Cultural Insights for Native American Evangelism

1
Cultural Insights for Native American Evangelism

• Fitting the Gospel to the Navajo People

2
U. S. Reservations
Navajo
3
Language (Navajo)?

• Tonal (2 tones high and lowtranslated songs not
  understandable)?
• Verb Final (so it takes complete sentences to
  translate)Most important noun first
• Has glottal sounds kad not the same as kad
  (pronounced cod)compare English football
• Liihorse (all non-English sounds)?

4
Language (Navajo)?

• Brother-sister terms
• Sibling of the same or different sex
• Older brother or sister Younger brother or
  sister
• Cousins vs. brother and sister
• Pronouns
• No masculine and feminine 3rd person
• Has 4th person to contrast with 3rd person
• Mistakes Puppy story Milk story

5
Using the Navajo Bible

• We used to be known as people of the book
• The Navajo Bible is not perfect neither is the
  English Bible
• The Navajo Bible is better than translating from
  English to Navajo on the fly

6
Social Organization

• LeadershipSituational Leadership
• Clansborn into mothers born for fathers
  incest taboo
• Campextended household basic unit camp
  churches
• Matrilinealimportance of mothers mother (vs.
  work ethic)?
• Early Independence of Children

7
Multiplying Camp Churches

• The basic sociological unit on the Navajo
  Reservation is the camp
• The camp is made up of several households in an
  extended family
• It usually consists of about 30 people, the size
  of most of our churches
• The secret to growth is multiplying churches, not
  growing them big

8
Religion

• Health oriented
• Medicine man
• Importance of the hogan Kinlichee story
• Singsfew hours to nine days
• Importance of harmony
• Shame-oriented society
• Importance of spirits Zuni CR story

9
Implications of Religion

• Prayer for health is very important
• A theme that should be emphasized is that sin
  puts us out of harmony with God and Jesus
  restores that harmony
• We should not dispute a belief in spirits
• Anglos often say demons no longer exist
• The Bible says that Jesus has overcome the spirits

10
Economics (Gifts)

• Exchange Rules different
• Obligation to pay back
• Started by Recipient
• Tom Yellowman story

11
Play and Fun

• Play emphasizes co-operation rather than
  competition
• Humor favors puns hola story