Blood and voice : Navajo women ceremonial practitioners / Maureen Trudelle Schwarz ; linguistic and cultural consultant, Mae Ann Bekis ; fieldwork assistant, Amelda Sandoval Shay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schwarz, Maureen Trudelle, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Navajo Indians--Medicine.

Navajo Indians.

Navajo women--Biography.

Navajo women.

Indian women healers--Southwest, New--Biography.

Indian women healers.

New Southwest.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 186 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Tucson : University of Arizona Press, [2003]

Summary:

Adulthood in the Navajo world is marked by the onset of menstruation in females and by the deepening of the voice in males. Accordingly, young adults must accept responsibility over the powers manifest in blood and voice: for women, the forces that control reproduction and growth; for men, the powers of protection and restoration of order that come through maintaining Navajo oral tradition. The maintenance of the latter tradition has long been held to be the function of the Navajo singer, a role usually viewed as male. But despite this longstanding assumption, women can and do fill this role. Drawing on interviews with seventeen Navajo women practitioners and five apprentices, Maureen Trudelle Schwarz explicates women's role as ceremonial practitioners and shows that it is more complex than has previously been thought. She examines gender differences dictated by the Navajo origin story, details how women came to be practitioners, and reveals their experiences and the strategies they use to negotiate being both woman and singer. Through the words of actual practitioners, Schwarz shows how each woman brings her own unique life experience to the role. While differing among individuals, these experiences represent a commitment to shared cultural symbols and result in a consensus that sustains social cohesion. Blood and Voice offers a better understanding of the role of Navajo women in a profession usually viewed as a male activity -- and of the symbolic construction of the self in Navajo culture.

Contents:

I The Study of Navajo Female Ceremonial Practitioners 3

II "It is a Gift ... from the Holy People" 15

III "The Ceremony Itself Got a Hold of Me" 39

IV Blood

Dangerous and Otherwise 77

V "It's Yours Now" 95

VI Communicating with the Holy People 113

VII Following the Ceremony 141.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [167]-177) and index.

ISBN:

0816523002

0816523010

OCLC:

50982305