Open ArcanaARCANA APERTA
DISC-0108 / ITEM-0062
Zuni initiatory fraternities in Stevenson’s account · Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, United States
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An initiatory sequence involving preparation, prayers, medicine transmission and instruction with a wooden sword.
Unknown
Disclosure dates, source publication dates, tradition origins and dates of practice are separate.
Wood-fraternity ceremony identified as occurring in 1892 at p. 451; preparation at pp. 451–452 and novice sequence at pp. 457–458.
Year identifies the cited publication, not an established earliest-ever disclosure or present-day practice.
Captured the 918-page report scan and Archive OCR. Read selected printed pp. 102–104, 451–452, 457–458, with p. 104 visually checked. The report title page at PDF p. 7 gives 1904, as does Archive metadata; the Smithsonian repository record instead lists 1905. The discrepancy is retained rather than silently treating the dates as identical.
Twenty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1901–1902, report publication 1904. The author labels the Ko’tikili observation as witnessed in 1891 and the Wood-fraternity initiation as occurring in 1892. Selected passages were inspected, not the entire book. Human performers do not independently settle the religious meaning of the personation.
Open artifact / recovery route ↗
Complete 918-page scan captured after a resumed transfer; size matches the Archive manifest. Selected passages only, not the entire report.
Open artifact / recovery route ↗
Archive-provided OCR derivative with transcription errors. Hash identifies these text bytes, not the PDF or original manuscript; full-text capture does not mean full inspection.
These claims may cite other sources for the same restricted item. Supporting and contradicting evidence remain separate.
Novices enter the chamber with fraternity fathers for a sequence of preparation, prayers and instruction.
Contradicting sources: none recorded.
Checked the cited passage. This is an attributed historical text/account, with no independent corroboration or current-practice inference.
The account describes emetic preparation and attributes throat/stomach preparation for sword swallowing to it.
Contradicting sources: none recorded.
A source-attributed rationale, not a finding of efficacy or safety. No recipe, dose or practical swallowing instructions are supplied.
During initiation the sponsor demonstrates sword swallowing and transfers medicine to the novice before the novice’s attempt.
Contradicting sources: none recorded.
The source identifies the medicine plant as unclassified. This is an attributed ritual description, not a verified pharmacological mechanism.
The described cohort includes a woman novice whose sponsor performs the full swallowing in her place; the source describes later practice for women.
Contradicting sources: none recorded.
A specific observed/described sequence, not an assertion that every female novice or every Zuni fraternity followed the same rule.
SRC-0117 · source_authenticity_probable: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.SRC-0117 · source_without_content_hash: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.ARTF-0026 · artifact_partial: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.ARTF-0030 · artifact_partial: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.Reviewed means checked against a source. It does not establish source authenticity, independent corroboration or present-day practice.
Scope basis: the source describes an actual novice sequence identified as occurring in 1892 (p. 451), at pp. 457–458 and distinguishes members from the uninitiated at pp. 451–452. Public festival dances and members’ preparation are separate phases. No physiological efficacy, safety or uniform present-day use is established.