Thursday, March 19, 2020

Essay on The Navajo Indians

Essay on The Navajo Indians Essay on The Navajo Indians Navajo Indians 1 The Navajo Indians ANT101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Instructor: Professor Heywood July 10, 2013 Navajo Indians 2 The Navajo Indians are considered to be the largest tribe of all Native American Indians within the United States. Among the Navajo culture their primary mode of subsistence are pastoralists. In this paper I will discuss the Navajo’s beliefs and values, sickness and healing as well as their social organization. â€Å"Pastoralists are those who regularly move in search of naturally occurring grass and water.† (Nowak Laird, 2010). The Navajo being a pastoral society as their main source of subsistence meant the use of farming to produce corn and raising of livestock, primarily sheep. These were techniques the Navajo learned after raiding Pueblo villages. Once both cultures were integrated, these techniques became important for survival and economic foundation. The shift to a pastoral and agricultural lifestyle created many opportunities which made it possible for the Navajo to become one of the most modernized societies in the United States. Having a new lifestyle and way of living, the Navajo were considered nomads because they often traveled from one area to another due to the change of season. Traveling during season changes resulted in abandoning and rebuilding of shelters repeatedly. The Navajo people have a very spiritual way of life and base their way of living around a spiritual essence. Being a spiritual people, the Navajo give thanks daily for their food as well as the la nd where they reside. The Navajo base their life on a belief that both the physical and spiritual world are blended together and that all things on earth are alive and sacred. The Navajo believe the creator placed them in the middle of four mountains that represented the four cardinal directions. Among these four cardinal directions, is where the Holy Ones are believed to have lived and that they are attracted to them by prayers, songs, stories as well as their paintings. Navajo Indians 3 The Navajo believe that the Holy people have the power to aid or to harm the Earth People, which are the Navajo or otherwise known as the Dine. There is also the belief that the use of baskets and weaving came from the first man and women from the Holy ones, for ceremonial purposes. One item the Navajo valued was Turquoise. When the Navajo learned silversmith work, they combined the turquoise with the beauty of silver. This jewelry was often large and set with turquoise as the stone. The size and detail was said to reflect the owner’s wealth and their status. Turquoise and other gem stones are an important part of Navajo silversmiths they focus more on the detail and designs made with silver. Along with jewelry making the Navajo also valued basketry, pottery and sand painting. The baskets were used as to carry such things as water, food and other things meant for trading. The pottery was used to cook with as well as to store things such as food and water. Healing of ill nesses by the Navajo was performed by ceremonies. Some of the ceremonies were called, chants, sings, or ways. Sand painting ceremonies were helot to either cure an illness and also to ensure ones general wellbeing. During these ceremonies, there were some that could last up to nine nights, however, most only lasted one day. These ceremonies are conducted by a practitioner, â€Å"priest†, that had the highest training and they are called a hatta[ii. In definition this means a singer or chanter.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

The Name Is Not the Thing

The Name Is Not the Thing The Name Is Not the Thing The Name Is Not the Thing By Mark Nichol Writers sometimes have difficulty differentiating in their syntax between something and its name. Here are some examples of this type of error, with explanations and solutions. 1. â€Å"The cartoon series is so inspired by the city that all characters are local street names.† Here, the writer attempts to explain that names in the cast of characters of a television series were selected by going through a list of streets located in the city in which the series is set; this decision exemplifies the extent to which the city inspired the program. This can be stated more simply with just a slight correction of the original sentence: â€Å"The cartoon series is so inspired by the city that all characters are named after local streets.† The following variation is even closer to the writer’s wording but is repetitive and less elegant: â€Å"The cartoon series is so inspired by the city that all characters’ names are local street names.† 2. â€Å"What is a BNP? This relatively new blood test, which stands for ‘b-type natriuretic peptide serum,’ measures the level of a hormone released when the heart chambers stretch larger than normal.† This writer makes the mistake of implying that the blood test is an abbreviation for â€Å"b-type natriuretic peptide serum.† But it is BNP, the preceding initialism for the test, not the test itself, that represents the full name, and that distinction must be explicit: â€Å"What is a BNP? This relatively new blood test, the initials for which stand for â€Å"b-type natriuretic peptide serum,† measures the level of a hormone released when the heart chambers stretch larger than normal.† 3. â€Å"They created an Advisory Committee on the Protection and Use of Sandy Point.† This wording implies that creation of advisory committees on the protection and use of Sandy Point is a regular occurrence, and that this was just another instance of that commonplace event. The sentence should avoid this minor but distracting confusion by referring to creation of a generic entity that is then named: â€Å"They created a body called the Advisory Committee on the Protection and Use of Sandy Point.† Alternatively, assuming that the revision fits the context, the sentence might read something like, â€Å"To that end, they created the Advisory Committee on the Protection and Use of Sandy Point.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Based in" and "based out of"Deck the Halls20 Ways to Laugh