Kachina Dolls: A Sociological Case Study of Material and Non-Material Culture

Barbara Prillaman

Introduction

“The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.”1

Ralph Linton (1936)

Standing on the edge of the altiplano in the Ecuadorian Andes Mountains, I looked down over the valley, the green and brown patchwork resembled a hand-made quilt. Pieces sewn together, of different hues: lime, forest, moss, kelly, coffee, bronze, russet, and chocolate all blending together. To see the beauty of this land from above is a true gift, I thought. How majestic, how so not like the sea-level ground of Delaware. My friend, Jorge, had hiked up to this area with me. He, a native of the small town, Fernandez Salvador, where I was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), was an “old soul”. We could see the town in the far distance below, the houses small specks of white on the greens and browns. When I said, “No hay nada igual a esta hermosa vista.” Roughly translated it means something like there is nothing as beautiful as this view. He said something that resonates still with me today. His response was “Si, pero que pena que la gente no pueda apreciar la belleza por enfocar en sobrevivir.” Meaning, yes, but how sad that the townspeople cannot appreciate it as they are only trying to survive. That is when I looked beyond the beauty I saw and recognized that the patchwork demonstrated the tedious, hard, and ritualistic work of the lives stitched into the terrain. When I think of culture, I always come back to that moment. To me, it is one of those things, if you want to really get deep into it, is while you are immersed in a different situation, country, or culture, it seems easier to be aware of “culture’s pervasive influence on all aspects of a person’s life. Attaining the same level of awareness regarding our own culture, however, is quite another matter.”2 We take our own culture for granted because it tends to become mundane and ordinary just like the fish doesn’t see the water in which it is swimming.

Rationale

When I participated in the seminar, Culture: A Total Way of Life, a few cycles back, I thought I would create a unit that aligned with the title for my students. However, that original idea led to a case study of the Amish Rumspringa and a correlation to the socialization portion of the sociology course focusing on rites of passage. So, although there was a strong connection to culture, there was no true dissection of the concept. Using the example of the Hopis’ Kachinas will allow me to help my students to (1) learn about a marginalized peoples’ culture as well as (2) delve into the concepts of material and non-material culture as it pertains to the discipline of sociology. enable me to focus specifically on the components of culture -material and non-material as well as enable us to delve into who determines how a culture is expressed or suppressed as in the American Indians case.

School Setting

Conrad Schools of Science (CSS) is a science/biotechnology magnet school serving almost 1300 students in grades 6 – 12.3 It is considered an urban school, situated on the outskirts of the most populated city in the state of Delaware, Wilmington, which is well known for its’ violence rates. CSS students come from all over our state’s largest county, New Castle. At the high school level, students can choose to focus on a variety of learning “strands” such as biotechnology, physical therapy/athletic healthcare, biomedical science, animal science, and computer science. Our high school is the only one in the state that is not a vocational-technology school to offer a Delaware Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program.

Additionally, a variety of Advanced Placement (AP) courses are offered as well as multiple courses that are in conjunction with our local community college and university. I am the teacher of one of these courses, Sociology. This will be the tenth year that I am teaching this dual-enrollment course in which students (usually seniors) are enrolled at the local community college and receive credit from that institution upon successful completion of the course with me on the high school campus.

Learning Objectives

There are a number of Delaware Technical Community College Wide Core Course (CCC) Performance Objectives that I am mandated to follow as I plan my units of instruction.4 In this unit I will be using one of them: Discuss culture – both material and nonmaterial – and cultural diversity. In doing so, using the Hopi Kachinas as a case study, students will be able to distinguish the material component of the art of the making of the dolls and non-material component of the meaning behind not only the dolls but the concept of Kachinas – the origin, history, and significance of them for the Hopi. This will tie nicely into the broader aspect of culture when we then get to the Amish Rumspringa/Socialization unit as well as a later unit on religion in which the concepts of profane and sacred are discussed. Students will extend their thinking and understanding to include the ideas of cultural diffusion and containment/control of culture as related to the indigenous peoples in our country. Additionally, the unit will address the Common Core Standard (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7) in which students will: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem. I believe this question or problem could focus on the idea of looking at the complexity of culture – the diffusion and control of a culture, who determines or who is allowed to determine their own culture, and how does a people keep a culture “alive”?

