The Navajo
By: by James F. Downs.
Series: Case studies in cultural anthropology
Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Published: 1972
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 136
Subjects: Navajo Indians -- Social life and customs
Notes: Includes bibliographies.
Table of contents: title: Evolution of the Navajo people. The Nadene stock -- The Athapaskans -- The Apaches -- The early Navajo -- Primary organization and physical environment. The reservation -- The land -- Society. The female principle -- The inviolability of the individual -- The primacy of age -- Reciprocity -- The social units. The family -- Homestead and outfit -- The clan -- Kinship and kinsmen -- Residence, mobility, and land tenure. Traditional use area -- Factors of mobility -- The changing pattern of mobility -- The adaptability of the hogan -- The animals. Utilitarian animals -- Marketable livestock -- The tools and techniques of livestock operations -- Ownership, benefit, and responsibility -- The family and the herd -- The crops. Learning to farm -- Gathering -- Farming and the nuclear unit -- Religion. The myth -- Daily activities -- Sings and singers -- Public ceremonies -- Death and the dead -- Witches, werewolves, and society -- Wealth and the traders. Status symbolism -- Establishment of the trader -- The store -- Agent of change -- Headmen and chairmen. The Na’tanii -- The tribal council -- The growth of self-government -- Past and present -- Change and continuity. Persistence and adaptability of Navajo culture -- Sources of change -- References -- Selected additional readings.