Navajo Attitudes Toward Development and Change: A Unified Ethnographic and Survey Approach to an Understanding of Their Future

Abstract

W e use a systematically integrated combination of ethnoscience ethnography and survey research to provide a description of what Navajos have been taking into account when deciding how to cope with accelerating energy extraction and other industrial development. Beginning with a decision model of the adaptation process, we validate that model with a resemtionwide survey. Perceptions of the most likely outcomes f r o m development are relatively uniform across different socioeconomic groups. Three factors appear to be important in accounting for vanation in attitudes toward development: degree of integration into the external economy, degree of marginality to the Navajo kinship system, and degree of marginality to the subsistence livestock economy.

Navajo and autism: the beauty of harmony

“…Structural economic changes have reduced the Navajos' traditional subsistence on livestock, contributing to poverty and unemployment on the reservation. As the Navajo become more integrated into the economy off the reservation and more educated, they have begun to assume more Western lifestyles like two-parent households rather than the traditional kinship system (Schoepfle, Burton, and Begishe 1984). The Navajo have resiliently incorporated elements of the broader American culture into their own to help preserve a distinct identity relevant to their context (Lamphere 2007), a phenomenon especially apparent among younger Navajo who grow up with more exposure to Western influence.…”

The need for ethnographic methods in impact assessment

“…The use of ethnography in impact assessment has been advocated since the beginning of SIA and has been applied in various contexts since the 1970s (e.g. Berger, 1977;Roper, 1983;Schoepfle et al, 1984;Banks, 1990;Stoffle et al, 1991); however, its full value is yet to be fully appreciated by the key stakeholders in a formal impact assessment process.…”

Handbook of Social Impact Assessment and Management

“…The use of ethnography in impact assessment has been advocated since the beginning of SIA and has been applied in various contexts since the 1970s (e.g. Roper, 1983;Schoepfle et al, 1984;Banks, 1990;Stoffle et al, 1991); however, its full value is yet to be fully appreciated by the key stakeholders in a formal impact assessment process.…”