DCHP-1 Online
hamatsa [< Kwakiutl hāmats'a; cf. haem eat] Hist. 
1 n. a member of the Hamatsa Society.
See also: Hamatsa Society hanata
- 1907 The hamatsa or medicine man, when he first comes from the woods, carries a dead body in his arms professing to have lived on such things while in the woods, and as soon as the hamatsa comes in the house, the other hamatsas all get up and go and tear the body to pieces, among them, like dogs. . . .
- 1958 . . . "shamens" or witch-doctors and ascetic "hamatzas, " all of whom alone still stand for the ideal remnant, so deeply versed in the cult of their ancient and almost forgotten Indian rituals, ceremonies and ancestor worship.
2 n. See quote.
- 1958 One dance, the hamatsa, was a form of cannibalism and flesh eating was connected with it.
- 1907 The hamatsa or medicine man, when he first comes from the woods, carries a dead body in his arms professing to have lived on such things while in the woods, and as soon as the hamatsa comes in the house, the other hamatsas all get up and go and tear the body to pieces, among them, like dogs. . . .