is found in many silver ornaments, upon the pottery, and upon
scores of baskets. At Ácoma the best of her potters make a fine
design of it upon plaques and vessels of various sorts. Apparently
the underlying idea of this myth is of a bird flying through the
heavens, so huge that he darkens the skies. The flapping of his
wings is the thunder, the winking of his eyes causes the lightning,
and so forth.

Fair weather signifies that the bird is in good humor; bad


weather that he is displeased. A big black bird therefore
seems to answer fairly well the inquiries of the native mind
regarding the phenomena of storms.[173]

All myths have at least one universal feature, animals and


heavenly bodies are endowed with human qualities, and
associate indiscriminately with man. [Powell tells us that
whatever challenges attention, gives rise to a myth.[174]]

If, then, the “tawny patch on the shoulder of a rabbit,” the antlers of
a deer, the crest of a bird, are full of meaning to the Indian mind, we
can understand that there must be an inexhaustible store of tales,
varying from tribe to tribe with the living creatures and the local
conditions that obtain in each. Though we to-day after the long
sophistication of the years may regard this phase as childish,
ignorant, and superstitious, and resent its tyrannous fettering of the
human mind, we must remember that it was the only view of life
possible at the period of its sway—a life of Nature, speaking with
many voices, sensitive to every changing facet of the created world
—and that from such rude beginnings all primitive religion and
poetry have arisen. We cannot afford to ignore or lose the only
contribution thereto made on the western continent.
Myths represent incidents long past and not to be repeated, those
which occurred in the morning of the world when man had few or
none of his present customs and arts. Folk-tales, on the other hand,
are busied with more recent events and may even be woven about
present-day occurrences. The myth therefore appeals especially to
the imagination and the emotions, and to that deep-seated belief of
the Indian that the world of sense and the world of spirit are so
intimately linked that the former is ruled in minutest detail by the
latter.[175]
The “ritualization of myths”[176] takes place when an attempt is
made to weave together these far-away happenings into a
consistent tribal, clan, or fraternity story, the telling of which is
frequently accompanied by ceremonies. Since there is usually a
desire shown to arrange these chronologically, they may become an
historical record of the tribe’s beginnings. At the same time, it must
never be forgotten that these myths are handed down verbally by
the older men of the tribe through successive generations, and must
suffer certain alterations and embellishments as time passes.
Strong resemblances exist between the origin-legends of all the
different Pueblo tribes, though each has its own variants. There is
almost total absence of intimate studies of the Ácoma tradition, such
as have been made with elaborate care and detail for both the Hopi
and the Zuñi. It is not possible to set forth any origin or religious
myths as positively or exclusively those of the Ácomas, yet since
they, like the people of Sía, only seventy miles away, both belong to
the Keresan nation, we feel something like assurance in assuming
that the Ácoma legends must be closely similar[177] to those
described in the distinguished researches of Sía.
To all Pueblo Indians the world was flat and round, like a great
disk. Before there was any life, the All-Father existed alone in the
Somewhere, and immemorial darkness covered all space. This primal
All-Father “thought outward into space” until mists finally penetrated
the thick and universal blackness, and the Middle Place appeared,
guarded by Six Warriors. In some legends, a god named Po-shai-an-
ki-a is identical with the All-Father, whereas in others he is only an
early culture hero, giver of domestic animals and of wealth. In the
larger number of legends the Spider—Sussistinnaka[178]—is the All-
Father, sometimes spoken of as a male, and in other tribes as a
female, deity. In Sía myths, however, the spider is the first living
creature of the underworld, dominating the actions of all other
beings.
The creation of light follows that of the Middle Place, and the sun
becomes not only an emanation from the All-Father, but the
Supreme Being himself,[179] and Mother Earth is his complement.
The Pueblo world is divided into six regions, each having its centre in
a spring somewhere in the heart of a great mountain, on whose
summit is a gigantic tree. I combine the phrasing of the myths of
two Keresan pueblos to make more clear these six “points of the
compass,” as we call them.[180] Each of them has its especial color-
symbol, which, however, is not uniformly assigned by all tribes.

