Through Pueblo Oral Tradition and Personal Narrative: Following the Santo Domingan 'Good Path'

• Main Author: Calabaza, Estefanita Lynne
• Other Authors: Parezo, Nancy J.
• Language: en
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2011
• Subjects: Santo Domingo; Santo Domingan; Pueblo; Personal Narrative; Oral Tradition; Good Path
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/144374

This master's thesis is an autoethnography. According to Denzin and Lincoln, an autoethnograpic piece "works to hold self and culture together, albeit not in equilibrium or stasis," (207). This thesis, presented in story form, tells how I was educated into and came to follow the "Good Path" in becoming a member of Santo Domingo Pueblo, and more specifically, a contemporary Santo Domingan woman. My story is framed within a Puebloan paradigm of remembrance as articulated through oral tradition, narrative and text, and the social and natural environments of my Santo Domingan world. Through introspection and reflection on the narratives, I elicit what I believe to be the foundational core values of Santo Domingo culture. I identify and reference these core values as Breath, Corn, Hair, and Family. It is through my stories that I have also come to understand the strength and power of oral traditional narratives and teachings.