book chapter
A note on star-lore among the Navajos
Journal of American folk-lore • 21 • Published In 1908 • Pages: 28-32
By: Tozzer, Alfred M. (Alfred Marston).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a short but extremely interesting account of the symbolism of perforations on a gourd rattle prepared during the Night Chant. On the basis of informants declaring that these represented constellations, the author compared them with scientific charts of the skies, and found that the Navajo possessed an accurate knowledge of the stars depicted. Alfred M. Tozzer, a curatior of Middle American archaeology at Harvard's Peabody Museum, was an instructor in archaeology at Harvard at the time he prepared this paper, which was read at the Nineteenth Meeting of the American Folk-Lore Society in Chicago.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Decorative art
- Musical instruments
- Ethnometeorology
- 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.
- Archaeologist
- 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
- 1900s
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- southwestern United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Alfred M. Tozzer
- This document consists of excerpts
- The reader will find a chart making comparisons of Navajo knowledge of the skies and constellations in categories 531, 534, and 821.
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 17028737
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Navajo Indians