Changed the title for you.

Take your time. It's a very different way of looking at things than what is (for lack of a better word) "typical". It's kind of funny how the Navajo were considered to be without religion for a bit simply because the people studying the tribe at the time didn't realize how all encompassing their beliefs really are. Navajo belief isn't just a belief. It's an actual way of life. I can't imagine what their impressions must've been when witnessing a funeral.

Experiencing firsthand the way Navajo's approach death and spirits really blew me away when I first moved out here. Here i was with this wonderful family, all very intelligent--great people--and imagine my shock when one uncle started talking about how one of his coworkers had seen a spirit at work that day and fainted. And even more shocking, they all just nodded as he told them all the things he said to console her. It was like stepping into the twilight zone.

The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that the Navajo take a very reasonable approach to such things. Look at the way western culture is. We all have heard ghost stories...some of us may have even seen or experienced what we thought was a ghost. Of course, saying "I saw a ghost last night" receives a wildly mixed reaction. It doesn't nearly have the unquestioning acceptance like it does in Navajo culture. Yet, we avoid places where bad things have happened, perhaps even feel a bit "icky" if we walk in a cemetery...if a house is thought to be "haunted" in our culture, it's generally stems from somebody having died there. So, in alot of ways, we tend to think like Navajo ourselves. The only difference is that the Navajo accept it entirely and have amended their way of life in order to perhaps eliminate "haunted houses" and etc. In the end, as superstitious as the Navajo may have initially seemed, I rather think that they approach the matter with a great deal more commonsense than we do.

The everything having a spirit thing is very strong. It reaches even into the core of Navajo creation stories. Their creation myth doesn't start with the dineh (what they call themselves) but with the insect people, sparrow people, and so on. Even when the people meet the Pueblo in the fourth world--they're still not "human". So, perhaps this is where the connection of all things having spirits comes from. Perhaps the insects are seen as having spirits because at one time, the people were insects and so on. I can't say for certain because I still have alot to learn. This is simply what I suspect. But the belief that all things have spirits is all encompassing. Even if a spider or a snake should enter a home, a Navajo will avoid killing either at all costs but would prefer to escort it outside, carefully. There are many ways to offend these spirits--whether it be spiders, ants, dogs, cats, sheep, coyotes, snakes, frogs even. It's rather like they are all deities and mistreat one, well...never know what can happen as a result.

Stephanie




In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson