Sacred Spaces: Cultural Hybridity and Boundaries for Visual Communication about the Hopi Tribe in Arizona

Abstract

This history and ideological critique of tribal laws and policies about photography and other image taking of religious ceremonies of the Hopi Tribe of Arizona explains how the Hopi exercise sovereignty over visual communication about them. This article asks what kind of legal boundaries have emerged as visual communication and Euro-American culture interact with the Hopi Tribe. Over the past century, there has been a shift from the U.S. government to the Hopi Tribe in the authority to establish and enforce sacred spaces to set boundaries on visual communication about the Hopi. This reflects cultural hybridity. Also, the Hopi attempt to exert control over images and ideas in shared spaces, or where tribal and nontribal cultures coexist. These efforts came after misappropriated photographs and other images were put into stolen space by the colonizers. Even negotiating possible entrance into self spaces, where the Hopi exist apart from others, is difficult for non-Hopi.

Notes

¹ This correspondence may be found in the papers of Richard F. Van Valkenburgh, archived at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson. This author thanks the staff members for their helpfulness.