chant

A rhythmic vocal recitation that is usually intended to provoke a meditative trance, spiritual healing, or to create the aural context for a performance such as a dance or other ceremonial. Chants can also be thought of as prayers that are sung and are often comprised of repeated phrases.

Photo Credit

 
"Rhythm of the Movement. Calling Eagle drum group at an Idle No More rally in Window Rock, Arizona, December 28, 2012" by Donovan Shortey is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.

Term Type
References

 
Elmore, Francis Hapgood
     1944   Ethnobotany of the Navajo. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Frisbie, Charlotte Johnson
     1967   Kinaaldá: A Study of the Navaho Girl’s Puberty Ceremony. Middletown: Wesleyan
         University Press.

Haile, Berard
     1943   Origin Legend of the Navaho Flintway. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hill, Willard Williams
     1938   Agricultural and Hunting Methods of the Navaho Indians. New Haven: Yale
         University Press.

Kluckhohn, Clyde, and Leland Clifton Wyman
     1940   Introduction to Navaho Chant Practice. Menasha: American Anthropological
         Association.

Kluckhohn, Clyde, Willard Williams Hill, and Lucy Wales Kluckhohn
     1971   Navaho Material Culture. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Kluckhohn, Clyde
     1944   Navaho Witchcraft. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
         Cambridge: The Museum.

Lamphere, Louise
     1969   Symbolic Elements in Navajo Ritual. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 25: 279–
         305.

Newcomb, Franc Johnson, Stanley A. Fishler, and Mary C. Wheelwright
     1956   Study of Navajo Symbolism. Cambridge: The Museum.

Newcomb, Franc Johnson
     1964   Hosteen Klah: Navaho Medicine Man and Sand Painter. Norman: University of
         Oklahoma Press.

O’Bryan, Aileen
     1956   Dîné: Origin Myths of the Navaho Indians. Bulletin. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print
         Off.

Reichard, Gladys Amanda
     1950   Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism. New York: Bollinger Foundation.

Wyman, Leland Clifton, and Clyde Kluckhohn
     1938   Navaho Classification of Their Song Ceremonials. Menasha: American
         Anthropological Association.