Note 6 — INTRODUCTION

It would be interesting to know what relationship exists between abbreviated and elaborate Katcinas. Are the former, for instance, remnants of more complicated presentations in which the secret elements have been dropped in the course of time? Were they formerly more complicated, or are they in lower stages of evolution, gathering episodes which if left alone would finally make them more complex? I incline to the belief that the abbreviated Katcinas are remnants, and their reduction due to practical reasons. In a general way the word Katcina may be translated “soul” or “deified ancestor,” and in this respect affords most valuable data to the upholders of the animistic theory. But there are other elements in Tusayan mythology which are not animistic. As Mogk has well shown in Teutonic mythology, nature elements and the great gods are original, so among the Hopi the nature elements are not identified with remote ancestors, nor is there evidence that their worship was derivative. As Saussaye remarks, “Animism is always and everywhere mixed up with religion; it is never and nowhere the whole of religion.”