Who Were the Hohokam? The Evidence from Pima-Papago Myths

Abstract

A corpus of thirteen Pima-Papago myths is examined for historical evidence concerning the prehistoric Hohokam peoples in southern Arizona and concerning the origin of the Buzzard moiety among Pimans. It is suggested that most myths involving the Hohokam express a death and rebirth ideology which may have been influenced by any of four sources, including diffusion from central Mexico, an actual Hohokam conquest, Spanish expeditions in search of Cibola, and the ghost dance movement. This paper compares Pima and Papago myths on three issues: a flood, the fate of a people called the Hohokam, and the origin of moieties. The myths differ. For example, some say that the flood reached to within a few inches of the sky while others say it barely wet the ground; some say the Hohokam were conquered by the ancestors of today's Pimas and Papagos while in others the Hohokam were the ancestors and the conquerors were Spaniards; the moieties are said by some to have been present when the ancestors of today's Indians emerged from the underworld while other myths say the moieties originated in a conquest. It has recently been suggested that one version out of the several to be discussed here tells a story which really happened. This version states that the Hohokam were conquered by people who had been living to the east of them and that the conquerors incorporated the Hohokam as a moiety. Patrilineal descendants of the Hohokam are members of the Buzzard moiety among today's Pimas and Papagos and patrilineal descendants of the conquerors are members of the Coyote moiety. The events probably happened in the fifteenth century, or three hundred years before the first European settlement in the area (Hayden 1970). No archaeological evidence bearing on those specific events has been found.