Abstract
L AGUNA SYMBOLIC GEOGRAPHY (Table 1) charts a static map delineating a repertoire of qualities indicative of varying male and female personae in Ceremony. These characters are lodged in spiritual realm of Leslie Marmon Silko's novel, and they tutor Tayo in ceremonial nature of gender. Identification with men teaches profile of masculinity through hunting, herding, warfare and curing, while identification with women gives Tayo social identity by reuniting him with land, ultimate artifact of Spider Woman's stream of thought (Swan 1987). But Tayo must move through this paradigm himself, physically traversing each sector of people's sacred territory. He traces dynamic movement of sunwise cycle connecting one cardinal direction to next because his sickness was only part of something larger, and cure would be found only in something great and inclusive of everything (Silko 1977: 132). That comprehensive focal center is revealed in Ghostway, ceremony conducted on Tayo's behalf by Navajo medicine man, Betonie. As Tayo participates in process of identification to attain social and religious identity, this mechanism recurs in a ritual context: the Navajo identifies himself even with evil in order to overcome (Reichard 1945: 215). Like produces like, and evil is compelled to follow human directions; evil is converted to holiness to extent that it falls under human control:
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