Date of Award:

5-1970

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Sociology and Anthropology

Department name when degree awarded

Sociology

Committee Chair(s)

H. Bruce Bylund

Committee

H. Bruce Bylund

Abstract

The relationship of traditionalism (knowledge of traditional stories), teachers' evaluations of traits (skill, punctuality, security, leadership, use of English, and personal appearance), social relationships (manner of relating, friends--non-Indian or Indian, who do they talk to about problems, and marital status), and productive activity (amount of time spent in employment, school, and military) to existing attitudes toward reservation living, non-Indian way of life, and a combination of the two attitudes, attitudes toward life, was studied for the Navajo male 1964 graduates from Intermountain School by using simple correlation and other methods.

Due to the exploratory nature of the study, and the limitation of small sample size (34 males) the findings are at best only suggestive.

A typology was developed and applied to the data. The typology, derived from the graduates' negative and positive attitudes toward life, consisted of Navajos who varied on a continuum. This continuum was arbitrarily broken down to describe Navajos who are bi-cultural, monocultural W (adjusted to white), monocultural N (adjusted to Navajo) and alienated from both cultures. Few significant correlations were found, but possible tendencies were indicated.

Correlations suggested that low evaluations of Navajos' traditionalism, traits, and social relationships with traditional Navajo reference groups may be associated with positive attitudes toward reservation living. Probably due to the differences in approaching the data, the findings of the tabular analysis were contrary to those of the correlations. The tabular analysis suggested that those individuals who were bi-cultural or who were monocultural W tended to have high evaluations for traits and social relationships, while those individuals who were alienated or who were monocultural N tended to have low evaluations for traits and social relationships. The majority of graduates were found to have a high evaluation of traditionalism, suggesting the traditionalism can be a hindrance or an aid to adjustment, depending on the individuals' internalized traits and social relationships.

Productive activity may be a measure of how well the Navajo communicated with the white world rather than a measure of adjustment.

Checksum

27298907e42aea7fe58643409fd7c5ee

Comments

Publication made available electronically February 1, 2012.

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