Material Culture - Homes
Navajo man sitting in front of his Hogan, ca. 1900. Hogan is in early style, constructed using the forked stick technique.
Source - http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll65/id/17055/rec/1
Like other Athapaskan groups, the traditional home of the Navajo was the hogan, a rounded a domed structure. The earliest Navajo hogans were constructed of forked sticks covered with mud, but by the late 1800s these had been replaced by roomier, hexagonal or octagonal structures made of cribbed logs.
Although most Navajo today live in trailers or wood or brick homes, hogans are still very common on the Navajo reservation and hold an important place in Navajo rituals and identity.
The hogan is patterned after the first structure made by First Man, which is also the structure in which Changing Woman's kinaalda was held. Thus, hogans are still used for important ceremonies, including the kinaalda.
Later style hogan made of cribbed logs, 1940.
Source -https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/fsa/8b24000/8b24500/8b24565r.jpg
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