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Editorial Review Product Description
Dramatic geographical formations tower over the Four Corners country in the southwestern United States. The mountains, cliffs, and sandstone spires, familiar landmarks for anglo travelers, orient Navajos both physically and spiritually. In Sacred Land, Sacred View, Robert McPherson describes the mythological significance of these landmarks. Navajos read their environment as a spiritual text: the gods created the physical world to help, teach, and protect people through an integrated system of beliefs represented in nature.The author observes that the Middle East is of "no greater import to Christians than the Dine's holy land is to Navajos." He continues: "Sacred mountains circumscribe the land, containing the junction of the San Juan River and Mancos Creek, where Born for Water invoked supernatural aid to overcome danger and death and where, at the Bear's Ears formation, good triumphed over evil."The more one learns about the Dine, the more one inevitably admires their way of perceiving and interpreting what lies just beyond the focus of human vision. Their renowned respect for nature and way of living in harmony with the environment derive from their religious traditions. ... Read more Customer Reviews (1) 
A quietly moving, appealing and informative book.
Sacred Land Sacred View was written to help honor, record and preservenavajo beliefs and heritage about the Four Corners areas, more than topresent a scholarly work on changes in Navajo belief and thought.Inthe beginning, the author quotes Joseph Campbell's four criteria for abelief system to be a viable force in a person's life.They are(1)mystical function, enabling person to live with awe and gratitude towardthe supernatural forces of the universe, (2) attunement with the knowledgeand science of the times, giving adequate explanation of how things occurthat does not conflict with the understanding of the physical world, (3)validation of the teachings and practices of the morally acceptable incultural context, and (4) It is a guide to spiritual harmony and strengthin a useful life (paraphrased, page 5).Sacred Land Sacred View attemptsto reconstruct legends, prehistory, tales of the Navajo that contribute tothe criteria above for peoples of the Four Corners.Black and White Photosof scenes and formations help clarify the legends and Navajo historiesassociated with specific sacred sites.A tone of reverence sets thescene.There are also important views of the Navajo's perspectives onearlier cultures such as the Anasazi.The recurring theme, however is theresolution of cultural dissonance by the Navajo, and, perhaps byimplication,all western culture."Returning to the metaphor givenearlier, the new generations of the Dine can 'sleep' through the teachingsof their elders or they can be like the student, who said, regarding theholy beings, 'If I were awake, they would say I am their child.'Thechoice is an individual expression that every Navajo person will make. Whatever each decides, may it take him or her on a path of beauty over alandscape that has meaning and the power to teach and protect(pp.130-131.)"Sacred Land Sacred View is a quietly moving book,designed to appeal and to inform.Brigham Young University/Chas. ReddCenter for Western Studies/
Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer
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