Earth is my mother Essay

The informants suggest in writing was to understand for herself and to be able to present Navajo sandpaintings as dynamically sacred living entities whose meanings lie in the process of their creation and white plague (page xix). Sandpaintings, created from different colored sands and sacred objects, ar non art. They argon representations of mythologic creations and legends created for the purpose of reestablishing some geniuss health and harmony. The study of sandpaintings and their respective(a) meanings permits the lecturer considerable insight into Navajo land-tied ghostly imprints, humankind view, creation myths, society, history, and flush concepts of time.The author, Trudy Griffin-Pierce, provides little autobiographical information in the handwriting. She mentions her rootless Air reap upbringing and how her early readings were devoted to books about inseparable the Statesn culture, in particular the Navajo. Although she is distantly related to the Catawba Ind ians of South Carolina, she always felt a phylogenetic relation with the Navajo and run lowd for a time with a Navajo family, learning their traditions, history, and language. This bond drew her to genus Arizona after she completed her undergraduate degree in art at Florida State University.N. Scott Momaday, in his Forward, adds that Ms. Griffin-Pierce is a very creative artist, up to(p) of understanding and discus bubble the artistic dimension of the Navajo world. She makes the inventive and imaginative Navajo system of belief without our understanding. Ms. Griffin-Pierce received her doctorate in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1987, where she is currently supporter Professor in the Anthropology Department and teaches three courses. The information on her website at the University of Arizona reveals that this was her first published book.She has written four newer books, The Encyclopedia of Native America (1995), Native Americans Enduring Cultures and Traditions (1996), Native mickles of the Southwest (2000), and Paridigms of Power The Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of state of war and Naiches Hide Paintings (in press) and two articles, When I am Lonely the Mountains cover Me The Impact of Sacred Geography on Navajo Psychological Well organism, and Navajo Religion. All of her writings center on the history of Indians in the United States Southwest. She is currently studying aging and dementia among Arizonas Native Americans.In Earth is my arrest Sky is my Father, Ms. Griffin-Pierce details Navajo ghostly beliefs, world views, historical myths, societal structure, and astronomical concepts before she discusses the use and structure of Navajo sandpaintings. Basic Navajo religious beliefs be still followed by many Navajos who chose not to assimilate the tenets of Christianity presented to them in the 1800s. There is no word for religion in the Navajo language. Spirituality, health, harmony, and beauty are inseparable. The worldly concern is an all-inclusive whole where everything has a erratic place and beneficial relationship to all other living things. immortal is the Unknown Power worshipped through His Creation. The Navajo also have a close relationship with the beatified pile, with whom they interact daily. (page 34) Navajo religious beliefs are about tied to their intense longing for and their love of their homeland, which they consider the point in space from which all conceptions of the cosmos proceed. (page xv) The land and the earth is their unveiling of all belief, wonder, and meaning in human existence, and the four sacred mountains are the center. There are no permanent religious centers. The Native American Church is a local peyote visionary religion. The Navajo have a circular concept of time that permits their mythic, spiritual world to coexist with their carnal world. The author suggests that the Navajo sacred sandpaintings cannot be understood unless we accept the Navajos mythopoetic contex t of use of layered time, space, and meaning. (page 7) Navajo spirituality affirms humanitys place in nature as a whole. Their ceremonies restore the interconnectedness of all life. They take sickness results from failure to maintain reciprocal responsibilities with the environment, infringement of formal rules, and transgressions against ones own mind and bodies.Her purpose in writing this book is to share a much humane, more connected view of the world and its contributions in reestablishing humanitys alignment with the universe. (page 9) Navajos still worship gods and goddesses of unique(predicate) purposes. Their deities include the Sun Changing Woman, who brings the terrestrial seasons and their children, Hero Twins, Monster Slayer, Born-for Water, prototypical Man and First Woman, First Boy and First Girl, the trickster Coyote, and the reticent nonpareils, who cannot utter words.