The Pueblo clowns are jesters or tricksters in the Kachina religion. It is a generic term, as there are a number of these figures in the ritual practice of the Pueblo people. Each has a unique role; belonging to separate Kivas and each has a name that differs from one mesa or pueblo to another.
Roles
The clowns perform during the spring and summer fertility rites. Among the Hopi there are five figures who serve as clowns: the Payakyamu; the Koshare ; the Tsuku; the Tatsiqto ; and the Kwikwilyak. With the exception of the Koshare, each is a katsinam. It is believed that when a member of a kiva dons the mask of a katsinam, he abandons his personality and becomes possessed by that spirit. In order for a clown to perform meaningful social commentary via humor, the clown's identity must usually be concealed. The sacred clowns of the Pueblo people, however, do not employ masks but rely on body paint and head dresses. Among the best known orders of the sacred Pueblo clown is the Chiffoneti. These individuals present themselves with black and whitehorizontal stripes painted on their bodies and faces, paint black circles around the mouth and eyes, and part their hair in the center and bind it in two bunches which stand upright on each side of the head and are trimmed with corn husks. The mudheads are usually portrayed by pinkish clay coated bodies and matching cotton bag worn over the head. Anthropologists, most notably Adolf Bandelier in his 1890 book, The Delight Makers, and Elsie Clews Parsons in her Pueblo Indian Religion, have extensively studied the meaning of the Pueblo clowns and clown society in general. Bandelier notes that the Tsuku were somewhat feared by the Hopi as the source of public criticism and censure of non-Hopi like behavior. Their function can help defuse community tensions by providing their own humorous interpretation of the tribe's popular culture, by reinforcing taboos, and by communicating traditions. A 1656 case of a young Hopi man impersonating the resident Franciscan priest at Awatovi is thought to be a historic instance of Pueblo clowning.
