Kachinas buy Emerging From Kiva

This turned Black Walnut bowl represents the Kiva, the center of the religious and ceremonial life of the Pueblo People. The Kiva is typically a single room, wholly or partly subterranean, that is entered by way of ladder through an opening in the flat roof.

The Kachina dolls, seen here emerging from the Kiva, are not gods, but the symbolic representations, in human form, of buy the Pueblo People's spirits of plants, animals, birds, places or ancestors. There are spirits for the earth, the sky, the sun, the clouds, the birds, the animals. The major concerns dealt with by Kachinas are rain, fertility, rich harvest, good health, long life, and to achieve balance and harmony in nature

In Hopi beliefs, as Kachina spirits emerge from the Kivas they adopt human form living in the midst of the Hopis for about six months of each year. They appear in December, around the time of the Winter Solstice, increasing their number during the ceremonial season of February, and in July return to their spirit world.

Note: There are two small cracks on wall of the Kiva, attesting to its antiquity!