II

RITUAL, SYMBOLISM, AND THE NATIVE VIEW

 SWASTIKA: A NEW SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATION
by Stanley A. Freed and Ruth S. Freed
Known by a word derived from Sanskrit that means "object of
well-being," the swastika (figure la) is humanity's oldest and most wide-
spread symbol of any complexity. The only constant interpretive fact
about it is that it symbolizes good luck (Brown 1933:17-18). Although
its origins are lost in antiquity, it probably first appeared in western Asia
in an area bounded by the Indus River, Mesopotamia, and the Helles-
pont in the fourth millennium B.C. (Brown 1933:19, 23; John 1941:50).
It subsequently spread over Europe and parts of Asia by the early
centuries of the Christian era, and reputed examples from pre-Columbian
times have been identified in the New World (D'Alviella 1894, Plate 111;
Wilson 1896:889). Scholarly fascination with the swastika derives from
its antiquity, its wide distribution, and its mysterious magical quality,
which was apparent before the Third Reich had impressed the symbol
into the consciousness of the world in the 1930s and 1940s. Heiden
describes the impact of its first public display in pre-war Germany: "In
1921, Hitler's new red banner with a black swastika in a white disk was
unfurled in the open for the first time. The effect was so inflammatory
that Hitler himself was surprised and pleased. [It] gave Hitler one of his
mightiest magical weapons. - . . An uncanny power emanated from the
mysterious sign" (Heiden 1944:143-144).'
The symbolic meaning of the swastika is basic to the formulation of
a definition that distinguishes the true swastika from unrelated but
similar symbols. An inquiry into its symbolism is hampered by the
relative absence of adequate historical information and a noteworthy
disagreement among authorities on important points. In the absence of a
revealing archaeological discovery, the original symbolism will never be
known with certainty; nevertheless, an investigation of the subject is
justified because it bears on several matters of consequence: the dif-

Stanley Freed is Curator of The American Museum of Natural History. Ruth Freed is
Professor of Anthropology at Seton Hall University.
88 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

FIG 1. SWASTIKA
(3) A N D ALLEGED VARIANT FORMS (b-h). Source: Wilson 1896, Fig.
13a-d.

fusion and reinterpretation of a symbol, the migration of populations,

independent invention versus diffusion, the function of symbols in
human cognition, and the remarkable tenacity of the psychological effect
of an ancient symbol that largely accounts for the often remarked
"mystic power" of the swastika (e.g., Shirer 1959:72).
An exhaustive treatment of the literature dealing with various
aspects of the problem of the swastika is beyond the scope of a short
essay. We propose to present only enough background discussion that
the reader may have some idea of the complexity of the problem and
then to offer our own symbolic interpretation, which, to the best of our
knowledge, has not been proposed by other writers on the swastika. Our
interpretation is based on recent observations of the use of the swastika
in rural northern India, which indicate that the swastika is a symbol that
may represent ancient planetary gods. The history and distribution of the
swastika appear to support this interpretation.

FORM

The swastika, known also as the grammadion, croix gammGe,

Hakenkreuz, and fylfot, is a right-angled cross, the arms of which are
 SWASTlKA 89

equal in length, each arm with an extension set at a right angle to its end,
all four extensions pointing in the same direction, either right (clockwise)
or left (counterclockwise). Various authors identify as swastikas a
number of symbols that resemble it. Several such symbols are illustrated
in figure 1. These variant forms of the swastika, if such they are, present
a problem with regard to its history and distribution, especially in the
New World, for almost all of the alleged pre-Columbian New World
swastikas appear to be variant forms,

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

The earliest recorded occurrences of the swastika seem to have been

at Samarra in central Mesopotamia and at Susa in western Iran, where
clear swastikas appear on pottery from about 4000 B.C. (John 1941, Plate
C; our figure 2). Somewhat later, the swastika was depicted on pottery
from Hissarlik and on seals from the Harappan civilization. By the
beginning of the Christian era, the swastika was well established in an
area from India through western Asia into Europe. This zone can be
considered the area of the primary diffusion of the swastika. It is no
coincidence, as will be seen in the discussion of symbolism, that the zone
of primary diffusion largely coincides with the area settled by speakers of
Indo-European languages. At present, the use of the swastika is most
prominent in India, where it is frequently used in ceremonies and as a
decorative motif, for example, on houses.

