No.^Tir' ^^^* '^^^^ RAMAH NAVAHO — KLUCKHOHN 373 



release and much expression of aggression. Drinking tends to take 

 place in small groups. Heath's sample shows 39 pairs, 22 trios, and 

 only 12 groups of four or more persons. The most frequent combina- 

 tions of kin are maternal uncle with maternal nephew and brothers- 

 in-law. Biological brothers and clan brothers drink together with 

 only shghtly less frequency. Husbands and wives drink together 

 about half as often. Drinking by women is condemned by the more 

 conservative Navahos, and far the greatest part of female drinking 

 at Ramah is by women under 35. With the partial exception of 

 married couples, di'inking in mixed groups is generally disapproved, 

 and out of 405 drinking episodes Heath found only 46 in which both 

 sexes participated.^* The hostility which comes out is not random 

 but bears a relation to some of the main tensions in Navaho social 

 structure as well as to geographical propinquity. Drunken assaults 

 occur in the following order of frequency : husband and wife ; maternal 

 uncle and nephew; father-in-law and son-in-law; and clan brothers.^^ 

 It is noteworthy that although cross-cousins often drink together, 

 there is not a single instance in the field notes of drunken quarrels 

 between them. 



Kaplan's (1954) work with projective tests indicates that only on a 

 few points can one make sound generalizations (other than gross and 

 somewhat conflicting statistical trends) about the psychology of the 

 Ramah Navaho. They do (ibid., p. 24) manifest an oral dependency 

 syndrome which is completely absent in the Mormon group. 



A monograph by Bailey (1950) and a chapter by Kluckhohn (1955) 

 contribute to an understanding of the sexual psychology of the Ramah 

 Navaho. Briefly, sex and the reproductive cycle of women are heav- 

 ily tinged with supernatural beliefs and practices. On the other hand, 

 sex at the suitable time and place and with a proper person is not 

 "nasty" but rather one of the good things of life. In Freudian lan- 

 guage, the Navaho have object taboos but not aim taboos. While — 

 by the standards of Christian culture — the Navaho are far from 

 puritanical as far as sexual behavior is concerned, and they make 

 many ribald jokes (though between certain relatives reticences must 

 be scrupulously observed), they are nevertheless modest about expo- 

 sure of the genital areas. 



As for the more cognitive aspects of psychology, the Navaho operate 

 with a more Hmited variety of hypotheses than do Anglos ; but within 

 those limits the best Navaho minds think as rigorously as any others 

 (cf. Ladd, 1956). Navahos tend to be systematists and classifiers, 

 and they are often quite precise about their categories. There is a 



'* In only 15 of these incidents did sexual promiscuity fail to occur. 

 35 Includes only pairs reported on four or more occasions. 



