The Hopi Kachina (or Katsina as it is also commonly known by non-Hopi) are small figurines that are representations of a Katsina. Specifically, they are carvings of Hopi men dressed as a katsina as they can be seen during religious ceremonies and dances. In Hopi cultures the Katsinam are akin to spirits. The spirits can sometimes be deity like figures that control the natural world, based on a certain animal or actual spirits of hero-ancestors. There are specific rituals and religious ceremonies where the tithu (the Hopi term for the figurines) are generally given from Hopi men who carved them to young family member Hopi women.

 

In my research I found that the history of the tithu/Kachina doll is actually relatively short and has had some major changes throughout time. I won’t get into much that happened in the past but what I will say is that following the harmful ethnocentric policies imposed on the Hopi people as the United States began expanding westward, the Hopi began selling tithu to non-Hopi people. In the 1900s Hopi artists began using the tithu tradition/style of carving to create Kachina Dolls. The Kachina Dolls were never made for the purpose of religious use, rather they were always intended to be sold. Artists also began then adding their own artistic styles to the dolls. Starting in the 1950s two new styles started becoming more widely used. The first was the use of more vibrant colors and the second was the dolls began to look like they were in action/in the middle of movement.

 

I believe the interesting thing about this Kachina doll is that is exactly that, it’s a Kachina Doll, not a tithu. Considering the colors, materials used, and the dolls stance, I believe that it is contemporary in origin. Furthermore, looking over the records in the museum, there isn’t too much about the doll except the small description line that it was made FOR the donators. Both of these things clue me to thinking that it is not a tithu, rather a Kachina Doll.

 

This made me start considering the term I use to discuss the doll. What does it mean for an object to be a specimen versus an artifact (which is generally what one would consider objects in a museum to be). What I realized is that the designation may feel arbitrary or inconsequential, but the difference between an specimen versus and artifact is incredibly indicative of what the object actually is, where it comes from and what it means. If a museum’s purpose is to show visitors objects to spread and preserve the information about the object, the reality of what the object truly is the most important thing to display.