FIG 2. FULLYPRESERVED POTTERY VESSEI FROM SAMARRA with a swastika a t the Center
of a design featuring animals (a). CLAYVESSEI. FROM SUSA with two swastikas (b).
Source: John 1941, Plates C. 5, 6, p. 5 5 .
90 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

A generally later diffusion of the swastika took place in central and

eastern Asia. The swastika had been adopted by Buddhism from Hindu-
ism, and as Buddhism spread from India into Tibet, China, and Japan,
the swastika traveled with it. In its later travels, it retained its constant
symbolic meaning of good luck.
The most vexing distributional problem regarding the swastika is its
occurrence in the New World in pre-Columbian times. The problem has
three aspects: whether the true swastika can be identified a t all in the
pre-Columbian New World, the frequency of such occurrences, and
whether they are d u e t o diffusion, pre-Columbian migration, or in-
dependent invention. Our comments o n these matters should be regarded
as provisional, for we have not systematically consulted archaeological
site reports. Nonetheless, we have investigated several claims of the
occurrence of pre-Columbian swastikas and find that a11 but one of them
must be regarded a s dubious. The principal problem is that the so-called
swastikas are generally variant forms. A good example of this problem is
the "water jug with figure of swastika" from Arkansas illustrated in
Wilson (1896, figure 254) and reproduced here as figure 3. The alleged
swastika appears to be a cross in a circle, a relatively common motif
among the pre-Columbian populations of the United States, and, in-
cidentally, one that occurs in the Old World.
There appears to have been a tendency t o accept uncritically
statements about the alleged occurence of the swastika in pre-Columbian

FIG 3. WATERJUG FROM with cross-in-a-circle decoration. Source: Wilson

ARKANSAS
1896, Fig. 254.
 SWASTIKA 91

America. For example, Webb and Baby (1957:107) list the swastika as a
motif from the Moundville site in Alabama because Moore describes and
illustrates a copper gorget that "shows a central swastika formed by
excision" (Moore 1905, figure 134, quotation from p. 217). We have
reproduced Moore's ilIustration as figure 4a and believe that it requires a
fair amount of imagination to discern a swastika in the indicated symbol.
Webb and Baby (I957:106) also accept as a swastika a design from the
Erowah site in Georgia that Moorehead (1932, figure 22) illustrates and
describes as a "Breastplate of copper. . . . Circles enclosing a swasti-
ka." This design (figure 46) is similar to the one from Moundville. In
neither of these cases is the characteristic hooked-cross swastika appar-
ent. Both designs are best regarded as variants of the cross-in-a-circle
motif. Moore provides a clear example of this particular variant of the
cross and circle in his illustration of the design on a pot that shows

FIG 4. D E ~ I G NREPRESENTING
S THE CROSS-IN.A-CIRCLE from the Moundville site, Ala-
bama (a, c) and the Etowah site, Georgia (b). Sources: Moore 1905, Figs. 89, 90, 134;
Moorehead 1932, Fig. 22.
 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

FIG 5. VARIANT OF THECROSS-IN-A-CIRCLEDESILN I ROM TENNESSEE The intersecting arms

of the cross create the effect of a swastika at the intersection. Source: Holmes 1884, Fig.
140.