Tree Region Guardian Warrior


1. Mountain of the Spruce Barren Plains Long Tail
North (Mountain
Lion)
2. Mountain of the Pine Home of Waters Clumsy Foot
West (Bear)
3. Mountain of the Oak Place of Blackmark-Face
South Beautiful (Badger)
Red
4. Mountain of the Aspen Home of the Hangtail (Wolf)
East Day
5. Mountain of the Cedar Home of the Whitecap (Eagle)
Zenith High
6. Mountain of the Oak Home of the Mole
Nadir Low
In Sía legends, those presumably most closely akin to Ácoma, the
creation was performed by the Spider, who drew two lines of meal
upon the lighted ground, which, by crossing each other, made four
equal squares. He then seated himself close to two parcels placed in
the two upper spaces, and chanted a low, sweet song, to which the
parcels “rattled” an accompaniment, and presently out of each
walked a woman. One, named Utset, was the mother of all Indians;
the other, Nowutset, the progenitress of all other people upon earth.
Two male heroes called The Twins, with names varying in different
tribes, are universally described as Dark and Light, having been born
of a mother sometimes called The Dawn, who died in giving them
birth. These mythical heroes live in the east, and the Twin called
Light is always white—the “fixed emblem of peace, friendship,
happiness, propriety, purity, and holiness.”[181] Light and Life,
Darkness and Death, have been synonymous in all systems of
religion.
At first the earth was very hot, so that it melted, but later the
people lacked fire. In all the tribes we find a universal folk-tale of the
Theft of Fire, and generally it is Coyote who is commissioned to
bring it from beyond the Kingdom of Sussistinnako—a difficult and
delicate task, for there were three doors to pass, guarded first by
the Snake, then by the Cougar, and lastly by the Bear. When, finally,
human beings began to people the earth and had to disperse, their
place of egress from the underworld, in which all men and animals
were born, was Si-pa-pu, and it is to Si-pa-pu again that the spirits
of those who die must return. The road to and from Si-pa-pu is
always spoken of as crowded by the two lines of spirits passing each
other, the ghostly forms of the dead crossing those who are yet to
be born into life.[182]

Life is the sunward hemisphere, a line


Invisibly, immeasurably fine
That perilously hangs between the vast
Unborn-to-come and no-more-living past.[183]
We find also the idea of death in life associated with the dying
day, and perhaps this is the origin of the expression of the soldier
lads in the World War who spoke of their comrades as “going west.”
Rest from labor with the setting sun led naturally to the search for
some place of repose for the weary soul in that region where the
sun had sunk from sight of mortal eyes.
One myth that Pueblo Indians possess in common with each other
and with almost all primitive peoples is that of a culture-hero,
regarded as the ancestor of a tribe, sometimes even as the creator
of the universe.[184] This half-divine being appeared on earth while
all was still chaos, taught the people their arts, and, having
established their social and religious order, vanished, not by death
but in some mysterious manner, promising to return to earth when
the appointed time should arrive.[185]
Among the Pueblos, this many-sided culture-hero is known as
Montezuma,[186] and “is the centre of some of the most poetic
myths found in ancient American mythology.” Many places in New
Mexico claim to be his birthplace, and the variety of aspects under
which Montezuma is presented is due to the fact that each tribe
jealously guards its individual legends concerning his achievements.
Emory wrote in 1847:

The Pueblos speak of every event preceding the Spanish


Conquest as of the days of Montezuma. Among the Pueblos,
the Navajos, and the Apaches, the name of Montezuma is as
familiar as is Washington to us. This is the more curious as
none of these tribes are related in any way to the Aztec race
by language.[187]

An old tradition given as common to all Pueblo Indians is to the


effect that they had no kinship with nomad tribes but were “a people
seated on the soil,” and that they were “Children of Montezuma;[188]
when he and his subjects were hard pressed by the Spaniards, they
were summoned south to help in the succor of the City of Mexico,
from whence none of them ever returned.” There is no foundation in
fact for this legend, but a reasonable explanation for the picturesque
tale is given by Bandelier, who says: “The Mexican Nahautl language
has left positive traces, through the Indians from Central Mexico and
the Spaniards themselves, who brought them to New Mexico as their
servants.”[189]
One is surprised and impressed by so often coming across
analogies, in the tales of these so-called barbarians, with those
which have all the charm and authority of classic antiquity. For
example, there are everywhere among the Indians legends of a
great flood and of mountains of refuge which correspond to Ararat,
though the actual locality varies with the different tribes, just as is
true of Si-pa-pu, their place of emergence from the underworld. This
was in truth so continuously heard by the Spanish padres when first
they came upon North American soil that they were wont to affirm
the Indian religion to be a pervert from their own sacred theology.
In some of the tribes we find the belief that when the waters
covered the earth, all living things perished save Montezuma and his
friend Coyote. They had built a boat and moored it high on the
summit of Santa Rosa (their Ararat) in case of need. Montezuma in
some of the tales thus became the founder of the Indian pueblos, of
which Ácoma was the first and Pecos the second.

