Symbolic Elements in Navajo Ritual

Abstract

Following Leach's emphasis (1966) on the communicative aspects of ritual, Navajo chants are analyzed as a system of symbols which communicate the Navajo model of the natural-supernatural world. At the same time, symbolic objects and actions transform the patient's body from a state of "ugly conditions" (illness) to one of "pleasant conditions" (health). Symbolic objects are manipulated in (1) prestations to the supernaturals and (2) actions directed towards the patient's body, which either identify the patient with the supernaturals or remove the "ugly conditions." Navajo ritual identification and removal imply an alternative to Turner's analysis of Ndembu symbols, where concepts derived from bodily experiences are projected onto the natural and social world. In Navajo chants, natural products are transformed into objects associated with the supernaturals, and these in turn are applied to or taken into the body; disease-causing elements which are simultaneously supernatural and natural are expelled. Rather than body processes being relevant to classifying the world, concepts concerning the natural-supernatural world are relevant to interpreting body processes.