"four triangular tails of the woodpecker. . . . On each tail is a swasti-

ka" (Moore 1905, figures 89, 90, quotation from p. 190). We have re-
produced the design as figure 4c.
A pre-Columbian shell ornament from Fains Island, Tennessee
(figure 5), provides an example of the disagreement of scholars con-
cerning the interpretation of the form of a symbol. Holmes (1884, figure
140, quotation from p. 467) describes the design as follows: "The
design, enclosed by a circle, represents a cross such as would be formed
by two rectangular tablets or slips slit longitudinally and interlaced at
right angles to each other." Wilson (1896:879) declares that "The in-
cised lines of this design (fig. 237) represent the Swastika turned to the
left (though the description does not recognize it as such)." Our opinion
is that the design is a slight variant of the common cross-in-a-circle motif
of the southeastern United States. The rectanguIar arms are slit and in-
terlaced so that the lines formed by the intersection of the arms of the
cross appear to form a swastika. This feature is, however, an incidental
characteristic of this particular variant of the cross and circle.
The uncritical acceptance of variants as swastikas can result in
strained theoretical interpretations. Thus, Wilson suggests that the oc-
currence o f the swastika on shells from Tennessee, which he regards as
incontestable, and another shell from the same area, which depicts a
figure that "to all appearances . . . represents one of the Buddhist
divinities . . . presents a set of circumstances corresponding with [the
possibility of the migration of Buddhism from Asia]" (Wilson 1896:881-
882). Although such a conclusion cannot be entirely dismissed, it is best
 SWASTIKA

FIG.6 . COPPER SWASTIKAS TRObl O N E OF THE H O P E W E L LMOUNDS. OHIO. Source: Moore-

head 1922, Plate LXVII.

to insist that the amount of supporting evidence be in proportion to the

importance of a theory; in the case of Buddhist influence, the evidence
appears to be too scanty and dubious to support the conclusion.
A cache of copper objects found in one of the Hopewell mounds,
Ross County, Ohio, included several swastikas, two of which are depict-
ed in Moorehead (1922, plate LXVII). They are clear swastikas repro-
duced here as figure 6, and their pre-Columbian date cannot be seriously
challenged. Their presence poses the questions of their symboIic meaning
and whether they are the result of influence from Eurasia or a case of
independent invention. The first question can probably never be an-
swered. As for the second, the fact that these copper swastikas are
unique and there appear to be no comparable objects from other sites in
adjacent regions argues for a very cautious vote for independent in-
vention.
Nuttall (1901, Plate 11) illustrates an arrangement of the years of the
52-year cycle from Central Mexico as a variant form of the swastika. The
symbol (figure 7) departs from the cross-and-circle motif so widespread
in the southeastern United States only in four slight gaps that occur in
the circle adjacent to the ends of the arms, which permit the figure to be
viewed as a countercIockwise swastika. We prefer to interpret the symbol
as a cross and circle because it appears to resemble that design more
closely than that of the typical hooked-cross swastika. In any case, a pre-
Columbian date for the symbol is not certain.
 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

I E D OF A N A R R A N G E M E N T or THE Y E A R S or Ttle sz-YEAR

FIG 7. S I M P L I ~ SKETCH CYCLE from
Central Mexico. Source: Nuttall 1901, Plate 11.

SYMBOLlSM

Scholars have proposed a considerable number of theories for the

symbolic meaning of the swastika: that it represents the sun, the moon,
the yearly rotation of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, cardinal points,
eternity, Zeus, Baal, fire, several Hindu deities (among them Agni,
Indra, Vishnu, and Ganesh), light, forked lightning, water, the union of
the sexes, fertility, and a fire-making apparatus known as the fire drill
(Wilson 1896:770-791; Nuttall 1901:15-21; Dani'elou 1964:295; Brower
1907:241-243; Mitra 1932; Davis 1967: 146; d'AIviella 1894:44-83).
In forming these theories, their advocates have generally relied on
the occurrence of the swastika in contexts that appear to provide clues to
its symbolism, the alleged substitution of the swastika for symbols of
recognized meaning or its proximity to them, or to the reputed natural
functioning of the human mind. We provide a few of these theories as
illustrations. John (1941:50) argues, for example, that "The swastika,
which from the earliest times was so closeIy associated with woman,
must, like the female figures themselves, have been a fecundity symbol."
He cites such evidence as the presence of the swastika on female face-
 SWASTIKA 95

