Kiva

A kiva is a room used by Puebloans for religious rituals, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square walled and underground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies.

Similar subterranean rooms are found among ruins in the American southwest, indicating uses by the ancient peoples of the region including the Ancestral Puebloans, the Mogollon and the Hohokam. Those used by the ancient Pueblos of the Pueblo I Era and following, designated by the Pecos Classification system developed by archaeologists, were usually round and evolved from simpler pithouses. For the Ancestral Puebloans, these rooms are believed to have had a variety of functions, including domestic residence along with social and ceremonial purposes.

Evolution of the kiva

During the late 8th century, Mesa Verdeans started building square pit structures that archeologists call protokivas. They were typically 3 or 4 feet (0.91 or 1.22 m) deep and 12 to 20 feet (3.7 to 6.1 m) in diameter. By the mid-10th and early 11th centuries, these had evolved into smaller circular structures called kivas, which were usually 12 to 15 feet (3.7 to 4.6 m) across. Mesa Verde-style kivas included a feature from earlier times called a sipapu, which is a hole dug in the north of the chamber that is thought to represent the Ancestral Puebloan's place of emergence from the underworld.

Kiva (album)

Kiva (1995) is a collaborative album by the American ambient musicians Steve Roach, Michael Stearns and Ron Sunsinger. A kiva is an underground ceremonial chamber used by Native American cultures of the Southwest.

The album is a mixture of traditional Native American ceremonies and highly experimental ambient music.

“East Kiva, ‘Calling in the Midnight Water” is a Peyote ceremony. “South Kiva, ‘Mother Ayahuasca” is an Ayahuasca ceremony from the South American rainforest. “West Kiva, ‘Sacrifice, Prayer and Visions” is a Sundance. The Sundance is an elaborate ceremony used by the tribes of the central plains to seek visions and initiate holy men. “North Kiva, ‘Trust and Remember” is a non-traditional improvisation created by the three artists in a cave in Northern New Mexico.

Track listing

Kiva (musician)

Kiva Simova is a Canadian harmonic overtone singer keyboard player and songwriter, based in Saltspring Island, BC, Canada. She is internationally recognized as a western pioneer in world beat/jazz music, particularly the art of harmonic overtone singing (singing two pitches simultaneously) which she both performs and teaches. She composes for overtone choir and has directed her own such choir, AURALIA in Prague.

Discography

Kiva has released three solo CDs featuring original compositions and her own style of overtone singing and recorded albums with a diverse range of artists.

Kiva's solo recordings include 1998's 'The Ladder', featuring thirteen originals by Kiva, one song co-written with Gary Taylor and one cover of a Bob Fuhr/ Larry Hicock song. Her 2004 album 'Pulse' features ten originals, including co-writes with Rhys Fulber, Nii Tettey Tetteh, John Hudson, Jay Stoller and Jordan Hanson. The third album, 'The Quality of Light', released December 2013 (with artist name adjusted to 'Kiva Simova') contains ten originals. It features an improvised piece co-written with didgeridoo player Ondrej Smeykal.