Navaho Witchcraft [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (MA)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807046213
• ISBN-13: 978-0807046210
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,852,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars read it if interested in navajos, April 17, 2004

By 

Makula Aulanchis "wirnggit" (Jerez de la Frontera, Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Navaho Witchcraft (Paperback)

There is one thing a full-blooded Navajo will never do: talk about "skinwalkers" (witches) who are thought to roam at night doing their nasty business. Talking about witches tells the informant's community that (a) he knows things he shouldn't know (i.e., he is a witch himself) or (b) he becomes liable to the hatred and revenge of witches he talked about. It is a great achievement of Kluckhohn's to have made an exception to this rule - his understanding of the Navajo culture (following 37 years of study), empathy for the people, and understanding of social mores allowed him to obtain the trust of the locals and get information which is jealously guarded and never divulged to non-natives. This book details some of the practices which evolves in parallel to the curing (BLessing Way etc) rituals. There are many parallels with beliefs in other indigenous communities (werewolves, spells etc), especially with those of the neighboring Pueblo tribes.

This book's usefulness is in that we get first hand information on Navajos from one of the pioneers in the field of anthropology. The anthropological models used by K. are a bit outdated; for him the fear of witchcraft developed as an instrument of social control which allowed people to channel their hostility in a socially permissive manner (most accused witches tend to be rich men and/or Indians from neighhboring settlements; Hopis were especially feared). The weakness of the book is that K. did not really understand - or practice- Navajo ways. He never attended a single witchcraft ritual, never met a self-confessed witch and his informants lacked knowledge or were sufficiently elusive for his information to be more or less on the level of statistically evaluated hearsay (which used to pass as anthropology and still does). Still, this is a valuable book, a classic, and if you are interested in Navajos you will do well to read the book; it will prepare you for a lot that is unsaid in conversation with them.