A study of Navajo culture with a view to its philosophical underpinnings examines the dynamism and adaptability of the Navajo language, and the enduring relevance of ritual in the Navajo world-view.

Explores the relationship between the cultural roots of the Navajo and the aesthetic forms and styles in their sandpainting, weaving, and silverwork. Finds in the work a symmetry of the whole derived from the fundamentally asymmetrical Holy Pair embodied in the Changing Woman, and shows how that pattern is observable in other modern art and science.

Introduction / Lyle Massey and James Nisbet -- Desolate dreams / Joseph Masco -- Air, wind, breath, life : desertification and Will Wilson's AIR (Auto-Immune Response) / Jessica L. Horton -- Notes from bioteknika / Albert Narath -- Troglodyte modernists / Lyle Massey -- Explosive modernism : Hiram Hudson Benedict's Bouldereign and Zabriskie Point at 50 / Edward Dimendberg -- Point Omega/Omega Point : desert In three parts / Stefanie Sobelle -- The desert in fine grain / Emily Eliza Scott -- The desert as black mythology / Bridget R. Cooks -- On the recalcitrance of the desert island, by way of Andrea Zittel's A-Z West / James Nisbet -- Four theses for the coming deserts / Hans Baumann and Karen Pinkus.

First published in 1910, An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navajo Language is still the standard and most complete work of traditional Navajo life, social customs, religion and material culture. Its unique approach through the medium of language gives an insight into Navajo culture, unlike that of any other work. It is unique in many respects: it is an intimate, detailed and informative account of the traditional Navajo universe in all of its manifestations. Diné Bizaad (Navajo language) has become an endangered language and many contemporary Diné are to a large extend not familiar any more with some of the aspects of their traditional culture, recorded in this publication. This book is a great resource not only to the general reader, or student and scholar of Navajo culture, but also for Navajo parents who want to pass on traditional teachings to their children to ensure the longevity of the culture of their ancestors.Native Child Dinétah is reprinting and creating new editions of historical writings to help preserve and continue Navajo culture, language, and history. This book is a hand-scanned facsimile reprint of the original. Each page is checked manually before scanning and printing. When necessary, individual pages have been improved and enhanced for readability. Each book is true to the original work.

There are many parallels and some revealing differences in the encounter between, on the one hand, the Americans and various Indian tribes and, on the other, the Russians and some of the peoples of the Caucasus and Siberia. The enduring cultural consequences of these encounters provide a fruitful area of inquiry for the comparative examination of national images in literatures. The major focus on this study is the perceptions and literary portrayal of the Chechens by the Russians and the Navajos by the Americans. Both the Chechen in Russian literature and the Navajo in American literature are often constructs, images derived from a potent combination of prejudices and received assumptions. In each case a relatively sizable corpus of writings produced over a century or longer exemplifies or attempts to counter persistent and influential modes of cultural stereotyping. The diachronic analysis of the portrayal of either the Chechens or the Navajos illuminates patterns of prejudice that have immense implications for both popular and high culture. The juxtaposition of the discussion of the two groups as they have been treated in Russian and American literature can deepen our understanding of the commonalities present in attempted cultural domination or ethnic idealization. Margaret Ziolkowski is Professor of Russian at Miami University, Ohio.

Sunset. Fire. Rainbow. Drawing on such common occurrences of light, Navajo artists have crafted an uncommon array of design in colored glass beads. Beadwork is an art form introduced to the Navajos through other Indian and Euro-American contacts, but it is one that they have truly made their own. More than simple crafts, Navajo beaded designs are architectures of light. Ellen Moore has written the first history of Navajo beadwork—belts and hatbands, baskets and necklaces—in a book that examines both the influence of Navajo beliefs in the creation of this art and the primacy of light and color in Navajo culture. Navajo Beadwork: Architectures of Light traces the evolution of the art as explained by traders, Navajo consultants, and Navajo beadworkers themselves. It also shares the visions, words, and art of 23 individual artists to reveal the influences on their creativity and show how they go about creating their designs. As Moore reveals, Navajo beadwork is based on an aggregate of beliefs, categories, and symbols that are individually interpreted and transposed into beaded designs. Most designs are generated from close observation of light in the natural world, then structured according to either Navajo tradition or the newer spirituality of the Native American Church. For many beadworkers, creating designs taps deeply embedded beliefs so that beaded objects reflect their thoughts and prayers, their aesthetic sensibilities, and their sense of being Navajo—but above all, their attention to light and its properties. No other book offers such an intimate view of this creative process, and its striking color plates attest to the wondrous results. Navajo Beadwork: Architectures of Light is a valuable record of ethnographic research and a rich source of artistic insight for lovers of beadwork and Native American art.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice An ABC Australia Best Book on Religion and Ethics of the Year Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition—a wide-ranging, nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution, especially but not exclusively cultural evolution. “Of Bellah’s brilliance there can be no doubt. The sheer amount this man knows about religion is otherworldly...Bellah stands in the tradition of such stalwarts of the sociological imagination as Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Only one word is appropriate to characterize this book’s subject as well as its substance, and that is ‘magisterial.’” —Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review “Religion in Human Evolution is a magnum opus founded on careful research and immersed in the ‘reflective judgment’ of one of our best thinkers and writers.” —Richard L. Wood, Commonweal