Research Items

Abstract

Folk-Tales of the Cochita, New Mexico.—A collection of tales told among the Cochita Indians of New Mexico, collected by Ruth Benedict, is published as Bulletin 98 of the Bureau of American Ethnology. As the tales were recorded in a house open to all, they form a selected group; for there is a taboo against telling certain tales to whites, just as there is a taboo against whites seeing masked dances or dancers. The tales fall into certain classes, such as stories of the katcinas, hero tales, true stories, and the like. Some are obviously of European origin; but the great majority are fictional. Under the influence of the study of the European folk-tale, which is obsolete, the significance of the fictional story among primitive peoples is often overlooked. The fictional story, notwithstanding its imaginative character, deals with incidents, situations, and problems which are real in the culture of the people. Among the katcina stories, that of the quarrel between two sisters is the origin story of the Cochita; but owing to the prejudice against telling it to the whites, only the culminating incident is given. In the hero tales, the heroes are insignificant, poverty-stricken, and ridiculed boys who are successful in overcoming their enemies and mockers. The Twin Heroes, the protectors of the helpless and the institutors of custom, are mischievous and irresponsible; the Arrow Boy does not hunt and spends all his time courting girls; the Poker Boy is ugly and untidy, and so forth. Montezuma, though a mythological culture hero, is ridiculed as a half-wit. The novelistic tales are fictional versions of Pueblo life, excepting in two respects, one difference being a contest over food stores, the other, marriage to multiple wives, polygamy being absent both in the old culture of the Cochita and at the present time under Roman Catholic teaching. Throughout the stories, the initiative and independence of the women is strongly marked.