Navaho Witchcraft

by Clyde Kluckhohn

"...his description and analysis of Navaho ideas and actions related to witchcraft has relevance for the comparative consideration of how any society deals with the ambition for power, the aggressiveness and the anxiety of its members."

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Mythology, Folklore, Religion

254 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1963

Reviews

[Lisa Petunia Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subject is so taboo that it is incredibly difficult to learn anything about it. Having experienced it both firsthand and vicariously through the stories of my friends and their families, I appreciate Kluckhorn’s efforts. Though I didn’t feel right reading about it; thinking of a thing tends to bring it into existence & whatnot. *burns cedar*

[Tina Estep · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an ethnography of Clyde Kluckhohn of witchcraft of Navaho. As an anthropologist, Kluckhohn was interested in understanding the misunderstanding within cultures to possibly avoid conflicts because he was horrified of the violence and destruction of humans has done during the World Wars. He wanted to give contributions to humans, thus analyzing cultural differences before they could become conflicts. With this in mind, he did extensive studies of the Navajo (over 37 years). (Navajo is the modern spelling, Navaho was the way it was spelled in 1944). Navaho Witchcraft, is a analysis of the ideas and behaviors that define witchcraft as well as the causes and reactions of witchcraft within the culture.

Not a huge fan of some of his ethnographic methods of speaking with informants – i.e. picking up drunk Navajo off the side of the road – but it in 1944 there were not the ethical issues that have are strictly enforced today. Nevertheless, it is a great read and again, it is interesting to see how these ideas of witchcraft from the Navajo are very similar to that of Western beliefs of witchcraft.

[Heowb]

Qtyv

[Doyle Netzly · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Navaho Witchcraft," while trying to assimilate the collected stories of mostly secondhand accounts relating to the topic, generally falls short of generating any meaningful correlation of that data.
Admittedly, the book deals with culturally taboo subjects, such as Frenzy Witchcraft, used for the acquisition of Caucasian women, and, what in the book is termed "Sorcery," the practice of creating harm at a distance by manipulating effigies or with the use of native plant poisoning, the reportage of those subjects is partial and derivative perhaps due simply to the author's outsider status and to his perhaps naive use of techniques in interviewing his sources.
Unfortunately, the book tends to fall somewhat short anthropologically precisely because of this colloquial nature of the cited sources, and this borders upon the tragic.
Much of the material, dating from the early 1900's, is now completely unrecoverable.

[Geoff Winston Leghorn Balme · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not so much about the Navaho in particular. While it is a study of THEIR magical thinking, it's a fascinating academic account of studying an ethnic belief system applicable to anyone. At its heart is how human beings everywhere use a system of irrational belief to personify their own anxieties and fears and occasionally even act on those terrors by attacking people made validly evil through those superstitions.

A classic text often available for cheap!

[Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating ethnography with information that will surely be lost and further obscured in the upcoming generations.
I appreciate how careful Kluckhohn is to define exactly what he means by "Witchcraft" and that that definition does not include traditional Navajo religion and spiritualism.

[Antonio De Cunzo · Rating 2 out of 5]

didn't read the appendices....sorry