Apache girl makes bread as part of the preparations for her Sunrise Dance

An Apache girl learns how to make corn bread as part of the preparation for her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. June 2004. The Sunrise Dance is the most important ceremony of the Apache Indians. It is held during the summer, within one year after the girl has had her first menstruation, and lasts for four days. The ceremony is an enactment of the Apache creation myth and during the rites the girl ’becomes‘ Changing Woman, a mythical female figure, and comes into possession of her healing powers. The rites are also supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.

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Copyright: Copyright © 2004 Anders Ryman. All rights reserved.
Image Size: 5566x3676 / 13.0MB; America American Indian American Southwest Apache Arizona Changing Woman Food Horizontal Native American Native Americans Native North Americans North America North American Indian Religion Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance US USA United States of America activities activity adulthood baking bread ceremony color image color photography colour image colour photography corn cuisine daughter diet dwelling ethnic ethnic group ethnic minority first menstruation food and nutrition fry pan frying-pan girl home indigenous people indoors inside life cycle ceremony maize minority mother native-americans preparations puberty rite religious t-shirts teenage girl
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An Apache girl learns how to make corn bread as part of the preparation for her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. June 2004. The Sunrise Dance is the most important ceremony of the Apache Indians. It is held during the summer, within one year after the girl has had her first menstruation, and lasts for four days. The ceremony is an enactment of the Apache creation myth and during the rites the girl ’becomes‘ Changing Woman, a mythical female figure, and comes into possession of her healing powers. The rites are also supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.