Language and Art in the Navajo Universe

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Summary: An analysis of symbols in Navajo cultural constructs.
Review: Witherspoon approaches his study of Navajo culture with the assumption that there exists some basic tenet of the Navajo cultural system that is all-enduring, but that it is the surface dynamism of this culture that characterizes the adaptability of the Navajo people. Witherspoon spent fifteen years living with the Navajo, and his experience in their language comes more from his work as a teacher and in other personal roles than from anthropological research. He sustains that there is a cultural chasm that separates Navajo culture and Western culture. Different languages contribute to this chasm, as does ritual, a large part of the behavior that non-Navajos do not seem to understand. The question of why rituals are carried out in the way that they are garners typical responses of non-Navajos. Most often, non-Navajos claim that ritual continues because of religious prescription. The curing of ailments by ritual is dismissed as coincidence and psychosomatic effect. Witherspoon argues that these conclusions are not valid because they are made in the viewer's frame of analysis rather than that of the Navajo. "Navajo acts arise out of their world and make sense within it" (15). Language and Art in the Navajo Universe aims to bridge the gap between Western and Navajo cultures.