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