PYRITE
Caddoan
Pawnee.
meaning, ritual, social category, use.
CAST OF STARS/COMETS, METEORS, AND METEORITES
Another form of the warrior's bundle consists of a wrapping like the one
just described, but containing, as a rule, a single object. This object, a bit
of smokey quartz or fossil shell with a lustrous color or some object of
similar nature, is usually spoken of as a meteorite. Such objects are
generally believed to have descended from the sky to this earth, and over
them the warrior prays asking for protection and assistance (Chamberlain
1982:151).
The Field Museum and the American Museum of Natural History have
several examples of meteorite bundles. I have examined two such bundles
at the American Museum (Fig. 38); one contained a fossil wrapped in
downy feathers, and the other contained a piece of pyrite wrapped up in a
colorful handkerchief (Chamberlain 1982:151).
Fig. 38. Two supposed meteorites from two "meteor bundles" in the
collection of the American Museum of Natural History. One is actually a
large brachiopod, the other a piece of pyrite (Chamberlain 1982:151).
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chamberlain, Von Del.
1982 When Stars Came Down to Earth: Cosmology of the Skidi Pawnee
Indians of North America. Ballena Press, Los Altos, & Center for
Archaeoastronomy, University of Maryland, College Park.
This is a study of Pawnee ethnoastronomy in Nebraska between 1800 and 1915. The
work attempts to describe the objects and phenomena of the sky as they were perceived
by the Skidi (Skiri) Pawnee, and the effect that they had on religious beliefs and
practices. In general the book attempts to consolidate materials written about Pawnee
ethnoastronomy scattered through various sources , many of which were written around
the beginning of the twentieth century. Other ethnographic topics deal with native
concepts relating to sky phenomena, an annotated list of sky objects referred to in the
records, the Skidi earth lodge as a model of Pawnee cosmology, the Skidi observational
system, and the unique star chart inscribed on buckskin used by the Pawnee over the ages
in their study of the heavens.
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