He entrusted to their guardianship the sacred fire, [and it


was at Pecos, before disappearing from their sight, that] he
planted a tree upside down and bade them watch it well, for
when that tree should fall and the fire die out, then he would
return from the far East, and lead his royal people to victory
and power. When the present generations saw their land
glide, mile by mile, into the rapacious hands of the Yankee,
when new and strange diseases desolated their homes, finally
when in 1846 the sacred tree was prostrated, and the
guardian of the holy fire was found dead on its ashes, then
they thought the hour of deliverance had come, and every
morning at earliest dawn a watcher mounted to the house-
tops, and gazed long and anxiously in the lightening east,
hoping to descry the noble form of Montezuma advancing
through the morning beams at the head of a conquering
army.[190]

A variation of the deluge myth was told me at Isleta. The people


there believe that this continent was never overtaken by the great
flood, and that consequently the American Indian is in descent from
the oldest race that has had a continuous existence upon earth. In
the summer of 1922 some fragments of this myth were told me by
my host at the Rito de los Frijoles, who had been shown “a very
ancient manuscript by an aged Indian, who had spent two days” in
relating to him the Montezuma legend, which the Indian affirmed
had no connection with the Aztec king of the same name.
We also meet among these American aborigines a world-wide
myth which is probably most familiar in the Minotaur, or in the
legend of St. George, who rescued the Libyan princess when she
was chosen by lot to feed the terrible dragon outside her father’s
city, and who remained to convert that heathen people to
Christianity.
Professor Espinosa[191] found among the Pueblos a myth of the
Monster Viper which he is inclined to believe is purely Indian in
origin—probably derived from the Aztec. He says that the Indians
were very vague about it, or wished to deny it; but the legend is that
in each pueblo is hidden a monster viper to which several children
are fed every year.
In New Mexico the belief is said to be widespread that the gradual
extinction of the Pueblo tribes there is due to the fact that child-
sacrifice no longer exists. Professor Espinosa has reason to believe
that it was at some time a common practice.[192] Mrs. Stevenson no
later than 1886 believed that she discovered that in at least two
Tewa pueblos the rattlesnake was propitiated by human sacrifice,
either of the youngest female, or failing this, of an adult woman who
had neither husband nor children—if such could be found.
We have very little to contribute about myths peculiar to Ácoma,
but Dr. Parsons[193] has discovered much concerning those that
relate to maternity-beliefs and practices there and at Laguna, and to
her articles the interested reader is referred. It must suffice here to
mention only a bare outline of the birth myth about which
undoubtedly clusters, as is true at Sía, much that is especially sacred
and secret. All Ácoma clans are maternal and exogamous, and many
are the “beliefs of sympathetic magic in connection with conception,
pregnancy, and growth.” At Ácoma the ritual for the increase of
children is especially associated with the Santu cult,[194] which,
contrary to the case in most tribes, is both at Ácoma and Laguna a
male deity. “The Santu is regarded as a source of light, in the same
sense of life, and also a specific for rain,” and therefore a power
directly able to further fertility, whether in plants or in animals. As
such his favor is besought at the winter solstice ceremonial by
particular offerings at his altar. To it women desiring children bring
clay figures of a baby (wiha), and other prenatal practices are
arranged. The Santu then is supposed to lie in for four days after the
winter solstice, and all about him are placed images of domestic
animals, rings, bracelets, and so forth. When the birth is close at
hand, the human mother is carefully watched by her grandmother,
and for four days after the child has come into the world she also
lies in, with an ear of corn close beside her baby. “On the fourth
morning the ‘Medicine Man’ and his wife arrive sometime before
dawn. He prays and sings four or five songs, after which he takes
the child out to the east side of the mesa to show it at sunrise to the
