Apache girl with sacred face paint at her Sunrise Dance

An Apache girl together with her godmother and helper at her Sunrise Dance on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona, USA. As a blessing, and an enactment of part of the Apache creation myth, the girl has been painted with white clay mixed with sacred corn meal. The Sunrise Dance, the first menstruation rite of an Apache girl, is held during the summer, within one year after the girl has had her first menstruation, and lasts for four days. During the rites the girl ’becomes‘ Changing Woman, a mythical female figure, and comes into possession of her healing powers. The rites are supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.

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Filename: 4621.jpg
Copyright: Copyright © 2004 Anders Ryman. All rights reserved.
Image Size: 5598x3709 / 14.0MB; 3 America American Southwest Apache Arizona Changing Woman Clay Coming of Age Horizontal Life Cycle Ritual Native Americans Native North Americans Necklace North America Religion Rite de Passage Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance USA United States of America Women adulthood animal hide back lit backlighting bell bells blue sky buck-skin buckskin camp dress cane ceremony cultural and ethnic dress eagle feathers ethnic ethnic group ethnic minority first menstruation fringed fringes indigenous people life cycle ceremony maturity minority native-americans ornament puberty rite religious teenage girl three persons with others
Contained in galleries: Apache sunrise dance, USA

An Apache girl together with her godmother and helper at her Sunrise Dance on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona, USA. As a blessing, and an enactment of part of the Apache creation myth, the girl has been painted with white clay mixed with sacred corn meal. The Sunrise Dance, the first menstruation rite of an Apache girl, is held during the summer, within one year after the girl has had her first menstruation, and lasts for four days. During the rites the girl ’becomes‘ Changing Woman, a mythical female figure, and comes into possession of her healing powers. The rites are supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.