The traditional Navajo wedding ceremony is examined. The ritual includes the depiction of a sample mandala and the welding of the couple into a unitary selfhood. The design on the wedding basket involves mandalas with ceremonial gaps. The open mandala is interpreted to represent an expanded selfhood that transcends the body and embraces the community and all phases of nature.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AltmanG. A. (1946) A Navaho wedding. Masterkey, 20, 159–164.
2.
AndersonW. W.AndersonD. D. (1986) Thai Muslim adolescents' self, sexuality, and autonomy. Ethos, 14, 368–394.
3.
BennettN. (1974) The weaver's pathway. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press.
4.
ChapmanK. M.EllisB. T. (1951) The line break, problem child of Pueblo pottery. El Palacio, 58, 251–289.
5.
ConnR. (1982) Circles of the world: Traditional art of the Plains Indians. Denver, CO: Denver Art Museum.
6.
CorrellJ. L.WatsonE. L. (Eds.) (1974) Welcome to the land of the Navajo. (4th ed.) Window Rock, AZ: Museum and Research Dept., Navajo Tribe.
7.
EmersonR. W. (1937) Circles. In Essays and English traits. New York: Collier. Pp. 149–160.
8.
EwingK. P. (1987) Clinical psychoanalysis as an ethnographic tool. Ethos, 15, 16–39.
9.
FishlerS. A. (1954) Symbolism of a Navaho “wedding” basket. Masterkey, 28, 205–215.
10.
Franciscan Fathers. (1910) An ethnologic dictionary of the Navaho language. (Reprinted 1968)St. Michaels, AZ: St. Michael's Press.
11.
HeelasP.LockA. (Eds.) (1981) Indigenous psychologies: The anthropology of the self. London: Academic Press.
12.
JungC. G. (1968) The archetypes and the collective unconscious. (2nd ed.) Bollingen Series XX: 9. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer. Press.
13.
KluckhohnC.LeightonD. (1962) The Navaho. (Rev. ed.) Garden City, NY: Double-day.
14.
KondoD. K. (1987) Creating an ideal self: Theories of selfhood and pedagogy at a Japanese ethics retreat. Ethos, 15, 241–272.
15.
LeightonA. H.LeightonD. C. (1941) Elements of psychotherapy in Navaho religion. Psychiatry, 4, 515–523.
16.
LockeR. F. (1979) The book of the Navajo. Los Angeles: Mankind.
17.
MalleryG. (1893) Picture-writing of the American Indians. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, for 1888-′89. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Pp. 3–807.
18.
MoonS. (1970) A magic dwells. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan Univer. Press.
19.
MurphyG. (1947) Personality: A biosocial approach to origins and structure. New York: Harper.
20.
NewcombF. J.ReichardG. A. (1937) Sandpaintings of the Navajo shooting chant. New York: J. J. Augustin.
21.
PottingerR. (1987) The self in cultural adaptation: Heinz Kohut's psychoanalysis of time and change in East Africa. Ethos, 15, 296–319.
22.
ReichardG. A. (1963) Navaho religion: A study of symbolism. (2nd ed.) Bollingen Series XVIII. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer. Press.
23.
SampsonE. E. (1988) The debate on individualism: Indigenous psychologies of the individual and their role in personal and societal functioning. American Psychologist, 43, 15–22.
24.
SandnerD. (1979) Navaho symbols of healing. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
25.
TucciG. (1961) The theory and practice of the mandala. (BrodrickA. H., Trans.) London: Rider.
26.
WheelwrightM. C. (1956) Notes on corresponding symbols in various parts of the world. In NewcombF. J.FishierS.WheelwrightM. C. (Eds.), A study of Navajo symbolism. Cambridge, MA: Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 32. Pp. 83–98.
27.
WymanL. C. (1970) Sandpaintings of the Navaho Shootingway and the Walcott Collection. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Contributions to AnthropologyNo. 13.