Students will be participating in a variety of activities to learn about this standard. These will include reading different texts (historical and tales), and viewing videos of the artists creating the dolls. In this new learning environment and with the hybrid model we will be moving to, I see this as more of an asynchronous mini-unit/or in reality an introductory lesson. Some of these multi-modal texts will be mandatory (e.g. historical and sociological information) while others will be choice-based. The main goal is that students will be able to describe material and non-material culture at a deeper level and apply these ideas to their own lives. Additionally, they will develop an appreciation for the richness of the Hopi Indians -of which most likely they know

nothing. Lastly, they will build a foundation for their subsequent learning of the sociological concepts of socialization process and religion.

Enduring Understandings are the big are the big ideas of this curriculum unit and are taken from the Core Concepts of our mandated textbook’s chapter on Culture. Students will understand that culture is a complex term often contradicting itself although a basic definition could be termed as the total way of life of people. They will also learn that culture consists of material and nonmaterial components. Sociologists are especially interested in the meanings behind these components; people borrow material and nonmaterial culture from other societies through a process that sociologists refer to as cultural diffusion; and people also try to monitor others’ culture through various means.

Additionally, as I create a unit, I always keep in mind that our district and state also support the Common Core Standards. I believe the use of a case study will not only help to meet the Sociology Standards, but also the History/Social Studies Common Core Standard for Key Ideas and Details: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.5 Students will read and view a variety of texts and Kachina models to analyze their own interpretations of culture – both material and non-material. They will compare this to their own life examples. I am thinking that this curriculum unit will be divided into three parts: (1) and (2) defining the cultural components of culture – material and non-material and having the students relate these terms to their own lives, (3) a focus the investigation of the material and non-material components of culture as they pertain to the Hopi Kachinas.

These understandings lead to Essential Questions that guide students throughout this unit of each of our sessions. These questions are those that students will investigate as we better understand the idea of Kachinas and Kachina Dolls as examples of non-material and material culture. These will be paired up with the Learning Targets above and include: What is culture?, What are the components of culture (material and non-material)?, How does it relate to my life? What are some examples of the components of material and non-material culture from my life?, How is a Kachina a representation of the material and non-material components of culture of the Hopi Indians?, How are a Kachinas an example of resisting, persisting, and reviving the indigenous cultures?

Content Objectives

Culture

For sociologists, there are three conceptual challenges when it comes to culture: describing it, determining who belongs to a particular cultural group, and identifying distinguishing characteristics to indicate how cultures are set apart from one another. So, the difficulty begins with defining it. I have seen this when students explain what culture is – even at the high school level, they refer mostly to the material aspects. They can say food, clothing, sometimes they mention language as part of a person’s culture when questioned. They do not always state the non-material components such as beliefs, values, norms, and symbols. These are items which

they do not see and take for granted. Yet, these are essential to the understanding of people’s way of life. In fact, sociologists term this “culture within us.”6 “Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us.”7 For the purpose of this unit, we will define culture as “the way of life of a people; more specifically, the human-created strategies for adjusting to their surroundings and to those creatures (including humans) that are part of those surroundings.”8 –

An important part to understanding culture is that it is learned; transmitted from one generation to another where young people learn customs, habits, and attitudes informally through their primary agents – interactions with parents, friends, and the media as well as formally through schools, workplaces, and community organizations. As culture is shared, it helps to create a sense of belonging. This is actually part of the socialization process and will be part of the next unit students look at in detail about the Amish Rumspringa. Culture is also adaptive and changes over time. Most of the students have had exposure to this idea from our psychology class when we look at clinical psychology and defining behavior. To demonstrate the point our sociology textbook uses examples such as attitudes regarding premarital sex and how we record information from the typewriter to the iPad or laptop today.9

Material Culture

This unit focuses on material versus non-material culture. “Material culture consists of all the natural and human-created objects to which people have attached meaning. Examples of material culture include plants, trees, minerals or ores, dogs, cars, trucks, microwave ovens, computers, video cameras, and iPhones, amongst others. Students will be able to look around them and come up with multiple examples and be able to explain the meaning behind them (for themselves). When sociologists think about material culture, they consider its most obvious and practical uses and the meanings assigned by the people who use it.”10 “Learning the meanings that people assign to material culture helps sociologists grasp the significance of those objects in people’s lives.” This is the part in which I want students to be able to delve deeper into their general understandings. I believe this will also help them to better see their own culture – being able to see with more clarity what is less obvious. Sociologists would look at items such as those we use in a bathroom – shampoo, soap, shower stalls – those that are familiar to the American culture and the privacy behind these types of bathroom rituals. However, in other cultures, such as Korea, these self-care items could also be associated with public bathhouses.11 To understand that the same types of items are used differently, given different meanings better explain a culture and the people. Additionally, sociologists would “consider the ways material culture shapes social relationships.”12 Thinking back to the showering rituals will help students to develop a more comprehensive view of what may be different is not so foreign or alien to them nor is it wrong. It is not a matter of black and white but one of understanding.