Sun God. The child’s mother goes along, and during the ceremonial
sprinkles sacred meal.” The child’s forehead, body, and legs are
anointed with ashes in the form of a cross, “because witches do not
like ashes.”
The christening does not take place for seven or eight months
because, if the baby does not live, it is better not to have to
remember it with a name. When the time for this ceremony is
decided upon, it is held in the church, in the presence of its
godparents, who make the child a gift and then carry it to their own
house, where its head is washed, “an interesting instance of the way
the Catholic rite may be combined with native practice.” Presents
must be exchanged between godparents and the child on every
following Christmas. What Indian name is given we may never
know; for more common is the nickname, given later to describe
some characteristic trait, or act, when a child’s personality becomes
apparent. A happy little girl may be called “Laughs in the Morning,”
or a fleet-footed boy who has shot his coyote will thereafter be
known as “Flying Wolf.”[195] Then, usually, the Roman priest
administers Christian baptism and bestows a Spanish name. If the
child goes to an American school, he or she is sure to receive an
American name, and by the last, to us as visitors from the outside, is
most likely to be introduced. Thus we have another complex to add
to all the others, none of which appears to confuse or disturb the
serenity of the Indian.
Many writers about Indian life in the pueblos emphasize the
obedience of the children and speak of punishment by parents as
being so little merited that it is an almost unheard-of event. The fact
appears to be that parents terrify their children at a very early age
with tales of supernatural beings and their evil powers, so that to
utter a single talismanic word, like el coco, or d’agüelo, suffices to
subdue the naughtiest infant. They obey from fear, not of their
parents, but of the unseen powers. The Agüelo (Spanish abuelo, for
grandfather)[196] is a very old man who goes about the pueblos
during Christmas week to see if all the children have learned their
prayers properly. He is feared more than anything else, and the
children always give him sweets and cakes to put in the bag he
carries, but it is quite large enough to hold naughty children also. At
each home he makes himself known by a loud knock on the door,
and by the cry, El Agüelo, El Agüelo! Aquí viene el Agüelo![197] The
children must at once appear and recite their prayers, after which he
forms a circle with them and they dance from right to left, and then
from left to right, singing at the same time some verses. Children
who are frightened into good behavior all the year through by a
mythical bugaboo cannot be expected to differentiate him from the
one they actually see and propitiate at Christmas time.[198]
The deeper our study of Indian inheritances, the stronger grows
the conviction that, while the white conqueror has imposed upon the
race the outward observance of conventions in daily conduct, in
morals and religion, the mental attitude toward most of these things
has not changed in the slightest degree.
The conclusion of the whole matter is therefore that all Indians
divide the phenomena of nature, including man, into human and
superhuman, and to him almost every natural phenomenon is a
mystery. As the Reverend J. Owen Dorsey, a first authority on the
subject, puts it: “Even man himself may become mysterious by
fasting, prayer, and vision,” and this was indeed the chief function of
the cacique, who by acts such as these expiated vicariously the sins
of his clan.
If the dictum of a wise man be justified, that “every man is to a
greater or less extent a dual personality,” the American Indian should
rank as the most evenly developed of all human creatures, since
duality is the essence of his being.
Chapter XV
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

The theatre of the world is the theatre of necromancy: and the gods are
the primaeval wonder-workers. The primitive religion of every
American Indian tribe is an organized system of inducing the
ancients to take part in the affairs of men and the worship of the
gods is a system designed to please the gods, that they may be
induced to act particularly for the tribe of men who are the
worshippers.—J. W. Powell.

