essay

A taxonomic view of the traditional Navajo universe

Handbook of North American Indians. Southwest10Published In 1983 • Pages: 579-591

By: Werner, Oswald, Manning, Allen, Begishe, Kenneth Y..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article focuses on Navajo cultural knowledge as reflected in language and expressed by taxonomy. Data are from well-structured interviews with twenty-eight informants. After a lengthy methodological section on how the taxonomies were elicited and what taxonomy is, the authors move to native taxonomies of plants, animals, ceremony, and meteorology. Also covered are native terms for anatomy, physiology, and societal denominations. Mythology is touched on only briefly. The relationship of these taxonomies to semantics or other cultural aspects is not addressed.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Theoretical orientation in research and its results
Interviewing in research
Organization and analysis of results of research
Grammar
Semantics
Cosmology
Mythology
Organized ceremonial
Ethnogeography
Ethnobotany
Ethnozoology
Ethnoanatomy
Ethnophysiology
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
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Indigenous Person
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
Richard A. Wagner ; Marlene Martin ; 1985
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)
southwestern United States
NotesAdditional notes
Oswald Werner, Allen Manning and Kenneth Y. Begishe
For bibliographical references see 197: Brugge (p. 780-839)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
77017162
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Navajo Indians