Non-Material Culture

In the unit that follows this one about the Amish Rumspringa we focus more on the nonmaterial culture that is connected to the socialization process. Conley describes non-material culture as

“the sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practices; everything but the natural environment around us.”13

It is the non-physical creations that cannot be seen or held (not physical objects) that include shared sets of meanings which people in the society interpret and understand the world. These include beliefs, values, norms, symbols, and language. Beliefs are “conceptions that people accept as true regarding how the world operates and where the individual fits in relationship to others.”14 Values are widely shared standards by which those in the society determine what is bad and good, proper or improper, just or unjust. These indicate general guidelines for the population. Examples such as freedom and equality, achievement and success, amongst others. “A group’s way of thinking and doing (common patterns of assumptions of the world, behavior, including language, gestures, and other forms of interactions.”15 Norms are divided into two categories: folkways and mores. Folkways are the type of norms that apply to the mundane of the everyday life – and, if broken, it is not so much a critical issue. Examples include waiting for all people at a table to be served before eating, waiting in line, taking turns at a four-way stop sign. Mores are considered extremely important and vital to the functioning of a society because they help to ensure moral and ethical behavior that in turn maintains order. Being sexually faithful to one’s spouse, not committing murder, not being nude in public are those that our cultural deem important. Seminar Leader, Joyce comments that “the Kachina religion falls into this category.” This is where one can see that non-material and material culture influence one another. Meaning that the Kachina dolls (material culture example) are used to teach youngsters about how to act, how to live (non-material culture example). This is extended to the Kachina clowns in their demonstrations of acts of how not to live. Symbols are also a part of nonmaterial culture. A symbol is anything that stands for something else based on a shared meaning for people of a culture. These could include a handshake to symbolize friendship or courtesy, a wedding ring to show that the partners are “off the market”, and a red rose indicating love. These can change over time as well as unify or divide a culture such as with the American flag versus the Confederate flag. The most powerful of all symbols is language. It is a shared set of symbols that allow for individuals within a culture to communicate with one another. It helps them to influence one another, allow us to understand each other, directs our thinking, shapes our emotions, and promotes a sense of belonging.16 All of these sub-categories of non-material culture still demonstrate the fact that all of this centers around the meanings that are constructed by people – what meanings are attached to these thoughts and behaviors.

Again, as alluded to previously, “A relationship exists between nonmaterial culture and material culture, and that can take many forms. When someone conjures up a concept like a portable computer, such an invention flows directly from an idea into a material good. Other times, however, it is technology that generates ideas and concepts, values and beliefs. Before phones with cameras and apps such as Instagram, the word selfie did not exist, and before selfies there were no selfie sticks.”17 Having students connect these two will prove interesting! Stories are also part of non-material and material culture. The words and expressions of a story about the Kachinas are part of the values, beliefs of the Hopi demonstrating their importance. While the manifestations of costumes and dolls are representative of the material component of their culture – the visible component to share with their future generations and others.

Hopi Concept of Time

Language is an important part of culture. According to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in linguistics, “the language we speak directly influences (and reflects) the way we think about and experience the world. On a more concrete level, if you speak another language, you understand how certain meanings can become lost in translation – you can’t always say exactly what you want.”18 I found this to be true when I was serving in the Peace Corps. Something had happened in my town and I wanted to explain that I felt sick - not physically like with the flu but horrible about what had happened. I realized that there was no direct translation for that feeling in Spanish. Whorf explained how it was “uneuropean for how the Hopi handled time. There are no words for time, no time line, no spatial metaphors, no tenses - past, present, future.”19 But, although there are differences, the Hopi view it differently by thinking of “time is cycles, rituals, mental preparation for key events – above all they have no objective time.”20 Sapir, in The Status of Linguistics as a Science, writes, “different societies live in distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels.” “The Hopi language frames the way in which the Hopi talk about their universe.”21

