Navajo Culture

Navajo Culture

Thesis Statement

“Even after so much changes and cultural blend in America, Navajos people have managed to keep ancestral alive in their community. Therefore, they are capable of keeping their tradition alive in their community.”

Introduction

The Navajo is also known as Dine that is the synonym for The People. Navajos are descendants of Athapaskan who were the immigrants of northwest Canada to the Southwestern America. Their community is larger than ten of the fifty American States. The Navajos are deeply rooted in their traditional culture. In fact they still have many beliefs and folklore that are 700 years old.. It is a people who, despite the modernization and strong Americanization rely on their old beliefs and folklore and still they have a strong belief to their original culture. However, it is strongly believed that these people have lost their culture and they have adopted the American culture. In this paper we study the culture of Navajo with respect to their social organization, tradition, gender relationship and political organization. Moreover, this paper will discuss the primary mode of subsistence of Navajo and their kinships (McPherson, 2003).

Discussion

Navajo people have the ability of indigenous people for blending both the modern and traditional lifestyle. The strong factors of their culture are as follows:

Government and Primary Role of Subsistence

The government of Navajo people has been evolved into a largest and sophisticated government of American Indians. Moreover, the primary role of subsistence of Navajo is pastoralists. They live in abnormal families if we compare them to the culture of today. There are various aspects of their cultural like their kinship, social organization and values and beliefs (Bsumek, 2012).

Kinship of Navajos

According to the kinship of Navajos, they belong to a matrilineal society. In this society status, property etc are the inheritance through women. Their kinship system follows the ancestry of women. When women join the tribal membership, they either brought in forename or they were assigned a forename after their acceptance in the tribe. Few of the Navajos were existed forenames from other tribal communities, whereas, other clans were developed due to the circumstances. Their kinship system is their strength that keeps them together (McPherson, 2003).

All of them belong to four different clans that are unrelated as well. They belong to their mother's clan. They are born from their father's clam. They have paternal or maternal grandfather's kin. By tradition, Navajos were not permitted to marry into their first two kin. Even today, they are strong forbidden to do this. The male used to move and live with his wife's family. In the society of Navajos, gender is not considered less important. Moreover, they do not believe in concept of Chief. They believe in equality (Data retrieved from: http://www.navajoindian.net).

Traditions

Navajos have always had a very strong relationship with nature. Their beliefs stem from the fact that for them nature is a song. The whole planets and the universe is a song. In this way they approach the beliefs of the ancient cosmogony or creation of the universe ...