Enemy Way

For the upcoming film, see Enemy Way (film).

The Enemy Way or Anaʼí Ndááʼ is one half of the major Navajo song ceremonial complexes, the other half being the Blessing Way. The Enemy Way is a traditional ceremony for countering the harmful effects of alien ghosts or chindi, and has been performed for returning military personnel.[1]

The Enemy Way ceremony involves the patient identifying (through chant, sandpainting, and dance) with the powerful mythical figure Monster Slayer.[2] The ceremony lasts three days; on the second morning a mock battle is performed.[3]

Associated with the Enemy Way is a Girl's Dance (sometimes called "Squaw Dance"), to which young men are invited by marriageable young women.[4] This derives from an aspect of the Monster Slayer myth, in which two captive girls are liberated.[3]

The Enemy Way ceremony is described in Tony Hillerman's novel The Blessing Way.

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References

  1. ↑ Robert F. Murphy (ed), American Anthropology, 1946-1970: Papers from the American Anthropologist, University of Nebraska Press, 2002, p. 111, ISBN 0-8032-8280-X.
  2. ↑ Vincent Crapanzano, The Fifth World of Forster Bennett: Portrait of a Navajo, University of Nebraska Press, 2003, p. 238, ISBN 0-8032-6431-3.
  3. 1 2 Reginald Laubin and Gladys Laubin, Indian Dances of North America: Their Importance to Indian Life, University of Oklahoma Press, 1989, p. 423, ISBN 0-8061-2172-6.
  4. ↑ Clyde Kluckhohn, Dorothea Cross Leighton, Lucy H. Wales, and Richard Kluckhohn, The Navaho, Harvard University Press, 1974, p. 228, ISBN 0-674-60603-5.
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