A common use of dolls is to teach children about adult lives, roles, and beliefs. This doll from Arizona is a katchina doll. In Hopi culture, a katchina is an ancestral being who comes to the village to assist with crop growing, fertility, and health. There are hundreds of different types of katchina. They are represented during dances by costumed men, and are also depicted as carved dolls, which are given to children. The dolls are intended for play, but also to teach the children about the various katchina and their identities.

View database record 1913.87.82