Book

Navajo kinship and marriage

University of Chicago PressChicago • Published In 1975 • Pages:

By: Witherspoon, Gary.

Abstract
This source, based on the author's fieldwork and experience on the Navajo reservation, is a survey of social organization in the Rough Rock-Black Mountain area. The work is theoretically oriented towards demonstrating how actual patterns 'of' behavior differ from the ideal patterns 'for' behavior (p. x). Part I, for example, discusses the ideas and conceptual framework which guide and order Navajo behavior, but which are distinct from it. In Part II, Witherspoon presents actual patterns of social organization and behavior and attempts to illustrate how these patterns become more understandable when the underlying rules, ideas, and conceptual framework are understood. The concluding section deals with the 'Social Universe of the Navajo,' an attempt to explain and interpret kinship and social organization from the Navajo's standpoint. The researcher will find much information here on kinship and kin groups, family relationships, marriage, residence patterns and subsistence. Throughout the source the important role of the subsistence residential unit (a form of the extended family) in various economic and kin related activities is stressed.
Subjects
Family relationships
Basis of marriage
Clans
Kinship terminology
Extended families
Residence
Termination of marriage
Ethnosociology
Kin relationships
Regulation of marriage
culture
Navajo
HRAF PubDate
2004
Region
North America
Sub Region
Southwest and Basin
Document Type
Book
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
John Beierle ; 1985
Field Date
ca. 1962-1970
Coverage Date
ca. 1920s-1968
Coverage Place
southwestern United States ( general Navajo area); and Rough Rock-Black Mountain region, Arizona, United States
Notes
Gary Witherspoon
Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-134) and index
LCCN
74021340
LCSH
Navajo Indians