Sacred Texts  Native American  Navajo 

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Spider Woman A Story of Navajo Weavers and Chanters by Gladys A. Reichard [1932]

Gladys Reichard was born in Bangor, PA on July 17, 1893. She got a B.A. from Swarthmore, then studied under Franz Boas at Columbia University. She taught at Barnard College. Reichard was one of the foremost authorities on the Navajo; she spent 25 years doing research on the Navajo reservation. She eventually learned to speak the complex Navajo language fluently. We are fortunate that this, her ethnography of Navajo weavers and herders, Spider Woman fell into the public domain. In this book, Reichard explores the intersection between the fiber arts, mythology, and sand painting, all told in first person. It succeeds as an ethnographic technical document and, although completely factual, reads like a novel. But this is also significant because it is a woman anthropologist exploring the world of Navajo women, their material and spiritual culture. Reichard died on July 25th, 1955 in Flagstaff, AZ.