The Public Is Invited to Our October 16 Special Presentation!
09/23/2019
The Grant County Archaeological Society is excited to welcome the general public as well as all GCAS members to our next meeting on Wednesday evening, October 16, 2019, at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico, to hear a special presentation on "Katsinam, Clouds, and Kivas: Evidence of the Origins of Katsinam Culture." This presentation is FREE.
Our General Meeting begins at 6:00 PM. The public is invited to attend our meeting as well as the presentation that follows. Light refreshments provided. Our featured speakers are Ramson Lomatewama (Hopi Third Mesa; Katsina father and multimedia artist), and Leon Natker (archaeologist and executive director of the Mesa Historical Museum, AZ). To introduce their topic, Ramson and Leon explain that:
"Katsinam are an iconic symbol of the Native American southwest, but research on the genesis of the ceremonial practice, sometimes referred to as the Katsina cult, has been elusive. Earlier researchers, often using theoretical constructs based in colonialism, hypothesized it was an import, possibly from as far away as the valley of Mexico. In this paper we review earlier research on the origin of the Katsina culture, taking into account the theoretical constructs and assumptions earlier researchers used. We review more recent research that explores imagery of ceramics, rock art, and kiva murals, and the movement of trade goods containing these images, coupled with a more inclusive view of Puebloan epistemologies and oral history. Finally, we use this evidence to support the hypothesis that the Katsina culture is an indigenous part of the Ancestral Puebloan Southwest which dates back at least as far as the Pueblo II period, and that our conception of the Puebloan world needs to be expanded exponentially in order to fully explore the ancestral roots of Katsinam and Puebloan ritual practices."
Please join us on October 16 for a fascinating discussion. If questions or for further information about the meeting time and location, contact the GCAS by emailing webmaster@gcasnm.org. Finally, watch this space for future posts on these two multitalented individuals!
/s/ webmaster [Left photo by Christine Szuter via Facebook; right photo via Leon Natker.]
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