If two things can be said to capture a people's experience, for the
Hopi they would be corn and water. Corn is overwhelmingly the main
staple of the Hopi diet even today. As one woman says, corn pollen
is placed on a baby's tongue with the words, "This is what you
are." One of the central stories of Hopi tradition is the selection
by the various peoples of the corn by which they would live. Too
respectful to push their way in, the Hopi waited until all others
had chosen, and what was left was the short blue corn--symbolizing
a hard but long life. Corn is the central food of daily life, and
piki--paper thin bread made from corn and ash--is the dominant food
at ceremonies. Corn relies on the farmer to survive, and the Hopi
relies on the corn--all life is designed to be interrelated.

But corn does not grow without water, and in an environment
that provides only 10-12 inches of rain per year, the Hopi
tradition recognizes dependence on a power beyond. As the tradition
speaks of its emergence from the world below to this, the Fourth
World, it also speaks of the spirits of their ancestors--the
katsinam--as those who have returned to the world below, most often
described as beneath the Grand Canyon to the west of the mesas.
Through a cycle of preparation and celebration, the Hopi welcome
those ancestors each year as the clouds that bring the rain on
which their crops depend. Those ancestor spirits remain with the
Hopi for half the year, made tangible by the dancers who
impersonate them--literally, making the spirits concrete in their
own persons. There are some 250 or more katsinam danced at the Hopi
villages, but these do not represent the full number.