- Aug 2019
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openamlitcwi.pressbooks.com openamlitcwi.pressbooks.com
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“Something unusual has passed through me.” First woman said, “That is your first race, kinaashdaah.”
I'm trying to put together what passed through her - is this in reference to a first menstruation cycle?
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The Coming of Monsters
This whole section was interesting to me. There seems to be this pattern that when women use objects for sex they create and birth monsters. This stood out to me since monsters in other cultures tend to stem from evil. My mind assumes that the culture associated sex with objects as evil, but is this the case?
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The twelve months of the sun will be 13 months of the moon. Sometimes frost will come early, and sometimes it will remain late. Sometimes the rains will not come, and you will have to summon the baby of the Big Water Creature to bring water.” And he left them.
This reminded me of when Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden, and part of their "punishment" is that they will have to work the land by the sweat of their brow to create their food. This creates a certain type of punishment for the people too.
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Their thoughts mingled, and those thoughts were sacred
I really like this image. It's almost like a man and woman planning to have a child, since they were planning to bring people to the Earth.
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The locusts returned and told that a great wall of water was coming from the east, and a tide of water from the north and from the south. The people ran to the top of the mountain Sisnaajiní. First Man ran to each of the other Sacred Mountains, took dirt from each, and summoned the Holy People, and returned to Sisnaajiní. Turquoise Boy came bearing the great Male Reed, and First Man planted it in the top of the mountain. All the people began to blow on the reed, and it began to grow and grow until it reached the canopy of the sky. Woodpecker hollowed out a passage inside the reed, and the people and Turquoise Boy and the four Holy People all began to climb up until they came out in the Fourth World.
After watching the video, this made me wonder if they actually experienced a flood that led them out of a land way way back when? And that is the story that got passed down? Since we know floods happened on the North American continent to drive them out of certain areas sometimes.
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four
I keep noticing very particular numbers mentioned throughout the reading. I know the Bible uses numbers to symbolize certain things. I wonder if they did as well?
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“You must spin towards your person, not away, as you wish to have the beautiful goods come to you. If you spin away from you, the goods will depart from you.”
I've heard similar sayings before. Invest in your relationship and get good out of it, invest in other people and watch it suffer, things like that. I like the symbolism of spinning towards a goal or person, not away, to have good come to you.
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taught them how to wear masks and pray,
Are masks a spiritual/religious practice? What is the meaning behind the masks in this culture?
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wand of jet
I wasn't sure what this meant. Upon googling it looks like it could be a war hammer of sorts, or maybe some type of wand? Could possess magical qualities.
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openamlitcwi.pressbooks.com openamlitcwi.pressbooks.comHózhó2
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In this video, “Navajo String Games by Grandma Margaret,” we can find a Navajo grandmother reenacting the Coyote scattering the stars across the sky, as well as some of the important constellations.
This video stood out to me, because I remember my Grandmother's friend (who was Native American, but I can't remember where from since I was about six at the time) showing me this! She even taught me a few of the constellations. Such a vivid memory to bring back!
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Just as the First Man and First Woman attempted to bring order to the universe in the midst of chaos, so do Navajo weavers reenact this cosmic event through their weaving process.
The symbolism in their weaving process is really interesting to me. I like that they would take this spiritual belief and apply it so directly into their lives.
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