An Essay on "A Zuni View of Nature"

Pandey, Tirloki Nath. "The Zuni View of Nature." Man in Nature. Ed. Baidyanath Saraswati. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 1995. 21 Sep. 2006 .

Tirloki Nath Pandey, author of "The Zuni View of Nature," is a social anthropologist who spent five years living among the Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo tribes of the American southwest. After immersing himself in the life and culture of the Zuni people, Pandey considered the literature that was previously written on Zuni culture, both reevaluating old beliefs and bringing to life new perspectives concerning the lives of the Zuni people. In "The Zuni View of Nature," Pandey argues that the Zuni people believe in predestination, a belief that results in a "strict social order", a "sense of man's oneness with the universe", and a "special sense of time" (1-4)[1].

Zuni religious beliefs and rituals are largely based on the worship of their ancestors. Zuni priests are believed to derive their power from the ancestors present in "Talk Concerning the First Beginning." The Sun Priest, the "most revered and holy man" (Pandey 3) of the Zuni, derives his power directly from the Sun God. Below him, there are the priests of the four principal directions who are regarded as the Sun Priest's "younger brothers and spokesmen" (3). Then, there are the Bow Priests, "the earthly representatives of the mythical twin War Gods," (3) who are responsible for protecting the Zuni from their enemies. Finally, there are the Kachina Priests who rule the Kachina Village. Zuni priests are at the top of the social hierarchy because of their connections to their respective ancestors, and, therefore, they have the responsibility of praying to those specific ancestors while ordinary people pray to "ancestors in general" (2).