Earth Is My Mother, Sky Is My Father - by Trudy Griffin-Pierce (Paperback)

About the Book

Explores the circularity of Navajo thought through studies of sandpaintings, chantway myths, and stories reflected in the constellations.

Book Synopsis

Explores the circularity of Navajo thought through studies of sandpaintings, chantway myths, and stories reflected in the constellations.

From the Back Cover

To the Navajo, sandpaintings are sacred, living entities that reflect the interconnectedness of all living beings - humans, plants, stars, animals, and mountains. This book explores the circularity of Navajo thought in analyses of sandpaintings, Navajo chantway myths, and stories reflected in the celestial constellations. Beginning with an introduction to Navajo history and ethnography, the author explores the spiritual world of the Navajo, their ceremonial practices, and their conceptions of time and stellar motion. The Navajo depict the heavens in a group of sacred sandpaintings, and Griffin-Pierce shows how these images not only communicate the temporal and spatial dimensions of the Navajo universe but also present, in visual form, Navajo ideas about relationships among nature, self, and society. Beautifully illustrated by the author, this well-documented book is based on six years of fieldwork with Navajo chanters and on the author's twenty-year friendship with a Navajo family. Earth Is My Mother, Sky Is My Father is an engaging study for anyone who wants to better understand modern Navajo philosophy and sacred practices.

Review Quotes

"A valuable introduction to the Navajo regard for the unchanging order of the sky."

About the Author

Trudy Griffin-Pierce (1949-2009) was an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona. She was the author of several books on American Indian cosmology.

N. Scott Momaday (1934-2023) was a writer, poet, storyteller, and illustrator who won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, House Made of Dawn. Kiowa by way of Jemez Pueblo, he was the author of the classic Kiowa origin story The Way to Rainy Mountain and several books of poetry, including In the Bear's House, In the Presence of the Sun, and Again the Far Morning (all from UNM Press).