Variations on a Rite of Passage

In the past two or three decades, Navajos in increasing numbers have leaned toward an Anglo, rather than a traditional Navajo, style for their funerals. While at one level this tendency can be seen merely as a willingness to take advantage of different and more numerous facilities offered by the dominant Anglo culture, at a more meaningful level it has had two results. First, a qualitatively larger amount of social interaction now centers around an event characterized in the past by anthropologists as of utmost danger and potential pollution from a Navajo point of view (e.g., Adams 1963:90; Franciscan Fathers 1910:508; Haile 1917:39-43, 1943:59-94; Kluckhohn and Leighton 1946:126; and Shepardson and Hammond 1970: 201-203). Second, the change has resulted in more emphasis on incorporation of the survivors and less on separation of the deceased, in Van Gennep's terms (1960:11). The traditional Navajo burial has been most fully described by Reichard (1928:141-143). After a terminally ill person is removed from the hogan

Linguistics · Navajo · Political science · Rite · Rite of passage · Sociology · Anthropology · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History · Law · Philosophy

• The Navajo Mountain Community

  Open Access•Thomas C Greaves, Mary Shepardson et al.•American Quarterly•1971

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