Book
Molded in the image of Changing Woman: Navajo views on the human body and personhood
University of Arizona Press • Tucson • Published In 1997 • Pages:
By: Schwarz, Maureen Trudelle.
Abstract
In this book, Schwarz examines Navajo notions of the human body, self, and personhood as related to her through the oral histories of her informants. She carried out her fieldwork at a time when Navajo from different walks of life and experience were talking to each other in order to make sense of their changing world. According to Schwarz, the Navajo origin and creation stories are a charter for life, constituting a philosophical system that underlies the cultural construction of the Navajo world and their role in it. Sandpainting, basketry, weaving, and architecture replicate this world. In the girls' puberty rite the body is massaged and modeled as if it was clay to conform to Navajo notions of appropriate physical bearing and beauty, in accord with the knowledge imparted by the Holy People of the First World. Schwarz discovered that her informants related their knowledge on various levels of understanding from the simple to the profound, a path that eventually lead to the explication and revelation of the inner forms of life and the cosmos.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2004
- Region
- North America
- Sub Region
- Southwest and Basin
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard ; 2003
- Field Date
- 1991-1995
- Coverage Date
- 1991-1995
- Coverage Place
- Navajo Nation, southwestern United States
- Notes
- Maureen Trudelle Schwarz
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-286) and index
- LCCN
- 96045816
- LCSH
- Navajo Indians