If we are to attempt to understand the Pueblo Indian it becomes


necessary to preface our inquiry by a brief outline, however
superficial, of those general aspects of his religious belief and
practice which scholars have agreed to consider as part of the
common heritage of the race. In this Ácoma must inevitably share.
There is no manifestation of the Indian character more
extraordinary than his elaborate religious and ritual organization.
Fundamental to any real interpretation of Indian life, it is so
bewilderingly intricate and so elusive that we can here touch upon
only a few of the more definite aspects. No one not a master of this
subject can treat it briefly without doing it a certain violence. It is
impossible to say that the Indian in general believes this or that, for
while there are a few essential deities in his hierarchy that are
almost universally accepted, though varying somewhat in
nomenclature through the tribes, the differences are legion.[199]
Each nation presents its own galaxy of gods who must be separately
described to give a just impression of the whole. Wissler says there
is “nothing like the supreme over-ruling and personal being” such as
we name God, but that the Indian “seems rather to have formed
complex and abstract notions of a controlling power or series of
powers pervading the universe.”[200] Thrust into life, man finds
himself surrounded by potencies wholly beyond his control. These
powers, supernal or infernal, must therefore be propitiated, and if
man in his ignorance has offended, expiation must be offered and
endured. The commonest form of address used in prayers and
sacrifices is to “Those Above.” On the authority of a full-blooded
Dakota Indian (Ohiyesa),[201] well known by his American name of
Charles Alexander Eastman, we are told that the religion of his race
is the last thing a white man can hope to understand, for it is
something no Indian, still firm in his own faith, will ever talk about,
since he is convinced that neither it nor the ceremonies of its
celebration will be rightly interpreted.
Where all is so vague as to escape true analysis, the question
arises, why separate myth and religion? Are they not practically one
and inclusive? Alexander discusses this briefly and ably, and
concludes that with the Indian, as with all other peoples, it is
impossible to

identify religion with mythology. The two are intimately


related; every mythology is an effort to define a religion; and
yet there is no profound parallelism between god and hero,
no immutable relation between religious ceremony and
mythic tale. [To illustrate his meaning he affirms that] the
greatest of Indian mythic heroes, the Trickster-Transformer, is
nowhere important in ritual, while Father-Sky and Mother-
Earth are of rare appearance in tales.[202]

The race as a whole has been classed among the “sun


worshippers”[203] from their conviction that the sun is the highest
manifestation of nature, without which no living thing can thrive. As
their forefathers faced in silent adoration the golden globe coming
out of the nebulous dawn, or, from that high-placed kiva in the cliffs
of the Rito de los Frijoles, stood mute and motionless till it sank from
sight beyond the farthest reach of the eye, it was the omnipresent
spirit within the sun, but never the orb itself, to which they paid
reverence. Such a contemplative worship, with its touch of
orientalism, permits us to accept the appellation of “The Great
Mystery” as their idea of deity. In most tribes the spirits of the earth,
the sky, and water are nearly or quite equal to the sun. Below these,
whom we may call the Great Gods, who cannot descend to earth in
visible form, there is an infinite number of lesser deities—the half-
gods, and still further to complicate such a system every deity
possesses many attributes, and may at any time manifest himself
under any one of a great variety of forms. Among the lesser gods
are the thunder and lightning, the serpent, and the bird. Each of
these has his especial power and his appointed mission to perform.
He must therefore be individually appealed to in prayer, propitiated
by offerings at secret shrines of earth, or thanked at appropriate
seasons for benefits conferred upon weak humans, watchers of “this
ominous and treacherous world.”[204]
From such a composite hierarchy it is apparent that the popular
idea of “one Great Spirit” worshipped by the Indian race is a
romantic fancy, unless by it is meant Nature—Nature in all of her
manifestations of plants and animals, and rocks, and heavenly
bodies. The Indian belief, in fact, belongs to the system called
hecastotheism, the opposite extreme from monotheism, in which, to
quote Cushing,

all beings, whether deistic and supernatural, or animistic and


mortal, are regarded as belonging to one system; and that
they are believed to be related by blood seems to be
indicated by the fact that human beings are spoken of as “the
children of men,” while all other beings are referred to as “the
Fathers,” and “All-Fathers” and “Our Fathers.”[205]

