Navajo Rug Weaver |
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Cartesian Graph |
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Navajo sand painting offers many good examples of four-fold symmetry. These are used in healing ceremonies. A medicine man ("hataalii") completes the drawing in one day, using colored powder such as crushed stone. The painting is brushed away later that night, along with the illness.
In
the Navajo religion, the hataalii heals through the balance of forces.
Sand paintings often use reflection symmetry to show these paired forces.
Some of these structures are similar to a Cartesian graph. Navajo tradition
does not permit photos of sand paintings, so at left we have shown a Navajo
rug based on a sand painting. Here we see four human figures. Figures
on the horizontal axis are hunched over with back packs. Those on the
vertical axis have straight backs. As a Cartesian graph: -X = Upside-down figure with backpack +Y = White straight figure -Y = Dark straight figure |
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