Kachinas

When explaining about Kachinas to students, I think it is going to be best to start off with an “official” definition. The definition contains three portions to reflect the many meanings of what they are and what they represent to the Hopi culture. According to ------, Kachinas are defined as “1 : one of the deified ancestral spirits believed among the Hopi and other Pueblo Indians to visit the pueblos at intervals. 2 : one of the elaborately masked kachina impersonators that dance at agricultural ceremonies. 3 : a doll representing a kachina.”22 As we move through this portion of the unit, some of the questions to pose with my students include: Who are Kachinas? Where did they come from, and why did they come to Hopi and others? Where do they live now, when do they return to the Pueblos and mesas? What role do they play in Hopi soci3ty? How is this different than how non-Hopis view them? Kachina dancers become Kachinas – how is this possible?

I want to begin with the Origin story so that students can have a framework to move forward to understand that Kachinas are multi-faceted and not just one thing. The Hopi and Kachina came from the underworld to what is now known as northern Arizona. The Kachinas went on to the San Francisco Mountains.23 After a time, the Kachinas left the humans because they became indifferent toward them and were no longer respectful. Despite this division, the Kachinas chose a few people who could make masks, costumes, and dance – to sustain the rituals24. They serve important roles such as being intermediaries between the world and the unseen world, bring rain and bless drops, change children’s bad behavior, and “ensure physical and spiritual well-being of their followers.”25 As Seminar Leader Joyce pointed out, the Hopi have additional non-Kachina dances for rain such as the snake dance as well. The Kachina cult, as part of religion, explains that “all things in the world have two forms, the visible object and a spirit counterpart, a dualism that balances mass and energy – coinciding in some ways to material and nonmaterial culture. Kachinas are the spirit essence of everything in the real world.”26 Their religious ceremonies are divided into two parts/two times of the year – one involving Kachinas the other not. The Kachina season is dedicated to December through July in which the kivas (underground

ceremonial chambers and the gateway to the Underworld) are opened.27 The three principal ceremonies happen in December, February, and mid-summer. In December the Soyal or opening of the kivas happen in which one or two kachinas emerge, waking up from sleep. In February, Powamu, the world is ready for new growth. This is where the children who were initiated in the kivas are presented in the plaza. And lastly, in mid-summer, Kachinas bring gifts for children.28 The ceremonies are social occasions in which feasting also happens.29

There are two types of Kachina dances. One is the Hopi pattern in which “the Kachina dancers, in single file, walk rapidly into the plaza and form a line on one side. Keeping time with their feet, with tortoise shell rattles fastened to their legs, and rattles in their hands they sing one verse of the Kachina song. Then the line moves to an adjacent side of the plaza, repeating the same verse of the song, and then to a third side where the verse is sung at last once more. With the completion of the song, Kachinas distribute presents to the children and retire. ….after a 30 minute rest do it again – all day long – singing 6-8 versus.”30 According to Seminar Leader Joyce, the songs also continue during the evenings in the kivas.

Kachina Dolls

Questions for my students to consider while learning about the dolls, the third meaning of Kachina include When being made, each stage of the carving a Kachina, a song and a prayer go along with it. What does this say about the Hopi culture? What exactly are Hopi children to learn from these Kachinas? I also want them to create their own questions to see what they are thinking and want to learn.

At first, they used the dolls that were made to educate their children and the hundreds of different Kachinas. They are “given to the children not as toys, but as objects to be treasured and studies so that the young Hopis may become familiar with the appearance of the Kachinas a part of their religious training.”31 Despite the fact that these were part of their religious training, their use was geared towards educating not worshiping or being prayed to.32 Men would make them for the young girls in their families. Although the culture is matriarchal in nature, women and girls do not have the same access to the supernatural as men do. So, the dolls are made by those who “impersonate Kachinas and dance in the plazas. They are replicas of their Kachina appearance and present these.” To make a Kachina doll, they used cottonwood root, a light wood. A penknife was used to shape the doll, smoothing it with a wood rasp and then sanded with a sandstone. Additions were fastened onto the piece with dowel pins. Organic substances were used to paint them.33 Some included feathers or other materials as adornments.34 The doll’s mask is a principal feature. There are a variety of types of masks to include leather hiding the entire face, half mask with the bottom revealing a beard, circular, spherical, or case. This helmet mask is the most representative “made of rawhide in two parts, a cylinder to which a circular top piece is sewed.”35 I have many images to use with these descriptions which will help the students to better understand the importance of the mask and their similarities as well as differences. They are also painted and adorned. The mask color represents the direction in which the Kachina came. The table below indicates the directions – with each one a prayer is associated with each step of the process.

