littlebigplanet 1000 years earlier
I know nothing about LittleBigPlanet except there's a sack creature and maybe it is a 3d 3rd person platformer? Is its art style particularly similar?
kachina dolls are the best thing + the spirits themselves have really great stories.
not much else to add that you haven't gone over but here's a good page on them, plus the header image is an interesting interpretation:http://kachina.us/cult.htm
I was looking at that, but it's not very thorough!
That game I linked looks a little not like what I want (using them because they look cool, not as a major story/world element), but it's not out yet & there's very little information about the story, so maybe it'll be pretty great instead of just cute.
I have no memories of the Southwest but apparently they are commonly appropriated for logos and business mascots and things. Most of the really colorful (and elaborate) ones I've seen in museums are only around 20 years old, but that might just be lack of conservation (because the earlier ones would more likely have been used, or kept in private collections).
Other links:
http://140.247.195.10/katsina/default.html (Harvard Peabody's page from 1997, pages load intermittently) (also searchable in their online collection)
http://www.nativeamericanlinks.com/kachina/kachina.htm - very short field guide to the different types
http://www.squidoo.com/kachinas is not bad as a starting point (
book recs, though it's more collector-oriented)
BASKETBALL CLOWN KATSINA - he loves to "root" for his favorite sports teams. whatever you do DO NOT light that cigarette!
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Dump topic for stuff thecatamites/bonzi_buddy/etc. might like