It is the eternal contest between the material and the spiritual that
was to the Indian an omnipresent prepossession. Through the
powerful theocratic organization of the community in its social as
well as in its hieratic aspects, and by the songs and prayers of a
hoary antiquity, the whole year is a complex of ceremonies. This is
more especially the case in the maize-growing countries. From birth
to death the Indians were aware of mysterious environing forces,
some beautiful and fortune-bringing, others inimical and disastrous.
To the end that life should be made endurable, a large number of
esoteric organizations was everywhere established, each of which
employed a special ritual at an appointed time. Among the Keres,
there were originally four such priesthoods,[206] but the march of
modern ideas has gradually eliminated some of these in certain of
the villages. Highest of these groups were the Ya-Ya (mothers) to
which the caciques belonged; then came the medicine men, the
warriors, and the hunters.
Frazer points out that in the most primitive societies the practice
of magic was for individual gain, but that, as community life evolved,
it was employed for the benefit of the tribe. Sacrifice and prayer
were the means by which the gods, the personal agents of
elemental forces, were induced to bestow favors upon the whole
people. Consequently it signified a great advance in social progress
when a class of magic-practising men was set apart to bring
prosperity to their tribe, whether this was for the control of the
weather, and so indirectly for the increase of foods, or for the
healing of diseases.
Although everywhere these priests were given terrible power,
often ruthlessly exercised, they were,

take it all in all, productive of incalculable good to humanity.


They were the direct predecessors of our physicians and
surgeons, of our investigators and discoverers in every branch
of natural science.[207]

The entire highly complicated program as practised by the Pueblo


Indian may be summed up as a system of religious ideas which have
as their objective counterparts bundles of fetishes, which help to
serve the good of the clan, or fraternity, or community at large.
According to Kroeber, “Among the Pueblos each priest is the curator
of a sacred object or fetish, carefully bundled and preserved.” The
mere display of these objects upon an altar made of meal or sand is
a prayer to “those above.” The fetishes may not themselves be
thought of as divine, but they do represent something of the same
concept as does the crucifix above the High Altar of the Roman
church. And they have the direct quality, as medicine-objects, of
bringing succor to those in distress. To quote Kroeber once more:

It looks therefore as if the American priesthood had


originated in association with these two ceremonial traits of
the fetish bundle and the painted altar—both conspicuously
unknown in the Eastern hemisphere.[208]

There is scarcely any limit to the fetishes that exist, for they are
mediators between men and the deified animal or object which each
particular fetish represents, and they are therefore an essential
accompaniment of all dances, or other rites, also of all the supreme
events of life, such as birth, adolescence, and death. In the most
unlikely clefts of the mountain or in hidden spots of earth curious
little bundles are found that betoken the shrine of some fetish.[209]
Probably the oldest of all religious cults is the worship of the
serpent, so often curiously mingled with that of the sun, as, for
instance, in the pantheon of the Aztecs. In his “Origin of Civilization,”
Sir John Lubbock says that, “as an object of worship the serpent is
preëminent among ancients.”[210] Do we not also know that in that
period which the historian Gibbon calls the happiest and most
prosperous of the human race—the era of Marcus Aurelius—the
Romans sent every year a troop of young girls to feed a great
serpent asleep within a sacred cave, and that if any of the maidens
were impure the serpent did not eat and the harvest of that year
was a failure? How many visitors to the pueblos of the American
Indian comprehend the profound reason for the awe that underlies
the worship there of what is to the average white man an object of
repulsion if not of fear—the rattlesnake? Yet it is easy to understand
when explained. It has long been observed that the mysterious force
by which all things move, whether on earth, in the sky, or under the
sea, is regarded by the savage as so inexplicable that he believes it
to be controlled by unseen beings of superhuman power.
Consequently, the continuous movement of a serpent, whether slow
or swift, without any visible aid to locomotion, would strike the
primitive man as especially mysterious; add to this its power of
hypnosis, its immortality achieved through the annual shedding of its
skin, and lastly, a death-dealing sting, and we see reason enough
why savages should regard a creature, thus endowed with gifts he
has not, with such awe and fear as would lead to an intense desire
to propitiate the occult power. Given desire of sufficient intensity, it
may in itself become worship.
Various scholars have pointed out that not only is the zig-zag form
of lightning the natural sky symbol of the serpent, but that since
both may kill instantaneously when they strike, there is another
logical association of ideas between them.[211] The plumed serpent,
[212] Awanyu, was guardian of the waters, and had for his sky
emblem the rippling course of the Milky Way. Although the snake
ceremonial is thought of as chiefly a prayer for rain, it had an equally
intimate connection with the bestowal of health, reminding us of the
classic myth in which the symbol of Esculapius was a serpent.
If white visitors to the communal dances of any of the tribes, but
let us say particularly to the snake dances of Hopi-land, would only
recognize that this whole performance is an incantation or invocation
to the gods, giving thanks for the harvests of the year, and would
refrain from laughter and other unseemly expressions that are
sacrilege to the Indian, they would greatly help toward the mutual
good-will and understanding of the two races.
From the plumed serpent to the adoration of the bird is an easy
transition for the Indian mind. Do we not read in the wisdom of
Solomon: “There be three things which are too wonderful for me;
and the chief of these were the way of an eagle in the air, the way of
a serpent on a rock”? And in truth what is more enviable than a bird,
that, spurning the earth, may overtop the clouds, pouring out his
melody as he soars; or, like the eagle, proud, swift, and sudden, may
swoop to clutch his prey and be aloft again in the flash of a moment.
[213]

