Dr. Martha Yates will be giving a presentation on the Feasts and Sacred Dances of the Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico at the Hancock Town Library on Monday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m.
The presentation will include photos of the Deer, Buffalo, Eagle, Corn, Harvest and Rainbow dances. For the Pueblo people the dances follow the seasonal cycle, keeping each pueblo in harmony with celestial, natural and social changes – the times when the seeds are resting, when the shortest days pass into the longer, when thanks are given for the increasing light, for the rain and the harvest.
Dr. Yates will talk about the complex meaning of the dances and the deep symbolic significance of the dancers’ dress and the objects they carry.
An archaeologist, poet and teacher, she is director of the museums and coordinator of cultural programming at the Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center in Abiquiu, New Mexico. She has worked as an archaeologist and firefighter for the USFS and taught at UCLA and UVM. She lives north of Santa Fe, New Mexico and in Hancock during the summer.
This presentation is free and open to all.
For more information, contact the library at 525-4411.