urns from Troy dating to about 3000 B.C. and on objects associated with
women, such as spindle-whorls and loom-weights.
It is commonly proposed that the swastika represents the sun. Count
Goblet d'Alviella (1894), following several other authors, supports the
theory largely on the basis of the association of the swastika with
symbols, images, and deities of the sun. The frontispiece of his book, for
example, depicts the painting on a krater of Apulian provenance from
the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna: Apollo is shown in a quadriga
surrounded by a radiate disk with a swastika on his breast. Baldwin
(1916:50) regards this painting as of crowning importance for the mean-
ing of the swastika, for Apollo is here clearly represented as a sun-god.
Wilson (1896:785-788, quotation from p. 788), however, examined the
argument and concluded that "the theory remains undemonstrated."
Nuttall (1901:14-23, quotation from p. 21) advances a theory based
chiefly on "ideas which would naturally suggest themselves to the mind
of the primitive observer." Such a person, observing the yearly rotation
of Ursa Major around the pole star and concentrating upon its image at
four equidistant positions, would perceive the form of a swastika. Her
own experience illustrates the mental processes involved. "In a flash of
mental vision I perceived a quadrupled image of the entire constellation,
standing out in scintillating briIliancy from the intense darkness of the
wintry sky. . . . it bore the semblance of a symmetrical swastika of giant
proportions. . . . I left my window, on that memorable night, with a
growing perception of the deep and powerful influence the prolonged
observation of Polaris and the circumpolar constellations would naturally
have exerted upon the mind of primitive man7' (NuttalI 1916:14-15).
The claims of such theorists regarding the symbolic meaning of the
swastika suffer from the unknown origin of the symbol, the fact that
ancient symbols often acquire many meanings, and especially from the
Iack of a dear connection between the form of the swastika and its
alleged meaning. The circular sun is not readily apparent in the angular
swastika; the connection of the swastika and, for example, an elephant-
headed deity (Ganesh) or the union of the sexes is even more dubious.

SYMBOLISM OF THE SWASTIKA I N RURAL NORTH INDIA

The swastika is a prominent symbolic element in the ritual life of

rural north India, especially in ceremonies that mark a beginning, such as
the rites of birth and marriage. A priest officiating at such ceremonies
sometimes draws a swastika as an element of the symbolic design
depicted in colored powders on the ground that serves as an altar for the
fire ceremony. In ceremonies of birth and marriage, and at festivals,
96 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

women often draw swastikas on pots, on the ground, and on walls.

When a symbol representing a festival has been removed after the
conclusion of the festival, women sometimes draw a swastika to replace
it in order that no evil spirit may enter into the empty space.
In the course of recent anthropological fieldwork in rural north
India, during one of the series of rituals that constitutes a wedding we
observed the swastika used in a way that suggests that it represents nine
ancient planetary deities known in Hinduism as the graha.' These deities
are the five planets visible to the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn), sun, moon, and the ascending and descending
nodes of the moon, which are conceived of as demons that pursue the
sun and moon and cause eclipses.
The wedding ritual in question is known as Barat Lena (Reception
of the Wedding Party), during which the groom is welcomed by the
bride's family. A large brass tray containing sacred paraphernalia and
symbols had been prepared for the ceremony. On the tray was drawn a
faint swastika in turmeric. At each of the nine points that, when con-
nected, define its form (the center, vertices of the angles, and the end
points of the arms), a pile of rice had been placed (figures 8, 9).
We suggest that the nine piles of rice arranged in a three-by-three
square may reveal the symbolic meaning of the swastika. In Hindu sam-
skaras (orthodox ceremonies), the graha are usually represented by nine
squares in a three-by-three pattern, each one often bearing the symbol of a
specific deity, or more simply by nine dots. The central square represents
the sun, the creating principle. Around it are arranged the other planetary
deities that, together with the sun, represent the entire universe. That draw-
ings of the graha are intended to encompass creation and the universe is fur-
ther indicated by a short projecting line usually drawn at one edge of the
three-by-three pattern of squares (see figure 10); the projection beyond the
squares stands for the multitude of deities not represented by the drawing o f
the graha.
The symbolism of the swastika is probably contained in its nine
points representing the planetary deities. The lines are principally a dra-
matic way of connecting the points to make them more visible; they give
a feeling of motion and excitement. The swastika was probably used as a
substitute for squares or other representations of the planetary gods so
long ago that the connection of the swastika, the squares, and the graha
has been forgotten. On one level, the swastika represents the planetary
deities; at a deeper, or more general level, it represents the power of
creation and the universe, just as does the three-by-three drawing of
squares that also represents the graha.
SWASTIKA
 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

F I G 9. SKETCHO f THE SWASTIKA from the photograph of BARAT LENA (Fig. 8) showing
the nlne piles of rice and the bands of turmeric connecting them. Source: authors.

