Being a Grandmother in the Tewa World

INTRODUCTION This paper summarizes the descriptions of "grandmotherhood" provided to me by approximately 25 percent of women of various ages at San Juan Pueblo. It also includes observations I have recorded concerning use of kinship terms and other kin-based behaviors. In my attempts to understand the range of grandmotherhood, I use the concept of grandmother to denote both an achieved and an ascribed status: achieved by living long enough to raise a child healthy enough to have a child; ascribed by custom when a child of a child is born. One cannot change these biological facts. One can choose whether or not to engage in the behaviors expected of persons in this life stage. This paper is based on analysis of oral history materials I have collected; my reading of Doris Duke archival materials; formal interviews with a range of tribal members; and informal discussions and participant observations of more than three hundred members of a Tewa extended family with whom I have worked annually for various lengths of time over the course of twenty-three years. The full extended family represents approximately one-half of the Tewa who live at San Juan Pueblo