Navajo Medicine Bundles or Jish: Acquisition, Transmission, and Disposition in the Past and Present

Description

Author: Frisbie, Charlotte J. (1940-)

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

Pub Date: 1987

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Book: Good.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, bends or folds.  Very light edge and corner wear.  Some smudging to bottom and top text blocks.  Gilt on spine still sharp, easily readable.  Dust Jacket: Fair to Good.  A few small chips along upper edges, a couple of scratches on back.

Notes: Where religion meets medicine and heritage and commerce.  “Jish”, the Navajo medicine/ceremonial bundle may consist of items like herbs, rattles, fetishes, whistles, shells, feathers, cords, arrowheads, miniatures, pieces of cloth or buckskin, batches of pollen or other items which might be associated with various ceremonies or individual practitioners.  Think of “Jish” like a doctor’s little black bag, with all its contents, and a mask to cover the face.  These bundles have meaning and value to the Navajo, as well as to collectors.  You might be able to give your doctor’s little black bag to a descendant, but can you transmit the knowledge associated with that bag, or understand the contents, and maybe ddsomebody might want to buy it at a garage sale.  “Jish” is considered sacred and alive.  It’s both a source of power and its manifestation.