The Tewa World

Book excerpt: This book is not a descriptive monograph, but an essay in cultural analysis, one which views culture as a system of symbols and which takes form under the impact of modern structural theory. A theme which runs throughout is the concept of dual organization, a structure which once characterized ten to fifteen percent of all known human societies, and which is found in a highly developed form among the Tewa today. Defined as "a system of antithetical institutions with the associated symbols, ideas, and meanings in terms of which social interaction takes place," a dual organization is for the Tewa a natural result of adapting to an environment comprised of opposites--two extremes of weather during the year; two means of subsistence, hunting in winter and farming in summer; and two periods and directions of migration in the origin myth.