From the Malcolm Brenner article Joanne linked:

Navajos won't talk about witchcraft, because the power of the spoken word means talking about something will make it happen. Moreover admitting any knowledge of witchcraft is tantamount to admitting you practice it, because somebody who didn't know anything about it would be too frightened of it to talk about it.

This double bind can make trouble for Navajo medicine men. The only cure for witchcraft in Navajo culture is through the intercession of the Holy People, as directed by a medicine man. While a medicine man is supposed to operate from spiritual motives, it's not uncommon for the Ye'ii-bi-chei patient to pay over $1000 for the ceremony, in cash or trade. Extended families often foot the bill. But there is no alternative - except to step outside the culture. This partially explains the inroads that Christianity and the Native American Church have made in Navajoland.

In order to effectively combat witchcraft, the medicine man must know something about the techniques of sorcery - but that in itself makes him suspect. So does the tendency to amass wealth. The archetypal Navajo nightmare is of a corrupt medicine man working hand-in-paw with a skinwalker: you hex 'em, I'll fix 'em, and we'll split the profits! [teacup's emphasis]. Medicine men often make a great show of humility and poverty; they drive the oldest trucks at the ceremonies.
[www.chasclifton.com]

At first sight the Navajo culture as whole seems to be driven by a sort of symbiotic relationship between Fear and Beauty... not corrupt as in "you hex 'em, I'll fix em" but more in the sense of a strange (to me, as an outsider) sort of Yin/Yang thingey. (???) Am I completely off base here?

There is a 2004 movie called The Village. [www.themoviebox.net] It has nothing to do with the Navajo or with Indians, but the film explores a similar theme. Rent it if you get a chance. I thought it was well done.

Also, I'm reminded of stories of how sorcerers are said to trick a potential student into believing that s/he is being attacked by other sorcerers so that the student will have a very urgent desire to learn. Could that play a part here? Surely the medicine men have secrets they keep even from their own people?

t.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2005 03:35AM by teacup.