F I G 10. DESIGNI)KAWN ON TRE <,ROUND t o serve as an altar for a ceremony to forestall

the inauspicious effects of the Mula Nakshatra. The central square that encloses the swas-
tika has three appendages at each corner. Similar appendages are sometimes added to swas-
tikas from Samarra and Susa (John 1941: 53, 54, Plates C. 3, 4). The nine small squares
attached to the left side of the large square represent the graha. Source: drawn from a
photograph by the authors,
 SWASTIKA 99

That the connection of the swastika and the planetary deities has, to
the best of our knowledge, eluded previous writers on the swastika is
due largely to misdirection. Once they focused their attention on the
arms of the symbol, the nine points became psychologically invisible. The
nine piles of rice and the faintness of the underlying swastika directed
our attention to the points as the significant feature of the swastika. In
the context of a wedding ceremony where the nine planetary deities are
so prominent, once the swastika was viewed as a figure with nine points
the connection of the symbol and the planetary deities became obvious.
The interpretation of the swastika as a symbol of the planetary
deities offers an explanation for a heretofore inadequately explained
elaboration of the swastika that occurs both in the Mediterranean region
and in India: the swastika with four dots in the angles of the intersecting
arms. Baldwin (1916:29, 40; figures 15, 16) depicts two examples, a vase
from Melos from the second millennium B.C. and a clay disk from Thera,
reproduced here as figure 11, and she discusses other examples from
Greece and Troy.
We observed a similar variation of the swastika used in a ceremony
in rural north India. A design (figure 10) had been drawn in colored
powders on the ground to serve as an altar for a fire ceremony to
forestal1 the unfortunate effects that birth under an inauspicious
astrological sign could have on a recently born male infant and his
family. As the moon revolves through the heavens, it passes near twenty-
seven conspicuous stars or groups of stars that were recognized and
named in ancient times (Freed and Freed 1964:68). Of these twenty-
seven lunar mansions (nakshatras), some were believed to be auspicious
and some inauspicious. Rural north Indians believed that the Mula
Nakshatra had the most evil influence. The ceremony that we observed
was for the benefit of a male infant born under this sign.

FIG.1 I . CLAYDISK FROM THERA.

Source: Baldwin 1916, Fig. 16.
100 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

The fact that the swastika with four dots was drawn for a ceremony
involved with one of the lunar mansions provides the clue to the in-
terpretation of the dots. In Hindu mythology, the twenty-seven lunar
mansions were the daughters of Daksha (Ritual-Skill), who gave them to
the Moon as wives. The first offspring of this union were four planets,
Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter (Dani'elou 1964:98; Bentley 1970:2-
5). Bentley (1970:4-5) attributes this myth to "occultations of the
planets by the Moon in the respective Lunar Mansions . . . . [in] the year
1424-5 B.C, . . . Saturn is not mentioned among these births, probably
from his being situated out of the Moon's course." Thus, the four dots
in the angles of the swastika may represent the four planets born from
the union of the Moon and four nakshatras; this added symbolic element
is appropriate in a ceremony conducted for a nakshatra. The symbolism
of the swastika is consistently that of planetary deities.
The only other explanation of dots accompanying the swastika that
we have seen comes in conjunction with the theory that the swastika
represents the ancient Indian fire drill. The dots are supposed to
represent four nails that secured four arms of the hearth of the fire drill.
A dot at the center of the intersecting arms represented the hole into
which the tip of the drill was inserted and spun. Wilson (1896:777-778)
summarizes the theory and criticisms of it. The difficulty about the
supposed connection of the swastika and the fire drill lies in not knowing
precisely the appearance of the ancient fire drill or whether nails were
used to make it. Wilson cites authorities to the effect that the old Indian
fire drill consisted of only two pieces of wood, a hearth and a drill, and
that four nails and the swastika had nothing to do with it.
We suggest that the symbolic meaning of the swastika as deduced
from its ceremonial use in modern north India could well have been its
original symbolic meaning. To use the identification of the swastika with
the graha based upon a ceremony observed in 1978 as grounds for a
theory of the origins of the symbol assumes some continuity of Indian
religious tradition from ancient times to the present. Such an assumption
is by no means unjustified. The swastika appears on seals from the
Harappan civilization, the origin of which dates to the third millenium
B.c., as does another symbol, the grid, which also depicts nine points and
may have been another representation of the planetary deities (figure 12).
In addition, there is more than one representation on Harappan seals of
a deity that closely resembles the great god Shiva of modern Hinduism as
the Lord of the Beasts and Prince of Yogis. Mother goddess worship, a
feature of modern Hinduism, is foreshadowed in Harappan religion; there
is also evidence of some form of phallic worship and of the sacredness of
the pipal tree (Piggott 1950:201-203). Piggott (1 950:203) concludes that
Harappan religion was "essentially Indian from the start." Links between
 SWASTIKA

