In 2001 writing Seeing with the Native Eye: How many sheep will it hold? Toelken talks about being adopted by an old Navajo Indian and living with the Navajo for two years learning their language and culture. He states although he is not an expert of Navajo culture or of other Native American tribes but because of his experience he can say something about how differently they view things and how they process the world around them, and for many of the tribes it would be through their religion. He also mentions that not all Native American tribes are the same, so in order for whites to begin to understand them it would be through religious discussion. This essay is an alternative paradigm, and Toelken’s us of interpretive, intuitive, subjective,
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Toelken’s (2001) explanation of how the Navajo view the juniper berries called “juniper’s eyes” and Navajo Weaving is considered Intuitive knowledge. He first described the cycle of the juniper berries, their representation to the Navajo and why the Navajo carry the beads on them since it represents the balance between the “three-way Partnership – plant, animal, and man” and it reminds them of the circle of life and good health (Toelken, 2001). He then writes about the experiment of anthropologist John Adair and filmmaker Sol Worth, where a young Navajo girl makes a movie about Navajo Weaving and the movie only had a few pictures of rugs and how most of the film was made up of things the Navajo found important about rug making which is the human interaction with nature thus indicated by Toelken that “religious reciprocity extends even into the creation of the rug’s design” (Toelken, 2001). These two examples illustrate how the Navajo “take in information through their imagination, and are interested in the whole, the gestalt; they are idealist, interested in hypothetical possibilities, in what might be, in the creation of novel, innovative viewpoints” (Reason, 1981, p.44). This is perceived as intuitive knowledge and is needed in order to understand others not from the Western
Toelken’s (2001) explanation of how the Navajo view the juniper berries called “juniper’s eyes” and Navajo Weaving is considered Intuitive knowledge. He first described the cycle of the juniper berries, their representation to the Navajo and why the Navajo carry the beads on them since it represents the balance between the “three-way Partnership – plant, animal, and man” and it reminds them of the circle of life and good health (Toelken, 2001). He then writes about the experiment of anthropologist John Adair and filmmaker Sol Worth, where a young Navajo girl makes a movie about Navajo Weaving and the movie only had a few pictures of rugs and how most of the film was made up of things the Navajo found important about rug making which is the human interaction with nature thus indicated by Toelken that “religious reciprocity extends even into the creation of the rug’s design” (Toelken, 2001). These two examples illustrate how the Navajo “take in information through their imagination, and are interested in the whole, the gestalt; they are idealist, interested in hypothetical possibilities, in what might be, in the creation of novel, innovative viewpoints” (Reason, 1981, p.44). This is perceived as intuitive knowledge and is needed in order to understand others not from the Western