The mouths of earth: The dialectical allegories of the Kwakiutl Indians

Summary

The profane condition, baxus, is generated as the antithesis of the primordial myth-state by the great transformations. Differentiation of the mutually predatory kinds of creatures, and the increase of their number, unfolds within a temporal frame created by introducing into the world, the concrete opposites of primordial of darkness, wind and water omnipresent in the myth-state. A predominantly coordinate hierarchy among the mythic protokinds turns into obligatory antagonisms among the profane kinds (of baxus). Special individuals, successors of animal and human Ancestors, are set apart to carry the diminished aura of mythic quasi-oneness through time by means of supernatural communions. Within the human social order, this is the religious origin of caste: the presumed limitation on the communions of men and spirits diminishes the communions of men; special privilege, in economy as in ceremony, is thus conferred upon the spiritually blessed.

The antagonism and power asymmetry in baxus impels it always toward the dissolution of its diversity, i.e., toward tsetseqa, manifest as winter. The resurrection of baxus, and summer, out of tsetseqa, on the other hand, is miraculous and ultimately ineffable. Kwakiutls presume that something is contributed to this end by the ritual taming of the Baxbakualanuxsiwae. But in the end, it seems, they cede the mystery of regeneration to him alone: “Nobody can imitate your dance... great magician...”