The Keres to which the Ácomas belong regard Sky Father—


synonymous with Sun Father—and Earth Mother as the great deities.
Haeberlein tells us the common Southwest concept is that the Earth
Mother while lying down is impregnated either by a sunbeam or a
drop of water. In either case rain must effect the union and the
fertilization. He calls the specific psychologic characteristic of Pueblo
culture the “idea of fertilization,” because all their ceremonies are
focused upon the production of fertility for the fields. He further
maintains that this psychologic aspect cannot be disposed of as an
independent element, nor as a mere accessory, but that “it is at
every point in time, and space, inherently associated with the
historical side”;[214] that is, it has entered materially into every new
idea or form of worship that developed in their midst.
Lakes and springs are more or less consciously identified by the
Keres with Si-pa-pu, the place of exit from the underworld, where
the Earth Goddess gave birth to the clans of men. Hence such water
is the most direct path of communication with the gods of
fertilization, of which a water monster is the symbol. The Keres
believe that the Twin war gods received from the Sun Father bows,
arrows, and lightning-bolts as weapons; in the ceremony the
lightning is not a death-dealing weapon of war, but only a bringer of
rain. Here we have a concrete illustration of that duality which is so
characteristic of the Indian and often so puzzling to the white
observer. Kroeber considers it in part, at any rate, a deliberate
repetition connected with a tendency toward exacting elaboration of
ceremonial. The idea here is that when the Twins meet, the clouds
cause rain to fall. Hence the war captain and his lieutenant always
impersonate the Twins. There are significant secondary psychologic
associations illustrated by these dual concepts, for these gods are at
the same time deities of war and of fertilization. In one game we
find netted wheels to symbolize the war shields of the Twins, which
were spun from clouds. The Hopi women, on the other hand, play
the Dart and Wheel game as the magic of fertilization. Here is
another illustration of the universal belief in magic power, which
human activity of the right sort may influence in order that the life of
man may be safeguarded and led forward to a desired goal.
The K’at’sina, who impersonate the gods in the masked dances,
were, according to Keres ideas, created in the underworld by Utset,
an earth goddess. She sent them to live in the west, which is
therefore their traditional home. They are variously described as
rain-makers, as deified spirits of ancestors, or, as one writer calls
them, as “a heterogeneous crowd.”
Goddard says of the K’at’sina that in them we have one of the
most outstanding features of the ceremonial and religious life of the
Southwest:

They are a logical and almost necessary adjunct to any


serious attempt at dramatization by a people who are
accustomed to think and to represent feelings and concepts
by means of symbols. To the initiated they vicariously
represent gods, and are for the time being endowed with the
supernatural nature and power of the gods. To uninitiated
children, and to many women, these masked men are the
actual gods.[215]

Enough has been said to show that symbolism plays a large rôle in
Indian beliefs and in daily life.
Among the most sacred symbols of the Indians was the number
four, undoubtedly derived from the four cardinal points, which, like
most of the primitives, the aborigine in his wanderings identified
with the daily journey of the heavenly bodies; and with the winds,
which were the spirits of the cardinal points that brought about
changes of weather and of seasons. The amazing extent of the
application of this sacred four is beyond the scope of this work, but
a few examples will illustrate the astonishing variety of its use:

