In all the pueblos that have been examined, both
ancient and modern, with the exception of those of Tusayan, these
special rooms, used for ceremonial purposes, occupy marginal or
semidetached positions in the house clusters. The latter are wholly
detached from the houses, as may be seen from the ground plans.
_Origin of the name._--Such ceremonial rooms are known usually by the
Spanish term "estufa," meaning literally a stove, and here used in the
sense of "sweat house," but the term is misleading, as it more properly
describes the small sweat houses that are used ceremonially by
lodge-building Indians, such as the Navajo. At the suggestion of Major
Powell the Tusayan word for this everpresent feature of pueblo
architecture has been adopted, as being much more appropriate. The word
"kiva," then, will be understood to designate the ceremonial chamber of
the pueblo building peoples, ancient and modern.
_Antiquity of the kiva._--The widespread occurrence of this feature and
its evident antiquity distinguish it as being especially worthy of
exhaustive study, especially as embodied in its construction maybe found
survivals of early methods of arrangement that have long ago become
extinct in the constantly improving art of housebuilding, but which are
preserved through the well known tendency of the survival of ancient
practice in matters pertaining to the religious observances of a
primitive people. Unfortunately, in the past the Zu?i have been exposed
to the repressive policy of the Spanish authorities, and this has
probably seriously affected the purity of the kiva type.
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