Three Navajo rugs

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3 navajo rugs
 

The Navajo Hogan

 

A hogan or hoghan is the primary traditional home of the Navajo people (Diné).  Other traditional structures include the summer shelter, the underground home, and the sweat house. 

For the Navajo, the hogan is considered sacred.  The religious song "The Blessingway" describes the first hogan as being built by Coyote with help from beavers to be a house for First Man, First Woman, and Talking God.  The Beaver People gave Coyote logs and instructions on how to build the first hogan, now known as a "forked stick" or "male" hogan.  This hogan resembles a pyramid with five triangular faces.  Earth may fill the spaces between the framework logs, hiding the five faceted shape and creating thick, winter-protective walls.  The "forked stick" or "male" Hogan contains a vestibule in the front and was used only for sacred or private ceremonies.

The circular or "female" Hogan ( tsé bee hooghan ), the family home for the Diné people, is much larger and does not contain a vestibule.  In it, the children play, the women cook, weave, talk, and entertain and men tell jokes and stories.  Navajos made their hogans in this fashion until the 1900s, when they started to make them in hexagonal and octagonal shapes.  A supply of wooden cross-ties, which could be laid horizontally to form walls of a larger, taller home, allowed the retention of the "female" hogan shape but with more interior room.

Many cultural taboos are associated with the hogan and its use.  Should a death occur in the structure, the body is either buried in the hogan with the entry sealed to warn others away, or the deceased is extracted through a hole knocked in the north side of the structure and it is abandoned and often burned.  A hogan may also become taboo for further use if lightning strikes near the structure or a bear rubs against it.  Wood from such structures is never reused for any other purpose by a Navajo.

Today, while some older hogans are still used as dwellings while others are maintained for ceremonial purposes.  New hogans are rarely intended as family dwellings.

Navajo Summer Hogan
Summer Hogan

Navajo Winter Hogan
Winter Hogan

  • All above text is used and edited with permission and is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License and from Wikipedia.org.  Please e-mail us with any corrections or comments.

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3 more Navajo rugs
January 1, 2023