front cover of Language and Art in the Navajo Universe
Language and Art in the Navajo Universe
Gary Witherspoon
University of Michigan Press, 1977
This is a complex and theoretical study on the roles of language and art in Navajo culture, resulting from nearly a decade of research on the Navajo reservation. The structures of Navajo thought, language, speech, and knowledge are used to frame discussions on a number of topics. Primary among these from a cosmological perspective are the concepts of inner and outer forms in the duality on nature coupled with static and dynamic concepts of motion. Also explored is the importance of language in ritual control and perceptions of action, causality, and plurality. Two terms essential to the Navajo ethos are semantically explored as organizing principles. The first is the concept of k'T which finds its primary expression in the patterning of kin relationships and solidarity. The second is h=zh=, which is most easily glossed as representing Navajo ideals of harmony and order. Art examples, represented by music, sand painting, and weaving, are used to demonstrate how these complex semantic and cosmological considerations find their way into Navajo daily ritual life. Information is also included on color classification, numerology, mythology, ethnophysocology, and taxonomies. The conclusions expand the data into summary statements of Navajo ethos.
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Navajo Kinship and Marriage
Gary Witherspoon
University of Chicago Press, 1996
The Navajo are one of the most studied people in the world; yet their social organization is one of the least well understood. In Navajo Kinship and Marriage, Gary Witherspoon, a fluent speaker of the Navajo language who lived among the Navajo for eight years, offers a new theoretical approach to kinship based on its cultural dimensions. Witherspoon makes a primary distinction between culture (patterns for behavior) and the system of social relations (observable patterns of behavior) in this definitive work on Navajo kinship and marriage.

"Witherspoon . . . clarifies problems pertaining to Navajo kinship and marriage through his skillful use of the concepts of cultural and social systems. He adds to the body of knowledge on the Navajo by his own fieldwork and unique life experiences." —R. S. Freed, Sociology

"Not only can Witherspoon's book on Navajo kinship help unravel the web for the Anglo willing to concentrate, it can also bring to Navajo readers an understanding of why Anglos don't understand Navajo family relationships." —Joanne Reuter, Navajo Times

"This is an important work on Navajo kinship and marriage." —David F. Aberle, American Anthropology
 
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