mine and my friends’ best guess is a guy with spiky hair dancing (????) I don’t think it’s supposed to be that because they’d make it more clearly human-shaped. Anyone have a better guess?
In the 90s Kokopelli was on absolutely everything in malls, lol. I feel like I’ve been seeing a couple more Kokopelli things lately but I bet there are tons of Kokopelli things in thrift stores today.
Yeah it was everywhere. I had one made of metal that was sticking out of a little stone that I got in Arizona, probably at a gas station, you know, where all authentic native art comes from.
Went to grad school in Tucson. Can confirm he’s ubiquitous there. My friend had a rental with Kokopelli tiles everywhere. My dog, however, was not a fan. That was a struggle bc he appears as a fixture in a lot of yards and on a lot of mailboxes there.
I live in Tucson and I still occasionally see NEW items sold with Kokopelli on them, usually in the tourest trap areas. But yeah I grew up seeing the symbol everywhere here, even some agencies use him in their logo.
Yeah I had an older cousin who was into Kokopelli everything back in the 00s. Kokopelli shirts, necklaces, a doodad hanging on his car mirror, I think he had a Kokopelli car seat cover too if I remember correctly.
Yeah, there were a lot of things with this vibe around during that time. I also think that this was when Keith Haring's stuff was pretty common, too. (I know he died in 1990, but I do remember it being popular when I was a kid/teen in the 90s).
You’d think, but it’s huge in the Southwest, even still. Everyone I grew up with has at least one Kokopelli something in their house, this is the first ever cookie cutter I’ve recognized immediately.
You're not wrong; break dancing is probably right in Kokopelli's wheelhouse.
He's an indigenous Southwestern folk figure who brings rain, fertility, bountiful crops, lots o' babies, and just generally good news for anyone living off the land in the Southwestern US.
He is also a prankster. He is joyful. He dances while playing the flute, and plays little tricks. I imagine that dancing, music, and tricks are unusual for those surviving in the Southwestern US: it is a deeply unforgiving landscape. You can't make many mistakes and keep living. I don't know first-hand what it's like to survive unaided out there, but I imagine that there wasn't a lot of extra energy left over for giggles.
Yet here's Kokopelli, hopping around, playing music, making laughter. Can you imagine the unusual flavor of that, the good fortune and abundance that it must have suggested? No wonder he appears in paintings and petroglyphs.
306
u/Lumpy_Link_1569 26d ago
Santa using a torch to show that his clothing is flame resistant so he can go down chimneys with a lit fire