The Tewa World

Download or read book The Tewa World written by Alfonso Ortiz and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1969 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is not a descriptive monograph, but an essay in cultural analysis, one which views culture as a system of symbols and which takes form under the impact of modern structural theory. A theme which runs throughout is the concept of dual organization, a structure which once characterized ten to fifteen percent of all known human societies, and which is found in a highly developed form among the Tewa today. Defined as "a system of antithetical institutions with the associated symbols, ideas, and meanings in terms of which social interaction takes place," a dual organization is for the Tewa a natural result of adapting to an environment comprised of opposites--two extremes of weather during the year; two means of subsistence, hunting in winter and farming in summer; and two periods and directions of migration in the origin myth.