TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF NAVAJO AESTHETICS Kathy M’Closkey Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario Canada
[email protected] © This paper may not be reproduced without the permission of the author. ABSTRACT The popularity of Navajo rugs as ‘collectibles’ for Anglos (Anglo-Americans) has diminished our understanding of Navajo aesthetics. Navajo weavers’ feeling for hózhó (beauty/harmony/local order) encompasses far more than the Western concept of ‘classical aesthetics’ which locates ‘beauty’ in the isomorphic object. Based on extensive in- terviews with weavers, I argue that weaving is a form of metacommunication which imparts information that can- not be transmitted discursively. Drawing on Gregory Bateson’s concept of aesthetics, and adapting topological illustrations from Wilden, I demonstrate that weaving serves as an example of a recursive-hierarchical system, that is a system whose patterns of interconnection are recursive and in which weaving is a ‘signifying event’ that sig- nals movement, mapping and transformation.. Utilizing this communicational perspective enables an understand- ing of why Navajo women would continue to weave under persistent, difficult conditions, and gives a counter- perspective to the split between Navajo conception of pattern in a rug and rug as commodity. The Anglo insistence on dividing pattern from commodity threatens Navajo life ways. 1. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT Navajos are internationally known for their beautiful hand-made textiles woven of wool from their flocks. About 250,000 Diné (as many prefer to be called), currently occupy an 8000 hectare reserva- tion that straddles parts of western New Mexico, eastern Arizona and southern Utah. Of Athabaskan linguistic stock, they are the largest population of Native Americans north of Mexico.