Hopi Religion Essay

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Hakiy hikwsi'at qatungwuyat ang yamakngwu means “Your breath passes from your body.” Hikwsi or “breath” also translates to “life” in the Hopi language (Glowaka 23:2). Pay itam put quatungwayat.sa amya means “We buried only his body.” Qutungwu translates to “a corpse” or “lifeless body” (Glowaka 23:2). The Hopi believe that when the body dies, the person’s hikwsi will transcend. The process of transcendence is called aniwti, which means “to continue to be perfected after death” or “to mature”. The hikwsi of a deceased person appears in the tangible world as clouds, rain, or katsinam – kachina dolls. The Hopi have an immense amount of respect and spiritual affection for the earth and all that inhabits it. The Hopi embrace peace and cooperation and their religion strives to live within the sacred balance of life. From their ceremonial dances and rituals to their burial processes, the Hopi live a beautiful and spiritually balanced life. Their peaceful nature is even evident in their name – Hopi, which is a contraction from Hópitu, meaning “peaceful ones” (Silas 1). The Hopi reservation consumes over 1.5 million acres of land in Northeast Arizona. The reservation consists of four mesas, First Mesa, Second Mesa, Third Mesa, and the huge Black Mesa. The First, Second, and Third mesas shoot out from the Black Mesa like fingers and it is in these three mesas where the Hopi villages reside. Altogether there are 8 villages between the mesas. Their climate is dry and warm with little precipitation. In the summer the average high temperature is 87 degrees Fahrenheit, while in the winter the average low temperature is 18 degrees Fahrenheit. An average of 30 inches of rain per summer and hardly any rain per winter, which is why they spend a great deal of time in religious ceremonies praying for precipitation. The Hopi are farmers by nature and they practice “dry

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