Post by whitealice on Nov 25, 2014 15:41:14 GMT -6
@guohua,
This is what I just love about the tribes is that the beliefs can be so disparate. The Navajo have some very strong beliefs in regards to death where they would do just the opposite. The tradition for the Navajo is that the home in which an individual dies in faces specific types of destruction and is abandoned as it is a "death house" or "death hogan". There's a death house on my youngest's family property out on the rez. Nobody gets near it.
In a hogan, the door to enter is always facing the East and they would break that doorway to make it impassable. Then, they go to the Northern side of the hogan and break an opening into the wall so that any chindi that remain can go North, which is the way of death. A long time ago, entire trading posts would be abandoned if someone died within it or on its front step. Even while I was living there, people would be very reluctant to go to a place of business that had had a death occur. I met a Hopi girl whose father was killed at a convenience store around Black Mesa and the debate on what to do about the convenience store was a pretty major one as it also was needed as a place to get things.
As far as the Anasazi go, the beliefs are pretty intense. I actually did a presentation of Anasazi potsherd types for a border town school of which most of the students were Navajo. I had the non-native teacher send home permissions slips advising that actual potsherds were going to be present and to check the box if the child could attend or not. About half the students ended up going to the library to avoid being around them as these objects belonging to the most feared of the dead--the Anasazi--entailed risk of exposure to Anasazi spirits and their potential attachment. That was a 50% rate and the teacher learned something that day, too. Oddly enough, I was thanked by the parents later for taking that step.
For the Navajo, you don't mess around with death or the homes or objects of the dead--especially with loved ones. One even has to guard the amount of grief shown. A grandparent may come to stay with family to be cared for or cared for in their home but not brought to die as that would essentially condemn the house in the most traditional Navajo view or at the least, require a house cleansing.
This is what I just love about the tribes is that the beliefs can be so disparate. The Navajo have some very strong beliefs in regards to death where they would do just the opposite. The tradition for the Navajo is that the home in which an individual dies in faces specific types of destruction and is abandoned as it is a "death house" or "death hogan". There's a death house on my youngest's family property out on the rez. Nobody gets near it.
In a hogan, the door to enter is always facing the East and they would break that doorway to make it impassable. Then, they go to the Northern side of the hogan and break an opening into the wall so that any chindi that remain can go North, which is the way of death. A long time ago, entire trading posts would be abandoned if someone died within it or on its front step. Even while I was living there, people would be very reluctant to go to a place of business that had had a death occur. I met a Hopi girl whose father was killed at a convenience store around Black Mesa and the debate on what to do about the convenience store was a pretty major one as it also was needed as a place to get things.
As far as the Anasazi go, the beliefs are pretty intense. I actually did a presentation of Anasazi potsherd types for a border town school of which most of the students were Navajo. I had the non-native teacher send home permissions slips advising that actual potsherds were going to be present and to check the box if the child could attend or not. About half the students ended up going to the library to avoid being around them as these objects belonging to the most feared of the dead--the Anasazi--entailed risk of exposure to Anasazi spirits and their potential attachment. That was a 50% rate and the teacher learned something that day, too. Oddly enough, I was thanked by the parents later for taking that step.
For the Navajo, you don't mess around with death or the homes or objects of the dead--especially with loved ones. One even has to guard the amount of grief shown. A grandparent may come to stay with family to be cared for or cared for in their home but not brought to die as that would essentially condemn the house in the most traditional Navajo view or at the least, require a house cleansing.