Definition of "kachina" []

• Any of numerous deified ancestral spirits of the Pueblo peoples, believed to reside in the pueblo for part of each year. (noun)
• A masked dancer believed to embody a particular spirit during a religious ceremony. (noun)
• A carved doll in the costume of a particular spirit, usually presented as a gift to a child. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The word kachina is a little confusing since it refers to the dolls, which have no power."
• "Phoenix's character chooses to live life in the Nevada desert as a hermit making Navajo kachina dolls that he believes have magical powers (a kachina is a spirit in western Pueblo cosmology and religious practices)."
• ""ka", part of the word kachina, the Hopi spirits, of which Masau'u was one."