A Quiver Full of Prayers the Everyday Spirituality of the Huichol

Summary

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Mexican yarn paintings are popular with folk-art collectors for their vibrant colors and bold designs. The story behind this form and its creators, the Huichol people of remote western Mexico, are the subject of a fascinating new exhibit and book by the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture and the Museum of New Mexico Press.

Both the exhibition, sponsored in part by the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, and the companion volume, Huichol Art and Culture: Balancing the World, highlight the collection of Robert M. Zingg, the first American anthropologist to conduct extensive fieldwork among the Huichol people in 1934 and 1935. This collection of sacred artwork and ceremonial objects obtained by Zingg has been in storage for years but is being exhibited to shed light on the ways of this relatively unspoiled traditional culture.

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A Quiver Full of Prayers the Everyday Spirituality of the Huichol

The Huichol's remote homelands in the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains -- south of Mazatlan, west of Zacatecas and north of Guadalajara -- have allowed them to maintain pre-Christian, pre- Hispanic traditions that are rich in symbolism, mythology, and ritual.

The Huichol were encouraged by outsiders like Zingg to create the yarn painting...

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