Kokopelli: The Making of an Icon

Kokopelli, the fluteplayer, is one of the most popular icons that American culture has adopted from the Native peoples of North America. Kokopelli name and image are everywhere, adorning everything from jewellery, welcome mats, T-shirts, and money clips to motels, freeway underpasses, nature trails, nightclubs, and string quartets. Kokopelli evokes mystery and wonder, ancient ceremonies and spirituality, Mother Earth and the purity of nature. But what exactly is Kokopelli? Just how Native American is the ubiquitous flute-player? In this readable and fascinating book, the distinguished scholar Ekkehart Malotki describes the development of the Kokopelli phenomenon in American mass culture from its beginning to Kokopelli's present status as pan-Southwestern icon. He explores the figure's connections with the kachina god Kookopolo and Maahu, the cicada, and discusses how this rock art image has been appropriated and misunderstood. Kokopelli sheds light on a little-understood aspect of culture and testifies to the continuing power of Native cultures to spark the popular imagination and interest of outsiders. Ekkehart Malotki is a professor of languages at Northern Arizona University. His books include Hopi Animal and The Bedbugs' Night Dance and Other Tales of Sexual Encounter, both available from the University of Nebraska Press.