Owner: HWMC
Catalogue #: 2NA-IDST-31
Provenance: From the collection of Daniel Cutrone, professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills, specializing in preserving the four corners of Native American Indians.
Rattle
Hopi ‘Corn Dance' Rattle
Arizona
Southwest / Hopi
Gourd, wood, pigment, seeds
ca. 1980s
Length; 11.5 in; Width: 6.5 in; Depth: 3.88 in
Idiophones – Struck Idiophones – Rattles
A Hopi gourd rattle with hand painted symbols of harvest and a stalk of corn in the center. A red and blue pinwheel is painted on the opposite side. According to the Smithsonian, many colors have been bred into Hopi corn and are still associated with directions across the landscape; yellow suggests northward; white, eastward; red, southward; and blue, westward; whereas purple signifies above and sweet corn, below.
Resource: https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/heart-hopi