Other adornments include natural types of materials such as again, organic paints, feathers, flowers, and evergreens.36 In class we will be able to view multiple photographs of a wide variety of Kachina dolls and their descriptions (afterwards) so that students can first try to determine what the doll represents, what the adornments state about the doll and the why behind it. This intersection of material and non-material culture is exactly what I want my students to understand while learning to appreciate the Hopi culture as well.

According to Seminar Leader Joyce, using these dolls, enables Hopi individuals to prepare for the clan initiation, without a connection to the clan, one is not considered Hopi. This idea fits nicely in with what students will be learning about after this unit in regard to the Amish community. There are many similarities between the two groups which will assist students in better understanding the concept of belongingness. The process is considered an art, a preservation of the Hopi culture. They are considered valued possessions and cared for, kept safe. However, they are not just made now for family members; the Hopi have used these as “items of trade and commerce”37 a form of art collected by people outside of the Hopi people. While some are made by the Navajo in a factory and are commercialized items that are mass produced.38

Strategies

Graphic Organizer

A graphic organizer is “a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationships among facts, terms, and ideas within a learning task.”39 Using graphic organizers helps to make content more supportive for students, scaffolding the information to be learned and giving them access to content that otherwise might be too difficult for them. This also helps to organize complex information into a much easier-to-read.40 In our case, we will use the Culture Wheel graphic organizer to organize the general information pertaining to culture’s categories so that they can get a visual picture of the examples as they are related to the concepts of material and non-material.

Google Docs

Google Docs Technology is an essential part of classrooms today, especially at the university level. I see part of my role as an educator to assist students to become proficient in the language of technology since they are learning for life. I am helping to prepare them for what comes next in their lifetimes. Google Docs is one of the ways we have to provide students with a

collaborative opportunity to participate in a joint writing process. Students will work with their peers to complete a piece of writing in response to film clips they view, summarizing the key points to an informational reading (culture information) and the Kachina tale they will read. I tell students that this skill they are perfecting in the classroom today will be beneficial to them at the university level in which they can work with their classmates across campus in completing group assignments without even meeting once! As an instructor, you can create and assign a Google Doc to group members. Also, feedback can be easily given even while a student (or students) is working on an assignment. Additionally, it is easily monitored through the Revision History, so that an instructor can keep track of who has completed what.

Padlet

This technology tool encourages collaboration and sharing among students. As an on-line bulletin board, it enables students to use video, photos, music, and text to create posts. It is extremely easy to use and quick to do so. Additionally, students cannot only post but also like and comment on their classmates’ work. There are a variety of options to use including one that is a conversation. This is helpful when working in an environment in which one is simultaneously teaching some students in the classroom while others are zooming in from home.

Activities

National Geographic/Tapestry of Life Video41

I first saw this video when I became involved with the Delaware Geographic Alliance. National Geographic gave it to their Alliance members in a tool kit for helping to teach about various aspects of geography including culture. I have always loved it! This approximately 15 minute video is a series of National Geographic photographs of peoples from around the world. They are engaged in various activities which depict themes, ideas, and concepts of material and non-material culture. Using this video as a “hook”, before we even get into the unit, students will view the video and take notes – jot down words/phrases – of what they see. Ideas could include work/technology, celebrations, religion, play, education, food, music, patriotic duty, war, amongst others. Afterwards, students will talk with a small group of students sharing their answers and thoughts about what they saw. As a whole class we will create a list of these categorizing them. We will then think about examples of these items from our own lives so that students can make the connection to themselves. Examples could include – Starbucks barista for work or our school, Conrad or a pathway – nursing for education. In doing so, students will have an easier time understanding the terms material and non-material culture.

