Dreaming Of Sheep In Navajo Country Summary

778 Words2 Pages

Chandler Cook
November 5th, 2015
HIST3417
Book Review
Embodying agriculture in Gender Systems Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country gives readers a look into the federal government’s failed policy to preserve grazing lands by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of livestock with a particular focus on women. Centering around women because they are the primary owners and caretakers of livestock in Navajo reservations. Weisiger’s narrative explains the relationship of “livestock grazing, environmental change, cultural identity, gender, and memory during the New Deal era of the 1930s and its aftermath” (p xv). Weisiger relies on oral histories, environmental science, and government documents. Weisiger begins by discussing the debate about the Stock Reduction Program from 1933-1934. She goes on then to detail the importance of livestock to Navajo cultural identity and way of life. Weisiger writes, “Dine knew nature not only through their connections with the physical environment but also
To begin, it ties into a popular belief of Michael Pollans, that we “Should eat more like our Great-Grandmothers”. This belief ties into Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country because both books have an understanding that we should eat from scratch and have some sort of self-sufficiency when preparing our meals. Another study that this books falls into is the importance of agricultural knowledge. A book written by Judith Carney titled Black Rice discusses the importance of West African knowledge in cultivating crops in the New World. This relates to Weisiger’s book because both focus on the importance of agricultural knowledge of two groups. In Black Rice, Carney focuses on the cultivation of rice in West Africa. In Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country, Weisiger focuses on the importance of Dine women producing livestock. The book helps one understand how food is truly embedded into our lives in more ways than one would

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