THE PAPAGO HARVEST FESTIVAL BY J. ALDEN MASON
THE religious ceremonies of the sedentary pueblo peoples of the American Southwest are comparatively well known, 1 and considerable has been written on the ceremonies of the nomadic Athapascan tribes. 2 To the south the religions of the Cora 3 and Huichol 4 have been carefully studied and, to a less ex- tent, those of the Tepehuane and Tarahumare. 5 But of the religious practices of the Piman groups in the region between, practically nothing is known, and it has been generally supposed that religious symbolism and ceremony were almost nonexistent among these groups. It' is probably true that they are far less highly developed than among the before-named groups to north and south, but there is, nevertheless, a considerable body of religious practice as yet unknown to the ethnologist. In his voluminous work on the Pima Indians 6 Russell hardly touches upon the religious ideas and gives only one page to "festivals," mentioning the spring sahuaro festi- vals to celebrate the making of sahuaro wine, and the "Name Song" festival. Nevertheless it seems almost impossible that the Pima should not have some harvest ceremony analogous to the Papago Vigita.
1 The list of authorities on the religious ceremonialism of the Pueblo peoples con- tains the names of the majority of American anthropologists. Among the most im- portant may be named A. F. Bandelier, J. G. Bourke, F. H. Gushing, G. A. Dorsey, J. W. Fewkes, P. E. Goddard, F. W. Hodge, Walter Hough, G. W. James, Washington Matthews, E. C. Parsons, J. W. Powell, James Stevenson, M. C. Stevenson, and H. R. Voth. A compact bibliography of their works may be found in A Bibliography of Arizona, compiled by Hector Alliot, Los Angeles, 1914.
2 Cf. supra, particularly J. G. Bourke and Washington Matthews.
3 K. T. Preuss, Die Religion der Cora Indianer, Leipzic, 1912.
4 Carl Lumholtz, "Symbolism of the Huichol Indians," Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. in, New York, 1900. "Conventionalism in Design of the Huichol Indians," ibid.
5 Carl Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, New York, 1902. Also minor articles men- tioned in bibliography there.
6 Frank Russell, "The Pima Indians," Twenty-sixth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington, 1908.
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