Culture Wheel

As high school students in a school that does not have an art program or class, I always try to find ways in which students are drawing or illustrating concepts. From a previous unit I wrote, I learned that research indicates when students create an illustration of a vocabulary word; they are more apt to remember it since the act engages the brain in multiple ways – the visual and motor parts – visual, spatial, verbal, semantic, and motoric. This helps an individual to better retain the

concepts.42 Not only does it assist one in remembering better but it also allows for them to express themselves creatively – something that happens less often as they get older especially in our school. The culture wheel, a circle, divided is one in which my colleague and I modified quite a bit at the beginning of our teaching careers from a Jason Project lesson. The culture wheel contains categories to include institutions, arts, language, environment, recreation, beliefs, and economy. Within each of these categories, students will see a listing of multiple subcategories. One example includes the Institutions category that can be broken down to government, family, education, religious affiliations, and ethnic groups. Below you can find a visual of our creation.

Kachina Tales

In the 1930s, Gene Meany Hodge collected and published fourteen tales from the Pueblo people, regarding the Kachinas. The tales have multiple purposes including using them to teach the next generation of ways of teaching and learning helping to preserve the history of the Hopi people.43 This exposure also goes back to one of the four paths Seminar Leader Joyce organized this learning experience – the first path – Origins: Storytelling, History and Identity. During this portion of the seminar, we focused on questions about composing and passing on stories, what shape and form they can take, how do we preserve them, why are important, what do they have to do with history and what happens if they disappear or someone steals or erases them. From the readings we completed, the videos we viewed, and our discussions, I came away with the idea that it boils down to perspective. An issue with our curriculum is WHO is telling the story. Joyce focuses on the idea of using an indigenous perspective in telling their story. I know that students will appreciate this as I have seen their interest in hearing from individuals in the past. They gravitate to the primary sources of the peoples that we study – their voices and their words to better understand their experiences. In this activity, students will be paired together to read one of the Kachina tales. Students will read and discuss their assigned tale. They will summarize it as well as extract examples of material and non-material culture. I want them to also reflect on their individual culture and make connections to what they have read.

Resources

Colton, Harold S. Hopi Kachina dolls with a Key to their Identification. The University of New

Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NX, 1949.

This book has a wealth of information regarding Kachinas including the history.

CREATION OF A HOPI KACHINA DOLL 1960 NATIVE AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY

JIMMY KEWANWYTEWA 63114 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuJZk0ZXlOI (accessed on September 20, 2020).

This unique documentary explains about the Hopi people and the Kachina Cult.

Dockstader, Frederick J. The Kachina and the White Man: The Influences of White Culture on the Hopi Kachina Cult (Coyote Books), 1954.

This book explains in-depth information about the Kachina Cult including the history, dolls, and customs important to the Hopi culture.

Ferrante-Wallace, Joan. Sociology: A Global Perspective. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2015.

Our course textbook – chapter on Culture discusses the aspects of culture including those that we are focusing on in this unit – material and non-material.

Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. 1973. New York, NY: Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group.

This anthropology book interprets behavior through a cultural lens.

Hodge, Gene, M. Kachina Tales from the Indian Pueblos. 1993. USA: The School of American Research.

This is one of the prime texts which we will be using in this unit. Besides the introduction which gives a good description of Kachinas, it has a series of tales explaining and helping to preserve the Kachina culture. Students will be reading these in pairs and interpreting the meaning behind it. They will also be extracting examples of material and non-material culture.

Jenks, Chris. Culture. 1993 Chapters on Cultural stratification and The Relation Between Culture and Social Structure.

Background information about culture and society.

Kachina Dolls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVqMRk4R0k8

This less than three minute video highlights two Hopi artists including one, Dwayne, who carves the dolls. You are able to see his work as he explains a bit about it. (accessed on September 20, 2020).

Kahn Academy, Overview of Culture https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/society-and-culture/culture/v/overview-of-culture (accessed on November 20, 2020).

Short video depicting essential components of culture. It is outlined, broken down into sections with sub-titles. It also has a running record of the dialogue.

Medicine Man Gallery How to Identify Early Hopi and Zuni Kachina Dolls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggkJO7j0Mu8 (accessed on September 20, 2020).

This video is from a collector who explains a bit more about the Hopi Kachina dolls.

National Geographic, Tapestry of Life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0zc8DPIjGA

Fabulous 15-minute video by National Geographic. It highlights a series of their photographs without words; so, it is great for students of all ages as well English Learners (ELs). The photographs focus on the categories.