FIG.12, DESIGNS
ON HARAPPAN
SEALS. Source: Fairservis 1971:275.

Harappan religion and modern Hinduism appear to be well established, and

the relationship of the swastika and the planetary deities may be one such
link.

DISCUSSION

The interpretation that we suggest depends upon more than a single,

or even several, associations of the swastika and a symbol of known
meaning (for example, the swastika drawn on the chiton of Apollo that
we previously described); rather, it is based upon the identification of a
symbol of known meaning that is an integral part of the swastika. The
equation of the swastika and the planet-gods does not depend upon the
occasional association of symbols; the nine points are always present, for
they are part of the swastika. Moreover, it requires no leap of the
imagination to see the connection of the form of the symbol and its nine
referents, whereas one must make an effort to imagine, for example, an
elephant-headed deity (Ganesh), the union of the sexes, a fire drill, or
even the sun in the swastika.
The relationship of the swastika and the planetary gods fits the
history and distribution of the symbol rather well. If its origin was in the
general region of Mesopotamia and western Iran (John 1941:50, 54;
White 1909:92), the necessary astronomical knowledge existed there at
an earIy date. The Mesopotamians had identified the five planets and
they had also learned to "half-predict eclipses" (Kroeber 1948:485).
Thus, they knew about the ascending and descending nodes of the moon,
which are the only times that eclipses can take place. Moreover, they
identified the planets as gods.
102 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

When the week was invented in western Asia (Kroeber 1948:486),

the names of the Babylonian planetary deities were used to designate the
days. As the week diffused over the Old World, the peoples who ac-
cepted it, such as the Greeks, Romans, Germans, and Indians, renamed
the days after their own deities. The absence of the swastika in Egypt,
except on imported goods such as Greek pottery, can be explained by the
fact that the ancient Egyptians did not equate gods and heavenly bodies,
except for the Sun God; hence, the symbolism of the swastika would
have had no meaning for them. If the swastika represented only the sun,
it would be difficult to explain its absence in Egypt, for Re, the Sun
God, was a principal deity.
The connection of heavenly body-god-weekday from India to
Europe coincides with the area most anciently identified with the
swastika and strengthens the interpretation of the swastika as a symbol
of the planetary gods. Its comparative absence in other areas of the
civilized world of antiquity, for example, Egypt, also is in accord with
this interpretation. It was probably spread as much by the migration of
the Indo-European tribes as by diffusion; in any case, it is more closely
identified with speakers of Indo-European languages than with other
populations and has found its greatest use among them. The combination
of seven deities and two demons may account for its use as a symbol of
good luck, for the two demons are summoned and overcome by the
power of seven (an auspicious number in India, Western Asia, and
Europe), thus assuring the believer that all will be well.
Acceptance of the swastika as a symbol of the planetary deities
would simplify some matters that have occupied archeologists and histori-
ans. The problem o f alternate forms of the swastika could be reappraised.
Symbols that lack nine clearly defined points in a three-by-three pattern
are in most cases probably not swastikas. A re-analysis of such forms
would bear on the problem of the diffusion of the swastika, especially its
alleged presence in the New World. The various spirals, volutes, ogees,
and cross-in-circles that pass for swastikas in the New World probably
have nothing to do with the hooked cross of the Old World. I t is
especially important that scholars disregard claims about the presence of
New World swastikas unless their proponents provide an illustration so
that an independent judgment can be made. For example, without
providing an illustration, Baldwin (1916:55) says, "Pottery from
Central Mexico [Toltec period] in the Natural History Museum of New
York shows the [swastika] as an ornamental motif." Dr. Gordon
Ekholrn showed us the pottery that he thinks is in question, and the
decorations are not hooked-cross swastikas,
However, the elimination of vaguely similar designs from con-
sideration as swastikas creates a new problem: the copper swastikas from
 SWASTIKA 103

