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4. Traditional Navajo Health Beliefs and Practices (by Jerrold E. Levy)

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Disease Change and the Role of Medicine
This chapter is in the book Disease Change and the Role of Medicine
4Traditional Navajo HealthBeliefs and PracticesNAVAJO RELIGIONTHROUGHOUT the greater Southwest it has been observed that"in spite of the complex intertwining of ideas, two separate linesof religious practice can ... be followed out. Oversimplified,they are as follows: The agriculturists tend to develop communalceremonies, the hunters, personal religious participation" (Un-derhill 1948:viii). Traditional Navajo religion is an amalgam ofthese two lines, for the Navajos, originally hunters from thenorth, mixed with the Pueblos, especially after the rebellion of1680, and adopted many features of Pueblo religion. Navajoreligion is directed toward the maintenance of harmonious rela-tionships between man, nature, and the supernaturals. As illnessis a major indicator of disharmony, Navajo religious ritual ispredominantly health oriented. This is congruent with the em-phasis of hunters upon personal religious participation focusedupon the health and well-being of the individual. There aremany references to crops in the rituals, "but Navaho ceremonial-ism does not show the intense preoccupation with maize and itslife cycle which characterizes the true farming peoples" (Under-hill 1948:x).It has also been observed that hunters seek visionary experi-ences and often have shamans whose powers are divinely re-ceived rather than acquired through years of apprenticeship."The pattern of agricultural ceremonies," by contrast, "tends to
© 2019 University of California Press, Berkeley

4Traditional Navajo HealthBeliefs and PracticesNAVAJO RELIGIONTHROUGHOUT the greater Southwest it has been observed that"in spite of the complex intertwining of ideas, two separate linesof religious practice can ... be followed out. Oversimplified,they are as follows: The agriculturists tend to develop communalceremonies, the hunters, personal religious participation" (Un-derhill 1948:viii). Traditional Navajo religion is an amalgam ofthese two lines, for the Navajos, originally hunters from thenorth, mixed with the Pueblos, especially after the rebellion of1680, and adopted many features of Pueblo religion. Navajoreligion is directed toward the maintenance of harmonious rela-tionships between man, nature, and the supernaturals. As illnessis a major indicator of disharmony, Navajo religious ritual ispredominantly health oriented. This is congruent with the em-phasis of hunters upon personal religious participation focusedupon the health and well-being of the individual. There aremany references to crops in the rituals, "but Navaho ceremonial-ism does not show the intense preoccupation with maize and itslife cycle which characterizes the true farming peoples" (Under-hill 1948:x).It has also been observed that hunters seek visionary experi-ences and often have shamans whose powers are divinely re-ceived rather than acquired through years of apprenticeship."The pattern of agricultural ceremonies," by contrast, "tends to
© 2019 University of California Press, Berkeley

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. Mortality, Fertility and Social Organization 8
  6. 2. Economic and Demographic Change on the Navajo Reservation 26
  7. 3. Disease Patterns on the Navajo Reservation 64
  8. 4. Traditional Navajo Health Beliefs and Practices (by Jerrold E. Levy) 118
  9. 5. Health Care Utilization (with Helena Temkin-Greener) 146
  10. 6. Changing Mortality and the Role of Medicine 179
  11. Appendix I: Data and Methods 189
  12. APPENDIX II 195
  13. Notes 199
  14. References 203
  15. Index 221
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https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520909649-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. Mortality, Fertility and Social Organization 8
  6. 2. Economic and Demographic Change on the Navajo Reservation 26
  7. 3. Disease Patterns on the Navajo Reservation 64
  8. 4. Traditional Navajo Health Beliefs and Practices (by Jerrold E. Levy) 118
  9. 5. Health Care Utilization (with Helena Temkin-Greener) 146
  10. 6. Changing Mortality and the Role of Medicine 179
  11. Appendix I: Data and Methods 189
  12. APPENDIX II 195
  13. Notes 199
  14. References 203
  15. Index 221
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