A study of Navajo symbolism - Free History Ebooks

COLORSIGNIFICANCE AND USE OF COLORoccupies an important place inNavajo symbolism. Its use is mandatoryin most designs made for healing or for initiationceremonies, but not for the small figuresfrequently drawn for exorcism, and the tinysymbols used in picture writing are seldommade in color. The significance of the colorof any particular symbol is second only to itsshape and its size. The shape of the figurewhich is being drawn tells the object or forceit represents and the color tells of what it ismade, the direction from which it came, andsomething of the power it carries.For example, the shape of the sun symbol isround like the sun. Its mask is blue, the materialbeing turquoise, with heat and light beingthe attributes of the blue coloring (fig. 14).Fig. 14. Sun or moon symbol.Whether the religious symbols of the Navajowere always painted in several colors isimpossible to .say, but we do know the pigmentsused to make the earliest designs werenot colored sands. In early days there seemsto have been a taboo against using material,or body, of Mother Earth in this manner; evenat the present time the correct prayers mustbe said before the stones can be ground intopaint. It is possible that pollen was the firstpigment to be used for ceremonial purposesand, if so, the earliest colors were yellow,white, and a soft red. These were closely followedby, or perhaps contemporary with, theuse of white, blue, yellow, and red corn meal.Red was also obtained by grinding rosehipsand other red mountain berries to powder,and blue was obtained by crushing the drypetals of lupine or larkspur. Charcoal dustmixed with a heavier base has always suppliedblack paint and powder. The symbols paintedfor certain ancient rites still use these unusualpigments.Paint made from native clays softened withwater has always provided the color mediumfor the prayer sticks and the designs on drum,rattle, and mask, and also for face and bodypaintings. These are of the five conventionalcolorings excepting when gray ashes or brownadobe is added. As the use of clay paint iscommon to all North American Indians, it isquite certain to antedate the use of dry sandor other dry pigments, and probably establishedthe basic use of five colors.In his book, The Night Chant, A NavajoCeremony, Washington A-latthews says thatin the rites and sand paintings of the NightChant and of several other healing ceremoniesthe cardinal points are thus symbolized —white to the east, blue to the south, yellow tothe west, and black to the north. In the mythsand in nearly all day paintings, the zenith isassociated with blue. In rites which stem fromthe underworld or place of danger and inceremonies for the banishment of evil, blackis placed in the east, white in the north, whileyellow and blue remain unchanged. A mixtureof colors which makes a reddish pink, is sometimesused in the north.He also writes of the law of contrasts inwhich a blue surface is outlined or tipped withyellow, a yellow surface edged with blue, awhite surface with black, and a black surfacewith white. 3This generalization is just the first step inrecording the symbolic placement of colorin the Navajo sand painting and does not coverthe many variations which are demanded forspecific purposes. There are occasions whenthe color arrangement does not follow anyestablished rule. A symbol of great power,such as that of the sun, will take precedencesome colors are considered masculine, others femi-'Another sign of the duality of symbolism is that nine.'3