Navajo Indians
Navajo Indians
The Navajo Indian culture is a very unique culture. Family, sense of belonging and helping one another is more than just a nice thing to do. For them, it’s a way of life. Being the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States this culture typically reside in the Arizona and New Mexico area. They speak their own language but English is also spoken fluently. Their beliefs and values, gender relations and how they handle sickness and healing are all major aspects that makes up the culture and will be further discussed.
Beliefs and Values
The Navajo Indians often call themselves “Diné, which means “the People.” Originally the Navajo’s primary way of living was hunting and gathering everything they ate or needed. The Navajo Indian culture is a culture that can easily adapt to their surroundings and making sue with what they have. Through learning to adapt, the Navajo Indians now have a sense of trade, cultivating, hunting, and even everyday twenty first century careers such as lawyers and doctors. Being able to adapting to the environment they are in helps them socially by learning the people and their way of life in areas that were not their native land. Adapting helped them spiritually by learning the spiritual practices of other cultures while still being true to their own. It has helped them physically just by the saying “only the strongest survive.” Lastly, being easily adaptable has helped them in the form of their education. Adapting is learning how to find your place that is foreign to you. The Navajo learn a lot about themselves personally, their culture and other cultures by being able to adapt. Navajo Although the Navajo Indians are adaptive and have continued to accept help and education from other cultures they still stand on a lot of their own beliefs, such as kinship, and many still live on the original Reservation where it all began (Lee & Lee, 2012). Family and helping their own is very prevalent in their culture. The
The Navajo Indian culture is a very unique culture. Family, sense of belonging and helping one another is more than just a nice thing to do. For them, it’s a way of life. Being the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States this culture typically reside in the Arizona and New Mexico area. They speak their own language but English is also spoken fluently. Their beliefs and values, gender relations and how they handle sickness and healing are all major aspects that makes up the culture and will be further discussed.
Beliefs and Values
The Navajo Indians often call themselves “Diné, which means “the People.” Originally the Navajo’s primary way of living was hunting and gathering everything they ate or needed. The Navajo Indian culture is a culture that can easily adapt to their surroundings and making sue with what they have. Through learning to adapt, the Navajo Indians now have a sense of trade, cultivating, hunting, and even everyday twenty first century careers such as lawyers and doctors. Being able to adapting to the environment they are in helps them socially by learning the people and their way of life in areas that were not their native land. Adapting helped them spiritually by learning the spiritual practices of other cultures while still being true to their own. It has helped them physically just by the saying “only the strongest survive.” Lastly, being easily adaptable has helped them in the form of their education. Adapting is learning how to find your place that is foreign to you. The Navajo learn a lot about themselves personally, their culture and other cultures by being able to adapt. Navajo Although the Navajo Indians are adaptive and have continued to accept help and education from other cultures they still stand on a lot of their own beliefs, such as kinship, and many still live on the original Reservation where it all began (Lee & Lee, 2012). Family and helping their own is very prevalent in their culture. The
References: Csordas , T. (1999). Rituals healing and the politics of identity and contemporary Navajo society. American Ethnologist, 26(1), 1-11. Hassain, Z., Skurky, T., Joe, J., & Hunt, T. (2011). The sense of collectivism and individualism among husbands. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 42(4), 543-562. Lee, L., & Lee, T. (2012). Navajo cultural autonomy. International Journal of Sociology of Language, 2010(213), 119-126.