I've been reading about Kokopelli, a deity venerated by First Nations peoples in the southwestern United States. He is a god of fertility, music and agriculture, but what is fascinating to me is that Kokopelli is depicted as being hunchbacked (his name means "wooden backed" in Hopi). This may be because he is based on Aztec traders who carried their loads on their backs, or because his origin lies in a legend of a village hunchback who was a trickster - but the Missippian culture further east depicted a hunchbacked woman in art.
All very interesting because of my own disability. Hunchbacks are represented in European art and literature as objects of fear or pity, so Kokopelli is someone I will have to become more familiar with.
