Some Pragmatic Aspects of Navaho Peyotism

Abstract

The Peyote religion has often been characterized as promoting passivity, resignation, and escape into a subjective world of visions as a substitute for the dissatisfying social and economic conditions resulting from white domination. Data gathered on the Navaho reservation are presented which indicate that it is more appropriate to view Peyotism as an active attempt to transform these conditions, an interpretation which more adequately matches the Malinowskian model of magico-religiousphenomena.