book chapter

Navaho treatment of sickness: diagnosticians

American anthropologist, n.s.33Published In 1931 • Pages: 390-402

By: Morgan, William.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a detailed account of Navajo diagnosis and treatment of disease by diagnosticians. It covers hand-tremblers, stargazers, and listeners: their theories of diseases, their methods of prediction, their rituals, sacred objects and therapeutic efforts at curing. The author also touches on other functions of diagnosticians: advice about unusual incidents, provisions for warding off dangers, help in the recovery of lost possessions, and oneiromancy. In discussing the latter, he stresses the importance of dreams as factors in everyday life of the Navajos. The author is an anthropologist who gathered the material personally on the Reservation. Capital letters in the text denote Navajo informants. Small letters denote Euro-American informants. Since Morgan is primarily interested in a study of individuals, he has inserted informants in order to prevent his statements from sounding like tribal generalizations.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Theoretical orientation in research and its results
Price and value
Representative art
Theory of disease
Shamans and psychotherapists
Medical therapy
Medical care
Spirits and gods
Prayers and sacrifices
Revelation and divination
Ethnometeorology
Ethnozoology
Ethnopsychology
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Navajo
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2004
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Southwest and Basin
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
book chapter
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Katchen S. Coley ; 1951
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
not specified
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Navajo Reservation, Arizona, New Mexico, United States
NotesAdditional notes
William Morgan
This document consists of excerpts
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
1715424
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Navajo Indians