Blog Post 3

Festival of Cats

            The Festival of Cats takes place on the 12^th day of November every year in the Queen’s Castle. This castle is where all of the cats, and mostly important the Queen, on the Island reside, so it is a place of royalty. During this festival the humans become the royals of the Island and a woman appointed by the Queen becomes Queen for the Day. She is allowed to sit in the Queen’s thrown, and can make any executive decisions about the festival. All cats become the servants of the humans, serving food, cleaning up after them and waiting on their every need. The festival starts at noon on the 12^th and ends noon the following day. Humans are allowed to venture into any area of the castle, sleep where ever they please, take whatever items they like, and do whatever they want during this festival. There is obviously a clear distinction between the humans and the cats, and the cats are not allowed to interfere with any of the festivities, but they do resent the humans during this time. Cats are allowed to act this way every other day of the year in the castle. During the festival, humans are even allowed to disrespect the cats as they often call them names and make absurd food requests. Most of the festival includes people dancing in the main hall, dressing up as cats, wearing pretend tiaras and crowns, all while drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. The humans act in a manner that is an over-exaggeration of the way we image cats acting when there are no humans around. The Queen for the Day and her throne become the main symbolic features of the event. She is treated as the real Queen is treated every other day, and towards the end of the night she is carried on her throne throughout the entire castle while everyone sings the Queen’s Anthem. The real Queen is just another servant during this festival and no special attention is paid to her whatsoever.

            This festival is resisting the fact that cats in the Kitti-Kat culture are treated as superior to humans. Every other day of the year humans must be subservient to their cat counterparts, but this festival allows for the tables to be turned. The cats allow this to happen because they understand that humans may get frustrated having to answer to smaller beings all the time. They realize that humans need one day a year to escape these feelings. Not every human will show up the festival though. Older individuals tend to stay at home, as do people younger than 13. The elders have attended the festival many times before and usually no longer hold to the negative feelings that younger people feel about having to answer to the cats. The children do not attend because they are not official members of society until they have gone through the Big Cat ceremony at 13. Besides that, cats usually treat children as one of their own, allowing them to have visits to the castle, frequently giving them presents, and taking them for visits with the Queen. The other people that attend love the event. They view it as a time to party, release negative energy, and to reflect on all that has happened since the festival the previous year. Although the cats are completely understanding of the humans’ behaviors and they are the ones allowing this festival to take place, some feel that the festival can seem like a temporary government takeover. While the Queen for the Day can make executive decision about the festival, she is not allowed to make any type of government or “real” decisions. While it isn’t a true government takeover it serves as a symbolic takeover for the people.

            In theory everyone should be able to do whatever they want during the festival, but the richer humans are the ones who get the best rooms in the castle, get control over the music played, and typically get the best food and alcohol served to them. The people with less money recognize this, but do not let this get in the way of their having fun, as the Kitty Kat society is based on kinship and loving one another. The politics of the festival determine who gets what, but all people interact with each other and never exclude others from social groups.

            Participants ascribe authenticity to the event by the amount of control the Queen for the Day takes of festivities. For example if, one year, she just sits in the throne and doesn’t make any kinds of decisions about the food, music, or decorations, the festival is deemed less successful, as the whole point is for the humans to be in charge for the day. But if one year, she makes tons of decisions about the festival and even orders around the cats, the festival is said to be a great success and humans feel like it has served its purpose.

            In this society, our main concerns are kinship, brotherhood, and equality.  By holding this festival every year, we are allowed to make ourselves equal to the cats, even if it just for one day, we have the opportunity to feel like royalty. We are allowed to disrespect the royal cats during this time which contradicts our religion because we worship our seven ancestral cats. Another contradiction lies in that cats are inherently superior to humans, yet for this night we act as though we are the superior ones. The following day at noon, the festival ends and humans are the ones who stay behind and clean the mess they made, as they must return back to their normal roles as inferiors on Kitti-Nikki Island.

Reflective Essay

            Taking this class allowed me to think about ritual and symbol in a critical way that I had never done before. By examining the rituals and symbols of certain societies through a critical lens, we can determine the values and norms of that society.  Ritual is a valuable thing that gives valuable information about a society, and we should not take for granted how important it is. My favorite reading was Rituals in the Hospital: Giving Birth the American Way. Before reading this article, I had never really thought of the way American women give birth as being strange, but afterwards I definitely had a different opinion on the birthing process in America. I thought it was interesting how we can learn so much about our society from this process, mainly that we are a society that is focused on technology. I also realized how much the female body is undermined, with all the machines attached and the epidurals, it actually offends me that our society gives such a little credit to our bodies. I also really enjoyed reading Champagne and Chocolate: "Taste" and Inversion in a French Wedding Ritual, because I found the disgustingness of it all really entertaining. I loved how from a bedpan, we could see how a society was changing and the types of things they valued.  I also really liked one of our first readings on the Virgin of Guadalupe, because I didn’t know the original story and why she had become a dominant symbol in Mexican culture. After that reading, it made a lot of sense to me as to why the indigenous peoples of Mexico were able to adopt the Catholic religion, using a familiar way of worship.

