Anderson provides a very descriptive history and usage of sandpaintings by the Navajo. Sandpaintings has two forms one is the art aspect, but the more important aspect for us to focus on is their used for traditional healing. “Navajo religion holds that everything consists of powerful forces, which are capable of good or evil. The balance between them is quite fine; if upset, even accidentally, some misfortune or even disaster will occur. Nature is balanced. It is in harmony, and only man can upset the balance... All of these deities are constantly in flux, causing good and evil. The goal is for these forces to be in balance, or hozho, a perfect state.” Navajo religion and healing practice are link because most other sandpaintings are very closely tied to religion and they are use in chants. The quotation also hinted at how Navajo value harmony and that sandpaintings can be a microcosmic of their disharmonies world that they can try to manage forces in order to balance it with the sandpaintings. Here is a list of way of being out of balance: “killing a bear can cause arthritis, laughing at one can cause it to “get after you,” mountain sheep can cause ear and eye problems, killing a sand spider can cause baldness, watching a dog “go to the bathroom” can cause you to go crazy, killing snakes or lizards can cause your heart to dry up and your back to get crooked, yelling at a pregnant woman can cause the baby to be deaf, and so on; there are thousands of taboos and cures.” Maybe sandpaintings is more like a discipline for all the misdeeds they have cause in their environment. The correct way to fix the unbalance a chant is need that correlate with the cause. “The Navajo name for sandpainting, iikaah, translates to “place where gods come and go… the sandpainting prepares the way for the forces or Holy People to intercede and restore hozho.” According to this statement the sandpainting are acting like a gateway for the forces or Holy People to restore balance (hozho). Mentioning above the sandpaintings are not cheap, so the ceremony for one is also not cheap, but what health resources that are cheap?
