ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how a symbolic syncretism shared by separate cultures and based on mutual mis-representation due to differing social strategies has left a lasting impact on the cultures involved. This basic narrative constitutes the framework for the various myths, legends, and historical narratives about each individual matriclan. Until the rise of the Traditionalist Movement during the 1940s, the knowledge attached to the clan myths and to the narratives of the secret brotherhoods was kept secret. But in 1949 the Traditionalist Movement abandoned the indigenous contexts of the secrecy of knowledge as a political ploy. One of the most interesting personalities attached to the Traditionalist Movement was their spokesman from Kykotsmovi, Thomas Banancya. Travelling around the world with his drawing of the so-called prophecy rock east of Oraibi pasted onto a large posterboard with an old map of Hopi territory as its backdrop, Banancya was successful in recruiting Euro-American supporters with his colourful apocryphal exegesis.