            While I plan on continuing on with physical anthropology, I do believe what I have learned in this course will help me in the future. I am very interested in ethnoprimatology, which looks at how humans and non-human primates interact, and humans’ perspectives of these animals. Many human societies who live alongside other primate species consider these animals symbolic and give them a place in their cosmology and mythology, as I saw in the readings on shamanism in Amazonia. I feel as though having the knowledge of theory and applying that to different rituals will help me, should I pursue an ethnoprimtology project for my graduate studies.

            I think the most important thing I learned about ritual and symbol in this class is that rituals all serve their own purposes, whether as rites of passage, or just to bring people together to feel something. It’s important to know that rituals aren’t just performed for fun, but that they have meaning behind them and functions for the societies who perform them. I also think it’s important to understand that we, too, perform rituals in our society and they are not just reserved for “exotic”, non-Western societies.

Religion

Climbing the Ikkin

If a human on our Island is to be taken seriously as a member of the Cat Worshipper religion, he/she must climb the tree, referred to as Ikkin, where our origin ruler, our God, our ancestral mother, Nikki I died. Most people who climb the tree are between the ages of 15-20, but anyone can choose to do this at any point in their life, and may choose to do it more than once. The whole Island must witness the climbing of Ikkin, and the individual must stay in the tree and pray three prayers: O Nikki my God, Nikki’s Prayer, and the Cat Creed. There is already a cat minister present in the tree to hear and confirm that all three prayers have been said. Upon return to the ground, Queen Nikki LIX herself tattoos the individual with the religion star, using pigment from various indigenous plants.  This ritual serves as a way to confirm those in the community who have a desire to be connected with their religion and their cat ancestors. The Cat Worshipping religion is a big part of the Kitty-Kats’ identity and it was holds the society together. The climbing of the Ikkin tree reinforces the value the members of our society place on religion. While not all humans on our Island will climb the Ikkin during their life, it is still seen as the norm for people do this at least once. Those who do not take part in this rite are not shunned in any way, but they are seen as different.

Government

The Queen’s Death Rite

            Upon learning that the current queen’s health condition is deteriorating, the planning for her death rite takes place. When her royal cat assistants believe the end is near, they send royal cat messengers to announce when the death rite ritual will take place. On the day of the rite, typically the day the royal assistants believe she will die, the entire Island gathers around the Ikkin tree where, under it, Her Majesty is placed on a bed of flowers. Every individual, cat or human, must pay their respects to the queen by placing another flower on her bed. The heir to the throne, her oldest cat daughter, initiates the ritual by placing the first flower, always a green rose, as green is the color of life and symbolizes Nikki I—the giver and taker of life, on her bed. Once the entire Island has had their chance to pay their respects, the royal cat assistances and the heir to the throne will wait by Her Majesty’s bedside until she dies. Sometimes other people and cats will stay in the area and watch from afar. Once the Queen passes, her heir becomes the new ruler, and, to assert her newfound dominance over everyone on the Island, she eats the body of the previous queen, her mother. Our society takes part in this ritual because we respect our queen. This ritual is especially for the humans, as it serves for the cats to emphasize their dominant role in our society.

Kinship

The Kitty-Kat Ceremony

            Since everyone on our Island is seen as kin, we all gather together on the first day of the year (January 1^st) for what we call the Kitty-Kat Ceremony. During this ceremony, everyone on the Island gathers at the Queen’s castle for a feast, where all humans and all cats eat fresh-caught fish out of a large communal vat. The Queen receives her own large vat full of fish and birds. Everybody recounts all of the important things that happened the previous year (births, deaths, marriages) to each other. They also bring homemade presents to give to their brothers and sisters. Each individual gives their homemade presents to their brothers and sisters who they feel they haven’t connected with very often in the past year. This ceremony gives the whole Island the opportunity to reconnect with each other, and reaffirm their ties as a community. Kinship is very important to us, and it is crucial to have a good relationship with everyone on the Island. We cannot let ourselves drift apart and lose connection with our brothers and sisters. Our Island is stronger when we are all close and have one another for support. At the end of the ceremony, everyone personally hugs each member of the society, until every person has hugged each other at least once.

