Apache girl blessed with sacred clay at her Sunrise Dance

An Apache girl is painted white with sacred clay and corn meal during her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona, USA. She is painted by a Mountain Spirit or Crown Dancer, and the staff in her hand symbolises longevity. The painting of the girl is both a blessing and an enactment of certain parts of the Apache creation myth. 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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Filename: 4536.jpg
Copyright: Copyright © 2004 Anders Ryman. All rights reserved.
Image Size: 5508x3661 / 18.5MB; American Southwest Apache Arizona Blessing Changing Woman Clay Coming of Age Costume clothing and fashion Horizontal Indian Life Cycle Ritual Native Americans Native North Americans North America Painting Religion Rite de Passage Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance USA United States of America White adulthood animal hide bell bells blue sky buck-skin dress buckskin cane ceremony corn crown dancers cultural and ethnic dress eagle feathers ethnic clothing ethnic group ethnic minority female feminine first menstruation gaan gaans girl indigenous people life cycle ceremony longevity mask maturity minority mountain spirits native-americans puberty rite religious rite ritual sacred spiritual splashing teenage girl two persons with others woman youth
Contained in galleries: Apache sunrise dance, USA

An Apache girl is painted white with sacred clay and corn meal during her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona, USA. She is painted by a Mountain Spirit or Crown Dancer, and the staff in her hand symbolises longevity. The painting of the girl is both a blessing and an enactment of certain parts of the Apache creation myth. 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.