1. There are four houses, or stages of emergence, for all


living things from nothingness into the world of sense.
2. There are four primordial creators of life.
3. Four festivals are annually celebrated, at each of which
four priests officiate.
4. Four times each day are prayers offered to the gods.
5. After a birth, the mother lies in for four days.
6. To each of the four cardinal points an arrow is shot at
baptism.
7. For four days after a death, food is placed upon the
graves.
8. Mourning lasts from four days to four weeks or even four
years.[216]

All the first missionaries who came out to New Mexico with the
Conquistadores were of the Franciscan order. Very keen were these
ardent apostles to watch the native mind, and to make use of every
point of approach or community of idea that would help the savage
to grasp the new religion they offered him. One of the first aids
undoubtedly toward this end was their recognition of certain
emblems or totems that they found in Indian villages, which bore
some resemblance to Christian symbols. In this they were but
following the example set them by the earliest of their faith, who
took over as far as possible pagan characters, such as we may see in
the Roman catacombs. May we not believe that, as they found
among the barbarians symbols such as the cross, or a ritual of
sprinkling and of head-washing somewhat akin to Christian baptism,
through which initial links of understanding could be established
between them and the Indians, so they must soon have perceived
that in the Canticle of the Sun, given them by their founder, Saint
Francis, there was another possibility of mental approach, deeper
and more embracing than any other? The Canticle does not indeed
proclaim the “worship of all creatures,” but its communion with all
elemental life surely forged a bond between them and the aborigine,
which made the Indian more willing to listen to this new religion,
and which aided the priests in forcing upon them its acceptance:

Praised be my Lord with all his creatures and specially Our


brother, the Sun, who brings us the day. He signifies to us
Thee! and—for our sister the Moon ... for our brother the
Wind, and for Air and Cloud. And for our sister Water who is
very serviceable unto us, and precious and clear.... And for
our brother Fire. And for our Mother, the Earth, the which
doth sustain us and keep us and bringeth forth divers fruits
and flowers of many colours, and grass.

Mrs. Nuttall, after long years of study, concludes that the


constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor were a guiding principle
of the Aztec calendar and furnished the archetype of the varied
forms of the swastika and of the cross symbol.[217] She gives 4000
b.c. as an approximate date for the first use of this symbol. Certainly
the swastika forms a favorite design for amulets, and for the
decoration of baskets and pottery, among the Pueblo artists, and
since it is agreed that nearly every ornament has its symbolic
purpose, have we not here perhaps one more point of contact? At all
events, the cross unquestionably existed in America for a very long
time before the coming of the “men with faces white like snow who
came in wooden houses with wings.” Did not Castañeda write, upon
finding some cross-shaped prayer-sticks, “in some way the Indians
must have received light from our Redeemer Christ”? In fact the
padres found the cross below our Rock of Ácoma as well as
elsewhere, and questioned whether it could be due to “the pious
labors of St. Thomas or to the sacrilegious subtlety of Satan.”
However they settled so obscure a problem, the Indian familiarity
with the cross symbol—something both races held in reverence—
undoubtedly helped the Franciscans to spread their gospel of the
cross of Christ.
It is interesting to recall that the rosary and the double cross date
in the Indian country from Espéjo’s time (1582) when he forced the
natives to wear it as a token of allegiance to Spain and to the
Roman church.
John G. Bourke says in 1884 that at Santo Domingo

the Indians were chanting the rosary in a manner so strange


and so thoroughly Indian that he was convinced he was
listening to original music antedating the introduction of
Christianity, which the Spanish padres had quietly allowed to
be fused with their own ritual, simply changing the
application.

Another example of such “application” is the rule that everyone must


be signed with a cross of ashes on Ash Wednesday, according to the
practice of the Roman church.
So interwoven with real religion are fear and superstition in the
mind of aboriginal man that we find everywhere in primitive society
a belief in witchcraft. It is then a safe clue toward an understanding
of many unusual things which the observant visitor sees in New
Mexico.
Witches are mischievous beings, doing ill to their neighbors in
pure wantonness of mood, for little or no reason. Since this is so,
there is no outward characteristic that distinguishes a witch, and we
are told that part of the aloofness and also of the courtesy shown
strangers is because anyone may prove capable of doing the
household an injury. Father Dumarest writes:

To understand the fear Indians have of witches we must


realize that they believe witches to be a race apart, men like

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