Marriage

The Night before Marriage Ceremony

            For humans in our society, every marriage is arranged by the parents of the people to be married. The night before the wedding, the two people to be married, along with their parents, must meet under the Ikkin Tree. Here, a cat minister is present to witness the ceremony. He or she is the only witness. Each person, the bride-to-be, the groom-to-be, and their mothers and fathers will, one at a time, approach the tree and pray to Baby, the ancestral cat of love. They will ask Baby to bless the marriage, to make it stand the test of time, and for it to be fruitful. After each individual has prayed, they all gather together, holding hands around the tree and sing “O Baby Bless this Marriage”. After they sing, they all circle the tree, while still holding hands, five times going clockwise. After this is complete, the couple is ready to be married the next day in front of the whole Island. This ritual emphasizes how important it is for us to have lasting marriages that produce many offspring. Although our marriages are arranged, our parents still want to make sure the marriage will work out and be full of love. We must do this before we marry in order for Baby to bless our marriage with children in order for our society to live on.

Rites of Passage

Birth

            Only the birth of a new cat is ritualized in our society. When a cat on the Island gives birth, she only has one kitten at a time. Everyone on the Island is present for the birth, which takes place under the Ikkin tree. A cat always knows the exact day she will give birth, so this rite is planned far in advance. Only other cats are allowed to help her in the birthing process, as they are wiser than any humans are. At the moment the kitten is born, the entire Island must pray the Birth Prayer in unison. This is initiated by one of the cats helping with the birth. After the Birth Prayer, the kitten is taken to the Queen and cleaned by Her Majesty. Once he/she has been cleaned, the Queen names the new kitten and  he/she officially becomes a new royal member of Kitty-Nikki Island.

Coming of Age

            The coming of age ritual, called Big Cat, is only for humans, as cats are already respected and do not need to prove themselves as members of our society. This rites takes place once a year, under the Ikkin tree. Every human, males and female, on the Island that turned 13 that year is obliged to participate in the rite. A cat minister administers the rite and serves as an elder to the individuals involved. The whole Island is invited to watch the initiates, who must paint themselves to look like cats. After all of the initiates are painted with strips, whiskers, and pink noses, they are separated from everyone else and put in a large tent under the Ikkin (separation). Here, they must stay until sundown the following day. They are not allowed to eat or drink or sleep. While in the tent they talk to each other and are taught about hunting and other useful skills from the cat minister. The cat minister leaves the tent for the night, leaving the initiates alone to bond and keep each other company to distract from the hunger, thirst, and sleep deprivation they feel (communitas). The next morning, the cat minister comes back to tell stories about the seven ancestral cats, and prepare them for their reincorporation that night. At sundown, everyone on the Island gathers at the Ikkin tree to witness the initiates coming out of the tent. They come out and climb the Ikkin tree together, then jump off together onto a big tarp. This signifies their jump from childhood to adulthood, and as official members of Kitty-Kat society. Once they land on the tarp they are adults and official members of Kitty-Kat society (reincorporation). From the time they go into the tent to the time they jump down from the Ikkin, they are between childhood and adulthood (liminal stage). By being able to live without food, water, or sleep, and jumping off the Ikkin, they are proving themselves to be as a strong as cats, and worthy of membership in our society.

Marriage

            After the public wedding ceremony, the couple leaves the venue (typically the home of the bride’s parents) and goes to a party at the Queen’s castle. They are considered a married couple until after this party. Besides a cat minister, only young, unmarried people are in attendance (separation), along with the new bride and groom. Since technically none of the people at this party are married yet, they are all equal and bond as young people (communitas). The bride and groom disregard the norms of how a couple is supposed to act. They flirt and interact with other people of both sexes for the first part of the party (liminality), and then the cat minister comes and calms the party down. All the young people gather around the minister who talks about marriage and how this party, for the bride and groom, is the last chance to have fun with other people. Then, the bride and groom must join together and sit alone for five hours, only talking to each other, while the other young people party around them. This signifies their restraint and their loyalty to each other. The bride and groom leave the castle (reincorporation) with the status as a married couple. During the second half of the party, they had to restrain themselves from being distracted by the temptations of other young people, which prepares them to be a married couple, as from then on out they have to be loyal to each other.

Death

            When a human dies the body is taken to the Ikkin tree and laid out. Besides a cat minister only the parents, blood siblings, spouse, and children may attend this rite. They must spend the night at the tree with the body. In the morning the family wraps up the body in cloth and takes it back to their home, for it to be buried in their yard. A deep grave is dug, and before the body is placed in it, lots of fresh caught fish are placed in the grave to provide nourishment for the deceased in the afterlife. The body is lowered into the grave and the minister blesses the deceased. The family waits at the grave for the Queen to arrive. Once she has arrived, she must go in to the grave and leave her scent on the body. After she has left her mark on the body, the grave is covered up and the soul can ascend in to Heaven. All of this must be done in order to guarantee that the soul goes to Heaven.