Nielsen-Grimm, Glenna & Bingham, Jaime. Mesoamerican influences in the Southwest: Kachinas, macaws, and feathered serpents. 2008. Provo, UT: Museum of Peoples and Cultures Brigham Young University.

The chapters on Southwest Cultures, The Kachina Cult, and The Origin and Development of the Pueblo Kachina Cult provide additional information about Kachinas.

Symbols, Values & Norms: Crash Course Sociology #10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGrVhM_Gi8k

This short video gives an overview of the topics of symbols, values, and norms. She explains them by giving definitions and examples. It is a good overview for students. I use it as an introduction with the highlighted vocabulary given to the students. They follow this up with a section of their textbook reading so that they can continue to layer their notes.

Wright, Barton. Hopi Kachinas: The Complete Guide to Collecting Kachina Dolls. 1977. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press.

This text indicates how a Kachina doll is made. But more importantly, it has incredibly colorful photographs and descriptions of hundreds of dolls. Great for visuals/for students to see the products.

Appendix A

There are a number of Delaware Technical Community College Wide Core Course (CCC) Performance Objectives that I am mandated to follow as I plan my units of instruction. In this unit I will be using one of them: Discuss culture – both material and nonmaterial – and cultural diversity. In doing so, using the Hopi Kachinas as a case study, students will be able to distinguish the material component of the art of making of the dolls and non-material component of the meaning behind not only the dolls but the concept of Kachinas – the origin, history, and significance of them for the Hopi. Students will extend their thinking and understanding to include the ideas of cultural diffusion and containment/control of culture as related to the indigenous peoples in our country.

Additionally, the unit will address the Common Core Standard (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7) in which students will: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as

well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem. I believe this question or problem could focus on the idea of looking at the complexity of culture – the diffusion and control of a culture, who determines or who is allowed to determine their own culture, and how does a people keep a culture “alive”?

These understandings lead to Essential Questions that guide students throughout this unit of each of our sessions. These questions are those that students will investigate as we better understand the idea of Kachinas are examples of non-material and material culture. These will be paired up with the Learning Targets above and include: What is culture?, What are the components of culture (material and non-material)?, How does it relate to my life? What are some examples of the components of material and non-material culture from my life?, How is a Kachina a representation of the material and non-material components of culture of the Hopi Indians?, How are a Kachinas an example of resisting, persisting, and reviving the indigenous cultures?

Appendix B

This unit is written for a course that used to be taught in a Distance Laboratory in which I had

students in the classroom in which I taught as well as projected out in real-time to students at two

other school buildings. That program dissolved a few years ago, yet I continue to use all on-line

resources. So, the transition that we have recently experienced of going hybrid and remote is not

really new to me. The activities that I plan to use can happen in whatever situation students and

teachers find themselves in whether that is in-person, hybrid, or remote. In the time that I have

taught this course we have used a number of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Since it is

a Delaware Technical Community College course, we are mandated to use their LMS, which is

at the current moment D2L. It is not as user friendly as Schoology. However, students do fine!

It does allow for the same types of activities as Schoology to include Discussion Boards,

materials organization to include folders to house items that are all in the same unit of study,

amongst others. It provides an opportunity for students to work individually or collaboratively.

The introductory activity of the National Geographic video can be viewed in-person/on-line.

I do like to show this as a whole group in which students are jotting down the categories/things

they see. In person, students could be grouped or walk in the hallway and talk about what they

have seen. On-line, using Zoom, students can be put into break out rooms in which they can use

the chat box or unmute themselves and talk about their observations. Additionally, students can

share their screens revealing their group ideas. The Culture Wheel activity allows for students to

determine how they will create their cultural self-representations whether drawing or adding

photos. To share these, they will which can happen in any learning environment, by taking a

photo of the Culture Wheel, posting it to the interactive bulletin board, Padlet, and explain it to

their classmates via text, video, or audio. Lastly, students will be able to compare and contrast

theirs with others to learn more about each other. This all can be completed on-line or if in-

person a live discussion can happen instead of the commenting on Padlet. The third activity, the

reading of a Kachina tale/legend, can happen in break out rooms if on-line. Students can work

with a partner, sharing the screen to pick out examples of material and non-material culture.

Through the use of Google Docs, students can create what they will share with others in the class

to include a summary, what it means to the Hopi, and the examples. If, in-person, students could

sit with one another to complete the work.