the Hopewell mound become quite mysterious. There are designs that
clearly occur in both the pre-Columbian Old and New Worlds, such as
the cross-in-a-circle, that are widely spread in the New World. Why did
not the swastika so diffuse? The question of why the swastika did not
diffuse widely in the New World can be raised whether the Hopewell
swastikas were of Old World origin or were independently invented. It is
tempting to explain the general absence of the swastika in the New
World as due to the fact that for some reason it tended to be identified
with its original symbolism and, therefore, was not easily accepted by
populations that lacked planetary deities. This explanation, however,
ignores the fact that symbols are often reinterpreted as they diffuse. The
form of a design and its meaning may be independent. Has the swastika
been an exception?
There appear to have been two peak periods of scholarly interest in
the swastika, the first around the beginning of the twentieth century and
the second during the period of the Third Reich in Germany. At present,
symbolic analysis is one of the noteworthy interests in anthropology. Yet
one of the world's most famous, or infamous, symbols has been largely
ignored. Because of the considerable number of archaeological in-
vestigations in the Old and New Worlds since the Second World War, a
comprehensive investigation of the swastika would considerably advance
our understanding of this mysterious symbol that recalls the half-
forgotten deities and demons that guided human destiny at the dawn of
civilization. Its principal heirs, the Indo-European speakers, still respond
to its mystical power.

NOTES

We thank Dr. David Hurst Thomas and Dr. Gordon F. Ekholm, who read and
criticized the manuscript; Ms. Celia Orgel and Mr. Jeffrey P. Bonner, who assisted with the
library research; Mr. Nicholas Amorosi, who prepared the line drawings; and Ms. Nazarie
Romain, who typed the manuscript. Field research in India was sponsored by the Indo-U.S.
Subcommission of Education and Culture, the Indo-American Fellowship Program, which
awarded a Senior Research Fellowship to Dr. R. S. Freed, and the American Institute of
Indian Studies, which granted a Senior Research Fellowship to Dr. S. A. Freed. We thank
these two organizations and also the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi,
with which we were affiliated while in India. We owe a special debt of gratitude to Dr. In-
dera Pal Singh, Chairman of the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, and
Mr. P . R . Mehendiratta, Director, American Institute of Indian Studies.
1 . Shirer (1959:71) described Hitler's adoption o f the swastika as the Nazi emblem as
a "stroke of genius. What the party lacked, he saw, was an emblem, a flag, a symbol,
which would express what the new organization stood for and appeal to the imagination of
the masses. .. . Whence Hitler got the idea o f uslng it for both the flag and the insignia of
the party he does not say in a lengthy dissertation on the subject in Mein Kampf."
104 RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES

Heiden (1944:143) traced the assoc~ationof the National Socialists and the swastika to
Finland and Estonia where it was an official emblem. In 1918-1919, the German Free Corps
fought the Bolsheviki in the Baltic region from where, presumably, they brought the swas-
tika home with them. A brigade of these troops participated in a putsch in Berlin in 1920.
The putsch was defeated, the troop disbanded, and many of its off~cersfled to Mun~ch
where they enrolled in Hitler's storm troopers (Sturrnabteilung). It was they who brought
the swastika to the Nazis.
2. Hindi words have been written in italics except those contained in Webster's Third
New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (e.g., samskara).

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