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Dineh and Walbiri Cultures: A Comparison of Art Essays

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Art originally in earlier cultures had a different purpose. Currently people create art for an aesthetic purpose for others to view in galleries, theaters, or museums creating distance for the audience. Initially art was created for purposes other than aesthetics, and people participated and interacted with the art and artist. This intertwined relationship between humans and art is especially seen in the Dineh and Wilbiri cultures. These two groups created drypaintings. People in both these groups directly interacted with the paintings instead of viewing them from a distance. Currently, there is a sense of distance instead of interaction. In these groups, humans participated directly with the artist and the art itself. In both …show more content…

The guardians can be Gods as seen in _____ Figure 1. The guardian holy spirit in white at the opening of the painting in the east is the male Talking God. In the west, there is a male holy spirit named Calling God. This emphasis on deities within the drypaintings furthermore accentuates on contagion. As the patient sits on the dry paintings, not only is the patient coming in contact with the drypainting that has power flowing from holy spirits making it a deity, but the holy spirits within the painting itself.
The Navajo believe in hózhó, a Navajo term for balance. When hocho or imbalance occurs, there is a need for a chanter or a sand painter to perform a ritualistic prayer, which is known as a chant, an example being a Night Chant. Highwater, in the article The Navajo Night Chant, outlines the procedure for this ritualistic prayer. The first four days are devoted to purification, and the last four days are for healing. “At the midnight on the fourth day the divinities are ceremonially awakened. These powers descend from their homes and appear in the great sand paintings that are made by the chanter (a shaman) on the fifth day through the eighth days of the ceremony. These complex iconographic drypaintings manifest the divinities and make it possible for them to touch their bodies to the patient’s body and in this manner to transmit

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