Cultural Reference

Jerking venison is a method of treating deer meat by drying it on racks. Salt and other flavorings can be applied to assist in drying and preserving the meat and to add to its flavor. Once the venison is cut into strips and hung on a rack, it can be allowed to air dry, especially if it has been treated with salt and herbs. However, it is faster and it adds more flavor to place the racked meat over or near a fire so that the heat and the smoke from the fire facilitate the drying process and also imbue the meat with a smoky flavor.

Pants made from durable twilled cotton, also known as denim.

In Classical mythology, Jason and his Argonauts are sent by King Pelias to retrieve the Golden Fleece. If Jason successfully obtains the fleece, then he demonstrates his right to ascend to the throne as king. However, the fleece is an object of great power and is protected by a series of trials, incuding bulls who breath fire and a dragon whose teeth, when thrown into the soil, become deathless warriors.

Why would Hillerman name a fictional hippie commune "Jason's Fleece"? As the mythological fleece can symbolize power or wealth, or the desire for power and wealth, perhaps Hillerman is making a comment about the distorted values with which he associated the fictional commune in his 1973 novel Dance Hall of the Dead.

A vehicle that was originally built for World War II as a lightweight off-road vehicle, the Jeep is a four-wheel drive utility vehicle. It is known as "jeep" because it was originally called "G.P." for "General Purpose" or "Government Purpose," and the acronym eventually slurred into the phoneme "jeep." Because the Jeep was lightweight and versatile, it became very popular, and after WWII, was sold on the civilian market. Jeep is currently a division of Chrysler Group LLC.

Prior to U.S. involvement in WWII, which did not begin until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. participated in a number of programs that supported the Allied powers, including Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, against the Axis powers, including Germany, Japan, and Italy. One of these assistance-based programs was the lend-lease program, where the United States would provide the Allied forces with tanks, airplanes, vehicles, ammunition, food, and other materials to the Allied powers on a temporary lend basis or in return for leases on European bases. The Jeep was one of such vehicles used in the lend-lease program.

The Navajo term hatałii, also spelled yataalii, translates as into English as "singer." Singers are medicine men who perform traditional healing ceremonies and blessing rites intended to protect and cure the body, mind, and spirit. Singers use traditional, sacred practices such as chanting, praying, or herb medicine to call on the ill person, his kin, the singer himself, and divine beings to restore the individual's health in accordance with communal balance and universal harmony. Healing or blessing rituals vary according to the occasion, but singing is the main component in all of them, and there are hundreds of songs that comprise a variety of chants.

There are nearly 100 Navajo chants, originating in Navajo origin mythology, and varying in range and intricacy. They are so nuanced and complex that a singer learns only one or two complete chants over many years of apprenticeship. Healing ceremonies last anywhere from one to nine days and include songs, prayers, talks, dances, sweat baths, and sand paintings.

Tragedies are dramatic works which focus on suffering and end unhappily. A common feature of tragedies is that the main character contributes in some way to his own downfall. William Shakespeare, a 16th century playwright and poet, penned some of the most famous tragedies, including the plays OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE; THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK; KING LEAR; and THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH.

Intravenous is a medical term referring to entering the body through a vein. In hospital settings, patients who are severely dehydrated or who have have difficulty eating or digesting can be fed intravenously by a tube inserted into a vein.

To formally, if not ritually, bring an individual into a specific group or organization. The initiation process can be triggered by coming of age and reaching a certain societal point of maturation, by accomplishing a series of tasks, or by learning the steps, songs, and procedures of various ceremonials, among many other possibilities. To become initiated into a group suggests that one has passed from one stage of life into another, from one series of responsibilities to another, and from one set of behaviors to another.

An adjective that suggests that something is inevitable, creating a feeling that an event is about to happen and that nothing will be able to stop it.

A historically incorrect but contemporaneously common method of referring to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Believing, or hoping, that they had stumbled upon the eastern shores of the subcontinent of India, fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European explorers called the local peoples they encountered "indios" (in Spanish) or Indians; the misnomer stuck and is a vernacular conundrum that persists in the Americas through to the present. Contemporary references to indigenous peoples in the Americas have replaced "Indian" with tribal names, or the terms "Native American" or "First Peoples."

Hillerman's fiction deals exclusively with Native American cultures located in the Southwest region of the U.S., in particular the Navajo, but also the Hopi, Zuni, and other Pueblo groups. In most cases, Hillerman uses the word Indian when referring to members of these various cultures.