THROUGH NAVAJO EYES

A n Exploration in Film Communication and Anthropology

THROUGH NAVAJO EYES

An Exploration in Film
Communication and Anthropology

xxx
S O L WORTH
JOHN ADAIR

Indiana University Press

Bloomington / London

FIRST PAPERBACK PRINTING

I975

Copyright @ 1972 by Indiana University Press

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. T h e Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. Published in Canada by Fitzhenry 6Whiteside Limited, Don Mills, Ontario
Library of Congress catalog card number: 78-180488

ISBN: 0-253-36016-1 pa. 0-253-36015-3 cl.

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

This book is dedicated

to
JACK AND

IDAWISHNEPOLSKY and to CASEY

Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction

xi 3

PART ONE
How Do People Structure Reality Through Film? Some Problems in Communication, Anthropology, and Film Some Qgestions About Film CHAPTER 2 A Look at Film As If It Were a Language CHAPTER 3 The Navajo
CHAPTER I

I1
21 31

PART TWO
CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

5 6

The Method of Research Participant Observation in Film Research Choosing the Community and the Students The Community Agrees The Lives of Some of the Navajo Students Teaching Navajos about Cameras and Film The First Day: Getting Ready The Second Day: How the Camera Works

42

63 74

viii )

Contents
The First Shots and the Notion of Editing The Developmental Structure of Film The Practice Films They Start Filming Susie and Her Family Get Involved in Filming A Visual Record The Community Attends the World Premiere

CHAPTER

128

PART THREE
CHAPTER

CHAPTER

8 Analysis The Way We Intend to Analyze Our Data 9 Narrative Style Walking Face Close-ups

132

142

CHAPTER I 0

Sequencing Film Events The Horse Has to Come After the Footprints of the Horse Who Can Be an Actor in a Navajo Film CHAPTER I1 They Handle the Equipment Like Pros CHAPTER I2 CHAPTER 13 Motion or Eventing The Long Journey and the Origin Myth CHAPTER 14 Intrepid Shadows and the Outsider How Groups in Our Society Act When Taught CHAPTER 15 to Use Movie Cameras (with Richard Chalfen) Previous and Continuing Socio-Documentary Research Alternative Expectations Cross Group Comparisons Topics and Activities

166

181 190 199

208
228

Contents

(ix

CHAPTER 1 6

Structuring the Image and Structuring Themselves Topics and Themes Some Concluding Thoughts

252

r i e f Summary of the Films Made by the APPENDIXA B Navajo Bibliography Index

Photographic Section follows page

263 275 281 134

Acknowledgments

Although it is usual to say in a section acknowledging the contributions of others that the work reported could not have been done without the help of many people, in this case it is literally and exactly so. What we shall be writing about in the following pages is not only our own work but also that of a group of Navajo who patiently consented to be our students. They not only worked throughout a summer making films, which is a difficult creative task, but they also allowed us to observe, question, and write about them while they did it. Indeed, they encouraged us. They felt that producing knowledge about communication, how people in different cultures make films, was something they wanted to participate in. This book, therefore, could not have come about without our Navajo students, Mr. Mike Anderson, Mrs. Susie Benally, Mr. A1 Clah, Mrs. Alta Kahn, Mr. Johnny Nelson, Miss Mary Jane Tsosie, and Miss Maxine Tsosie. The community of Pine Springs agreed to allow us to live with them while we were working. We wish we could thank each one individually, but since they acted as a community to welcome us, we must thank them as a community for their help and friendship. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Birch were the schoolteachers in the Bureau of Indian Affairs school at Pine Springs. Not only did they welcome us and help us in every possible way, but Clarence

xii )

Acknowledgments

Birch offered us the schools dormitories for our sleeping, teaching and work quarters. We used his school as our own and we want to thank him for allowing it. Mr. Russell Griswold, the owner of the trading post at Pine Springs, gave us an office behind the post which we used for interviews and for our own personal notetaking and conferences. He was one of the most knowledgeable men in the area about the community and its members, and he and his family helped us in ways, both large and small, too many to be enumerated here. Many other people helped to smooth our way. The Navajo tribal leaders at Window Rock supported and often encouraged us when it seemed as if bureaucracy would overcome us. T o all those, and in particular to Mr. Maurice McCabe and Mr. Ned Hatathli, our thanks. Mr. Graham Holmes, Navajo area director, Mr. Walter Olsen, director of the Albuquerque area office, Mr. Ernest Magnuson, and Mr. Buck Benham, all of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, gave us invaluable help and support while on the Navajo reservation. Our colleagues in anthropology and communication with whom we discussed our plans were unusually patient and encouraging. Some, however, gave their time and experience so generously that we want to take this opportunity to acknowledge their help. Ward Goodenough was one of the first anthropologists to recognize the possible contribution of the bio-documentary method to ethnographic research. H e encouraged our plans and helped clarify our ideas in discussing the project with us. When we came to analyze our experience, Dell Hymes proved one of the intellectual rocks we leaned on most heavily. His detailed criticism of the first draft of this manuscript enabled us to correct many unclear passages. Margaret Mead stuck with us all the way. She helped us to work out many newly-formed ideas in hours of conversation with her. The day we spent with her when we returned from the field with the Navajo films, looking at the films over and over again, was probably the finest lesson in visual ethnographic method we ever had. Gene Weltfish was

Acknowledgments

(xiii

enormously helpful before we went into the field, reviewing problems of field method with a camera. Our work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants number GS 1038and GS 1759,and by the Annenberg School of Communications, University of Pennsylvania. Allan Smith and then Richard Lieban, who were successively head of the anthropology section of the Foundation, not only helped us to solve problems of budget and red tape, but became valued friends with whom we could discuss our findings, research problems, and plans at any time. Their help and encouragement made the research much easier. Edward Hall and John Collier, Jr., visited us in the field and gave us an opportunity to review our findings and methods with them. We found these occasions both helpful and stimulating. Last but not least, we want to thank George Gerbner, Dean of the Annenberg School, who allowed one of us, at least, to spend almost four years talking about nothing but Navajo making movies. He found space when space was hard to find, he allowed us to monopolize secretaries when there were almost none to go around. He made the cameras, projectors, and editing equipment available whenever they were needed. He criticized and questioned, with great sensitivity, our papers and the colloquia at which we first began to formulate our analyses. He was in the deepest sense a valued colleague. And so was the late Dr. Adan Treganzo, Chairman of the Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State College, for the other of us. Miss Terry Zaroff not only was responsible for typing this manuscript, but she kept her cool during at least five successive rewrites. She checked every reference and helped to organize us so that the work could go on despite teaching, meetings, and numerous other distractions. She deeply deserves our thanks. Murdoch Matthew of the Indiana University Press was our editor. He cut, questioned, rewrote, and made contributions on almost every page. As with a film, a book is made in the editing room. Murdoch Matthew is that kind of editor. We thank him.

xiv )

Acknowledgments

We want to say something about Richard Chalfen in these acknowledgments, but it is difficult to thank someone whom we consider to be one of us. He started as our graduate assistant in the field and has continued working in visual communication and the ethnography of communication. Although his name appears on only one chapter, we would like to say here that the work reported in the following pages was done by the three of us.

SOL WORTH JOHN ADAIR

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Gallup, New Mexico