beauty

    Article

    In the context in which Tony Hillerman tends to use the word "beauty," it refers to the Navajo concept of hózhǫ́, the state in which all living things are ordered, in balance, and walking in beauty. The opposite of hózhǫ́ is hóchxǫ́ǫ́, which refers to disorder and chaos in one’s life. In Hillerman's work, chaos and imbalance manifest as as physical or mental illness, infections of the body and soul contracted from contact with mainstream U.S. culture.

    Photo Credit

     
    "Rocky sunset, Big Bend Ranch State Park, Texas, July 8, 2010" by Gary Nored is licensed under CC BY-NC.

    Term Type
    References

     
    Allen, Paula Gunn and Carolyn Dunn Anderson, editors
         2001   Hozho: Walking in Beauty: Native American Stories of Inspiration, Humor, and Life.
             Chicago: Contemporary Books.

    Davies, Wade
         200   Healing Ways: Navajo Health Care in the Twentieht Century. Albuquerque: University
             of New Mexico Press.

    Ladd, John
         1957   A Systematic Reconstruction of Navaho Ethics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Lamphere, Louise
         1969   Symbolic Elements in Navajo Ritual. Southwetern Journal of Anthropology (25):279-
             305.

    Witherspoon, Gary
         1977   Language and Art in the Navajo Universe. AnnArbor: University of Michigan Press.