The document discusses the hogan, which is the traditional dwelling of the Navajo people. It provides details on the structure, layout, and symbolic meanings of the hogan. Specifically: 1) The hogan has an earthen floor representing the female earth, and a slightly concave roof representing the male sky. Sacred pollen is smeared on house posts symbolizing the four poles supporting the sky. 2) The center of the hogan is the hearth, representing the world's center. To the west is a place of honor for elders and medicine men. 3) Movement within the hogan follows a sunwise clockwise path. Certain behaviors like stepping over bodies or crossing

1. Lecture 14 Values, Symbols and Meanings Part 1

2. Chapter (8a) Values, Symbols, and Meanings * Children Playhouse Parents + Society * You feel at ease when you go back to your home , but you feel uncomfortable and unease when you visit a stranger’s house . * This is an indication of our recognition of the close association between dwelling and occupier . Pattern of Behavior Domestic Rituals Spatial Relationship More vocabulary Spatial concepts important to the society

3. SUNWISE PATHS * The Hopi Indian reservation: - Surrounded by 25,000 mile 2 Navajo reservation - Located in the desertic North-East of Arizona - They are mainly sheep herders and small ranchers . The Hopi Indians, which means good , peaceful , or wise , come from a group of Southwestern people called Pueblo. Hopis call themselves Hopitu - The Peacable People. The Hopi Indians

4. The Hopi Indians

5. The Hopi Indians

6. Hogan ( old ) * Hogan is the fundamental dwelling, which is the focus of the Navajo family life. * The oldest form of the hogan type is the “forked-stick” structure constructed from a tripod of forked poles against which others are laid. * A porch extension to the structure with smoke-hole opening facing forwards above it. * The pole frame was thickly plastered over with mud . * The basic form of this type is still used to make small “sweat-house’ in which ritual cleansing sweat baths or hot-stone saunas are taken.

7. Hogan ( contemporary ) * Built with horizontal logs, or planks, vertical poles, coarsed and uncoarsed stones, and more recently cinder blocks.

8. Outer hogan walls with outer roof support poles. Roof 1st layer Roof 2nd Layer Roof 3rd Layer Roof 4th Layer Roof 5th Layer Hogan ( contemporary ) Photo from inside hogan looking up at ceiling.

9. * When the hogan is built it is consecrated with Blessing-way Chant . * Blessing rites occur at least twice a year in most hogans , and often more frequently, as for example, when a member of the family leaves for a long time. “ Built of afterglow Standeth his hogan The hogan blessed Built of yellow corn Standeth his hogan The hogan is blessed Built of gems and shinning shells Standeth his hogan The hogan is blesessed Built of holly pollen …. Evermore enduring …. “ Hogan

10. * Within the hogan the space is physically un divided , but to the Navajo it is symbolically an interpretation of the world as he perceives it: The floor: slightly dished, represent earth ( female ). The roof: slightly concave ( male ). * Sacred pollen ( غبار ) is smeared on the house posts which symbolize the four poles that support the sky North Corn Woman Deity Men West Water Woman Honor South Mountain Woman Women East Earth Woman Entrance Hogan

11. Hogan

12. * In the middle is the hearth ( موقد او مدفأة ) , which symbolizes the nadir and the center of the world. * To the west of the hogan is the place of the honors for the patriarch or matriarch, and for medicine men ( hosteen ). * Movement must follow the “sunwise path”, clockwise. * One can not speak loudly or vociferously inside the hogan , you can do that outside. * One must not look into the hogan without permission, but once invited may inspect every detail. * No matter how crowded, the reclining bodies must never be stepped over , nor the hearth crossed . * The hogan is the center of the ceremonial and the place from which all good emanates to counter the hostile spirits that exist in the desert .

13. * The hogan is solidly built and lacking any apparent aesthetic merit . * It is in the heart of of much of the people’s spiritual and behavioral values . It could be made of any material (stone, wood, earth, ..). * As the symbol of life , it is also witness to death . When an occupant dies the body is taken out through an opening in the north wall, as the hogan is abandoned and allowed to collapse. * With death, the spirit and material of the hogan rejoin the earth. Hogan

14. * Like other single-cell dwellings the hogan is spatially differentiated through custom by: 1- gender 2- hierarchy 3- ritual 4- symbolic association - not by physical partition Hogan

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