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Illustration of Basketmaker petroglyphs, from Archeological Explorations in Northeastern Arizona, by Ridder and Guernsey, published in 1919. Most of the "fluteplayers" appear to be lying on their backs. and their "flutes" look to be perhaps three feet in length.
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A number of years ago, a friend and I were mountain biking through the Utah desert near Canyonlands when we came upon a small panel of Basketmaker petroglyphs on the wall of a high stone mesa. These were images carved into the desert varnish on the sandstone by the Basketmakers, an ancestral Pueblo people who came into being around 1500 BC, existed until about 500 AD, then disappeared. My friend said, "Look, it's Kokopelli, the humpbacked flute player! "
My friend was completely wrong. The image from the past on that rock was not Kokopelli, was not a "humpback," and was not a flute player.
In these modern times, this image of "the humpbacked flute player" has been commercialized into countless forms of merchandise including jewlery, furniture, wall hangings, kitchen accessories, keychains, wind chimes, ashtrays and coasters, blankets, sheets, and all forms of clothing, probably even underwear.
Kokopelli? Not likely...
A recent mail order catalog I received stated, "The Kokopelli is the ancient Anasazi symbol of the humpbacked, minor god flute player." First of all, the term "Anasazi" is incorrect and utilized only by the most insensitive of people, as it is considered an insult by modern Puebloans. Secondly, as reported above, the ancient symbol is none of the things stated in the catalog (which I threw in the trash).
Kokopelli does exist in reality, as a Kachina of the Hopi people. Kachinas are supernatural beings from Hopi mythology, often represented by stylized religious icons carved from cottonwood root and painted to represent these deities. Kokopelli does indeed play the flute, but only the most imaginative of eyes can perceive any hint of a "humpback."
The Kachina cult came into the southwestern United States from Mexico in the thirteenth century AD. It was first adopted in the Rio Grande valley, working its way up into Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Therefore, there is no way that a Basketmaker petroglyph, made prior to 500 AD, could represent a Kachina figure.
Humbug Humpback
The term "humpback" is a modern one, being a derogatory description of a person afflicted with a medical condition causing deformity of the thoracic spine. The three medical conditions that can cause such deformity are severe osteoporosis, osteogenesis imperfecta, and severe scoliosis. The first of these conditions occurs only in elderly people. According to scientific research, very few people lived to be elderly in prehistoric Basketmaker times.
As for the second two conditions, there has never been a Basketmaker burial uncovered, among all those found, showing either of these skeletal deformities. If an ancient Indian was thusly impaired, the chance of his or her surviving to become an upright walking "humpback" was probably zero, given the difficult conditions of existence and the short longevity of the times. It is extremely doubtful that any Basketmaker individual ever saw a "humpback" from which to copy in a petroglyph.
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Note the "Kokopelli" figure in the upper right, more likely a hunter wearing a backpack, holding an atlatl (spear-thrower) in one hand and a fletched dart or spear in the other. Photo by Stephen Hammond.
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Fictitious Flutes
Now we turn our attention to the flute. Many flutes have been uncovered in Basketmaker burials, in the Grand Gulch area of Utah, and at Broken Flute cave in northeastern Arizona among other localities. The flutes referred to were five to seven inches long, and made from the bones of birds. The long thing being held to the mouth of the petroglyph individual was certainly not a Basketmaker flute; the object portrayed is many times larger than any real flute that was made in prehistoric times.
So if the petroglyph does not depict Kokopelli, a "humpback", or a flute player, what does it depict?
It is well known that the Basketmakers used backpacks woven from the natural fibers found in nature, and many have been discovered in excavations, some even containing their everyday items which they carried around with them.
The great archaeologist, Dr. A.V.Kidder, in his "Archaeological Explorations in Northeastern Arizona", writing about Basketmaker petroglyphs, stated "Anthropomorphic figures are scarcely less common than sheep. They approach true realism particularly in the hunting scenes...the isolated examples...being usually rather conventional... ." He also writes, "in a caveate cliff-room on the Pajarito Plateau in central New Mexico, is carved a series of humpbacked...figures lying on their backs and 'playing flutes'... ." Most of the petroglyph figures, like the one we saw on the bike ride in Utah, are portrayed lying on their backs.
Many aboriginal peoples around the world, in their need to subsist most often on the smallest of game available, have found the easiest way to obtain these small birds and animals for food is by hunting them with a blowgun, which is made from the common reed that grows in abundance everywhere in the world. The ancient Cherokee did this, and still hold contests today of blowgun making and shooting at their annual Homecoming rituals in eastern Oklahoma.
In conclusion, the petroglyph proclaimed by my friend to be "Kokopelli, the humpbacked flute player" was actually a hunter, wearing a backpack, lying on his back using a blowgun to shoot birds, probably out of a tree. This was one of the easiest possible ways for a hunter to feed himself and his family without having to move too far from home, or put out too much energy: find a comfortable spot under a tree and, a short time later, gather the birds you have shot down with your blowgun.
The modern commercial "Kokopelli" is just the product of creative marketeers, looking to steal yet another dollar from their customers and further exploiting the enviable image of the prehistoric American Indian.