I Choose Life Over Death: Navajo Negotiations of Biomedical Technology in the Context of Religious Pluralism

FAIN: FT-53166-05

Maureen Trudelle Schwarz
Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY 13244-0001)

By means of consultations with patients and healers, this project will take a nuanced look at the co-existing biomedical, indigenous, pan-Indian, and Christian healing systems on the Navajo Nation. It is designed to illuminate how Navajo people are negotiating age-old philosophical beliefs to avail themselves of new biomedical procedures, while shedding light on unanswered questions surrounding whether or not the Native American Church or the various sects of Christianity currently practiced by many on the Navajo Nation provide alternative teachings about the body, health, illness, and healing.