The Cat Worshipers of Kitti-Nikki Island (Kitti-Kats)

We are the cat worshipers of Kitti-Nikki Island or, as we call ourselves, Kitti-Kats. We are only a tribe of 2,000 people and there are exactly 26 cats, including our queen, living on the Island. Kitti-Nikki Island is a small island of 60 square miles in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Our Island is rich in plant biodiversity; we have many tall, beautiful trees that sometimes we have trouble getting down from. The island has many high hills. From atop these hills it is possible to see out over the entire Island, and because of this, living on these hills is preferred. Our climate is tropical, but rain is a very rare (and scary) thing for us. It never gets too hot or too cold here, because we are surrounded by water (scary) and that helps keep the temperature of the Island steady.  We mostly hunt for subsistence; there are several native mice species that are our most commonly hunted food, and sometimes we also go after small reptiles, like geckos and other little lizards. Fishing is another common way we get our food, although we like to stay completely dry when doing this. We will never get in the water no matter how hungry we are.  In our culture, the hunting and eating of any kind of bird is extremely sacred. We only hunt and eat birds during our religious rituals and some celebrations. However, our queen, Nikki LX, is allowed to hunt and eat any bird whenever she wants (most of the time she’s too lazy to hunt the bird herself, so she’ll allow others to hunt for her).  On occasion we’ll eat wild leaves and fruit.            

We worship cats because we came from cats. Some 3,000 years ago, five cats—Kitty, Fat Girl, Bella, Tom Cat, and Nikki I – arrived on the Island by raft. These cats came from another, much larger Island, which no longer exists, as it was destroyed by dogs shortly after our ancestors left it.  These five, special cats were extremely intelligent and were able to live off of our small Island. Tom Cat only mated with Nikki I and she gave birth to five litters in the first year on the Island.  In each litter, two cats and one human were born. Each year after that, Nikki I had one litter of two cats and one human until she died at the age of 50. By this time, there were 55 humans and 110 cats on the Island. Every cat that was descended from Nikki I was treated as a brother or sister of the humans. Cats are much wiser than us, so the humans learned everything about how to live through their cat siblings. Eventually, though, our Island was attacked by dogs and only two of our cat siblings, Baby and Chubbz, survived the ordeal.  All of the cats we have on the Island now are the descendants of these two cats, and therefore they are our siblings.             
 As a part of our religion, we do not worship our sibling cats, but rather we treat them as royalty. We only worship our seven ancestral cats—Kitty, Fat Girl, Bella, Tom Cat, Nikki I, Baby, and Chubbz. Each cat protects us and provides us with certain things. Kitty protects us from the water/rain, but provides us with freshwater to drink. Fat Girl protects us from food shortages and provides us with plenty of mice to hunt. Bella protects us from the sun and wind, and provides us with shelter. Tom Cat protects us from poisonous plants, but provides us with tall trees to climb. Nikki I is our mother cat who protects us from diseases and illnesses. She is the giver and taker of life. Baby protects us from hate, and provides us with a love for everything. Chubbz protects us from gluttony and provides us with the fish that we eat.

            Cats have always been in charge of running our society. All cats are capable of speech and have the capacity to rule over humans. Our government is a monarchy ruled by Queen Nikki LX. She has been our ruler for the past 10 years, since her mother Nikki LIX died.  All cats on the Island hold positions in the government and have authority over all humans, even though we consider them our siblings.         

   In our culture, kinship is traced through the mother’s side in cats, and the crown is handed down from mother to daughter. For humans, though, we all accept that we are the descendants of Tom Cat and Nikki I, and therefore we are all siblings. We treat everyone on the Island as if they are our brother or sister. We do not see anyone except our parents and our spouses as anything but a sibling.
            Marriages are arranged by the government based on who they believe will produce productive citizens in our society. If an individual has not been matched up with their spouse by the age of 20, it is more than likely that that individual will lead a solitary life. Marriages last for life and cannot be terminated.

The religion star represents each ancestral cat through the seven colors represented. The colors in the five points are the colors of the five founding cats. The star stands for everything each cat does, plus the beginnings of our culture. Not only is it our religious symbol, but also a symbol of our heritage, as the two go hand in hand.



This is the flag of Kitti-Nikki Island. It displays an image of our ancestor and mother cat, Nikki I. Each circle next to her represents the other four founding cats of our Island.  The flag represents our form of government, the monarchy, with Nikki I as our first monarch. This symbol also represents the government and the power that cats have over humans, as they were the ones who founded our Island and tribe.
This is our marriage symbol. The two rectangles represent each spouse and their coming together to create a bond that produces life. The green square in the middle represents the offspring that they produce, as green is the color of life. The symbol also represents positivity and productivity, as well as unbreakable bonds and everlasting relationships, as marriages are not allowed to end in our society.

This symbol represents kinship. It is a web of all things we stand for, featuring all of the colors of our ancestral cats. Everything is tangled together in to one big web, much like our big family on the Island. This symbol also represents unity and our reliance on each other to make our society work.