(page 34) These are often depicted in the sandpaintings. Navajos have a concept of the Holy Wind, reminiscent of the Christian Holy Spirit, as a being that exists everywhere and is in all living beings. For them this authority that all living beings are related and that humanity has a function to care for other living beings. Curiously, in Navajo Creation stories, the Holy People spoke, sang, and prayed the world into existence with their sacred words. Since everyone has an inner form and is part of the Holy Wind, each has a Holy Person located within.Oneness with the universe creates a responsibility to treat ones fellow creatures with the equal respect one has towards oneself. (page 73). The Navajos were among the last American Indians to migrate from Asia to North America and were late in arriving in the Southwest. They settled in the geographical rural electron orbit bounded by the four Sacred Mountains in the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Their geographical isolation protected them from diseases brought by the Spaniards and provided them with access to ste aling their horses, sheep, and goats. They larn weaving from the Pueblos.The Navajo societal structure was and is matriarchal, clan, and family based, and they dwell in isolated family groups integrated by the nuclear family, the matrilocal extended family, close relatives, and other relatives. Many Navajo live in frame houses today, but some still choose well-constructed hogans. (page 21) Navajo ceremonial mends involving sandpaintings are conducted by highly trained practitioners called chanters who have learned to sing the elaborate Navajo rituals. The Navajo chanter can cure witchcraft, exorcise ghosts, and establish ohmic resistance to illness.A chanter is a priest, not a priest-doctor, and never enters the shamans characteristic trance state. Most chanters are men. Women become diagnosticians, or shamans who acquire knowledge in a trance state. (page 39) Navajo ceremonials are rites (rattle is not used) or chants (rattle accompanies singing. The major rites (Blessingway and Enemyway) use drypaintings with pigments made from plants, including corn, pollens, cornmeal, flower petals, and charcoal. The author explains that Enemyway is a form of exorcism against the ghosts of aliens, violence, and ugliness.The chanting ceremonies (Holyway, Evilway, or Lifeway) use sandpaintings of different colourise of sand, ocher and charcoal. Other sacred objects, vegetation, and bowls of water are combine into both types of ceremonies. (pages 40-41) There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different sandpainting designs. A sandpainting is a place of entry where supernaturals enter and leave, attracted by their likenesses in the painting. The establishment of this footpath lets the evil or illness in the affected role be replaced by the good, or healing power of the supernatural being. (page 43) The healing ceremonies last for several(prenominal) days.It takes four to six people three to five hours to complete a sandpainting six feed in diameter. The head for the h illsers begin in the center and work outwards. (page 45. The Navajos basic concept is that the powers of the arena and earth are drawn into the sandpainting for the purpose of healing. Time is compressed so that powerful mythic events of the past coexist with the present and restore harmony and well being to the person being healed. (page 58) The sandpainted image is intended to let the sick person project his or her mind through time and space, rising above present earthly limitations.The Navajo layered worldview becomes meaningless during a ceremony as all layers of heavens and underground become one. The Navajos study the constellations and star arrangements primarily for determination of seasons, and they are not part of the ceremonial core of sandpaintings, even though word-paintings of mythical gods of creation in the form of constellations may be used. (page 103) One of the more interesting myths is how Younger Brother went to the sky country and met an inner distribute of strange beings whom he left to stay with the friendly Star People in the outer dwellings.These friendly Star People, whom the Navajo call The People, and the hostile beings are still incorporated into sandpaintings. The author concentrated on the Mother Earth, Father Sky sandpainting because it is the most familiar to outsiders and presents the most detailed depiction of the Navajo heavens of sandpaintings in use today. (page 175) She describes the intricate, careful, detailed process involved in fashioning a sandpainting. Mother Earth and Father Sky must(prenominal) be identical in shape and size. The act of creating a sandpainting is healing because it focuses everyones thoughts on the principles of balance and order.(page 177) The painting becomes alive to serve its prodigious purpose when the chanter strews sacred pollen on it and blesses those attending. (page 183). The sacred and blessed sandpainting forces the long-suffering to reconnect in time and space to past and pr esent sacred forces and reminds the patient of her connectedness to humans present physically or spiritually. (page 194) This book accomplishes the authors stated purposes and does discuss the themes in detail. However, the information is disorganized and scattered, making the book itself hard to read.The authors purpose was to teach the reader how to understand and appreciate the making, content, and purpose of Navajo sandpainting, which she accomplishes. Some of the information presented about Navajo religious beliefs is curiously comparable to Christianity, and the author does not sufficiently discuss whether or not these were original to the Navajo who migrated to the Americas or picked up and changed a bit from what Christian missionaries tried to teach them. The Navajo ties to the religious symbolism of their land is remarkably similar to early Hebrew thought, but no mention is made of that.The textual sources used by the author are all documented look into papers or books t hat are fairly recent in date. One would wish earlier sources had been consulted on some issues, but their availability is not known. The author combines quite boring detailed information with her myths and more spry text, making the book itself a challenge to complete. BIBLIOGRAPHY Southwest Studies Program. Biography of Trudy Griffin-Pierce. University of Arizona. http//web. arizona. edu/swst/ qualification/tgpierce. htm. Griffin-Pierce, Trudy. Earth is my Mother Sky is my Father. Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press, 1992.