Religous Expression
Villages along the Klamath River and its tributaries were linked by a cyclical ritual system referred to by anthropologists as "World Renewal." The cycle consisted of about a dozen ceremonies held every year and encompassed a wide range of ritual performances including the White Deerskin and Jump Dances, which, among other things, afforded opportunities for wealth display and costuming. They also included various first-fruits ceremonies tied to a ceremonial calendar and specific locations. These elaborate rituals were intended to maintain the positive attributes of the natural world in which these people lived and to ensure a continuation of the earth's resources.
Although each ceremony was different from any of the others, and there were many local variations of ceremonial details, all included two parts: an esoteric or secret part followed by a public performance of one or both of two distinctive rituals, the Jump Dance and the White Deerskin Dance, preceded esoteric or secret rites. In the secret part, a kind of priest or ritualist visited sacred sites and recited long formulas about the first performance of the ceremony by a member of an ancient, prehuman, half-spirit race, and its immediate beneficial effect. The recitation demonstrated the efficacy of the first and therefore of the current performance.
Following the secret rites, the dancing began and went on every day for up to ten days or more. The dance regalia, songs, and steps were standardized by custom and the all-male dancers displayed wealth items in front on the audience. As the days went by, the sponsors of the dance handed out more and more of their own and their friends' valuables for their dancers to wear. Dancers in the White Deerskin dance wore regalia of deerhide or civet cat kilts, masses of dentalia necklaces, and wolf-fur bands around their forehead, while bright woodpecker scalps decorated the heads. They also carried poles with stuffed deer heads mounted at the end and white or light deerskins draped below. The Jump Dance regalia also was elaborate: a headdress consisting of fifty large woodpecker scalps attached to a forehead band, topped with long white feathers, along with heavy strings of dentalia draped around a dancer's neck and a deerskin robe around his hips.
Other, less elaborate observances, also were held . Among the Hupa an Acorn Feast was celebrated in the autumn when the nuts began to fall from tan oaks while a First Salmon ceremony took place when the spring run of fish began. The acorns or salmon were obtained and ritually cooked, various prayers were spoken and sacred acts performed. Until these procedures were completed, no one ate the food. Such ceremonies sanctified the first eating of acorns and salmon, and thus served to insure a continuing supply of the two foods upon which Hupa livelihood rested. The first eel taken in the spring received similar treatment.
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Page last updated: 23 August 1999