5594 x 3707 px | 47,4 x 31,4 cm | 18,6 x 12,4 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
19 juin 2004
Informations supplémentaires:
An Apache girl dressed in traditional buckskin clothes dances beside a bonfire at a Sunrise Dance a first menstruation rite on the San Carlos Indian Reservation Arizona USA The figures in the background are mountain spirits gaan or crown dancers The girl is not the young girl for whom the puberty rite is held but one of four girls chosen to dance with her and the mountain spirits by the evening bonfire The Sunrise Dance is held during the summer within one year after the girl has had her first menstruation and lasts for four days The ceremony is an enactment of the Apache creation myth and during the rites the girl becomes Changing Woman a mythical female figure and comes into possession of her healing powers The rites are also supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants
