Blessing Way and Placebo Way

One of the most complex medical systems which people have developed is that of the Navajo in the four-corners region of the American Southwest. It is very common for human religious systems to revolve around elaborately ritualized meals where food is shared; the most obvious example for most readers of this book will be the Catholic mass, or similar communion ceremonies of other Christian groups, or the Passover Seder. Such shared meals are the center of ceremony in many other cultures and religions as well. The Navajo are an exception to this generalization. They do not have a meal at the center of their most significant religious rituals, but rather what we might call a visit to the doctor's office. The core of their religious life is a healing rite known as a “chant way.” There are many different ceremonies used for different purposes: among them are Wind Way, Female Shooting Holy Way, Hand Trembling Evil Way, and, probably the most frequently carried out, Blessing Way. I have never found a short description of these Navajo ceremonials which seemed to describe them accurately.

A typical chant way comes in several versions; it might last for two nights, five nights, or nine nights. The ceremony includes a rich complex of medicinal plants (as many as a hundred or more may be used in several different mixtures for a variety of purposes), prayers of consecration, offerings, baths, sweat baths, sandpaintings, singing all night, and so on.