Spider Woman Walks This Land: Traditional Cultural Properties and the Navajo Nation

by Kelli Carmean

Overview

Spider Woman Walks This Land is a lively and accessible introduction to issues of traditional cultural properties and cultural resource management among native peoples in the United States. Describing her work with the Navajo Nation, Carmean shows how specific geographical locations contain significant cultural and religious meaning to the Navajo people. With historical and contemporary examples, Carmean demonstrates that cultural value of the sacred geography can be in direct opposition to the need to modernize, including building roads, power lines, housing, and a variety of natural resource extraction activities that can earn much-needed money for the tribe. She evaluates the dilemma of 'sustainability' common to many traditional societies as well as to the Navajo Nation, as they undergo the tremendous cultural changes that accompany industrialization and seek a balance between continuity and change. Spider Woman Walks this Land is a useful introduction for undergraduates and an interested general public.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759116634
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	07/02/2002
Series:	Contemporary Native American Communities , #8
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Kelli Carmean is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Eastern Kentucky University. Her research interests are in traditional cultural properties, North American, Latin American, and Mesoamerican archaeology, and ethnographic and archaeological household studies. She has conducted fieldwork in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Yucatan, Peru, and Israel.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Prologue
Chapter 3
Chapter 1: The Early Navajo
Chapter 4
Chapter 2: Return to Navajoland
Chapter 5
Chapter 3: Creation and Navajo Sacred Geography
Chapter 6
Chapter 4: The National Historic Preservation Act
Chapter 7
Chapter 5: Natural Resources, Economic Development, and Navajoland
Chapter 8
Chapter 6: Cultural Resource Management and the Navajo Nation
Chapter 9
Chapter 7: Traditional Cultural Properties: Scale, Benefits, and Broader Contexts
Chapter 10 Epilogue
Chapter 11 References
Chapter 12 Index

Editorial Reviews

General readers and undergraduate students who are interested in archaeology are often put off by the mass of detail they find in any but the most introductory account. Therefore, Carmean (anthropology and archaeology, Eastern Kentucky U.) offers an account of archaeological work and findings on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona that discusses some difficult issues, but refers readers to other sources for the mass of underlying data. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Carmean has written an excellent introduction to Navajo culture and the real-world problems facing cultural preservation of archaeological sites and traditional cultural properties. Using the Navajo Nation as an example, the author clearly illustrates the conflict between federal legislation and and Navajo worldview. Carmean includes coverage of applicable federal laws in language easily understood by undergraduates.

Choice Reviews - K. F. Thompson

Laura Gilpin's excellent photographs of mid-twentieth century juxtaposed with the author's turn-of-the-century pictures add to the appeal of the volume...the book, much more than a travelogue and not far from an ethnography of present-day Navajo life, will interest those looking for data on cultural change as seen through the eyes of a visitor new to Navajoland.

Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute - David M. Brugge

This unique and enjoyable volume provides the reader with a dynamic human dimension to a critical aspect of cultural resources management. All too often, anthropologists treat traditional cultural properties as a dry intellectual exercise, but not Kelli Carmean. She brings them alive. Her journal entries are a particularly effective way of showing how cultural resources management is applied anthropology that directly affects peoples' daily lives. The balanced perspective, as well as the tone and level of intellectual engagement, make this an excellent source book for undergraduate and graduate classes.

Roger Anyon

Spider Woman Walks This Land by Kelli Carmean is one of the best books we've read on Native American sacred geography, its meaning and preservation.

Sacred Sites Newsletter

Spider Woman Walks This Land by Kelli Carmean is one of the best books we've read on Native American sacred geography, its meaning and preservation.

Vol. 13.1 (Fall 2002) Sacred Sites Newsletter

Carmean has written an excellent introduction to Navajo culture and the real-world problems facing cultural preservation of archaeological sites and traditional cultural properties. Using the Navajo Nation as an example, the author clearly illustrates the conflict between federal legislation and and Navajo worldview. Carmean includes coverage of applicable federal laws in language easily understood by undergraduates.
— K. F. Thompson, (Northland Pioneer College)

Choice