The Pentecostal movement has taken root in communities around the world, and developed into a diffuse, flexible network of beliefs, practices, and institutions. Scholars have used the terms "neo-Pentecostalism" and "charismatic Christianity" to capture the ways in which the Pentecostal movement has spread and changed, yet for specialists in ethnographic research, the variability and diversity of Pentecostalism continue to present difficult problems. One of the problems that has bedeviled ethnographic studies of Pentecostalism among indigenous peoples is reconciling how the adoption of Pentecostalism can represent a significant break from indigenous ways of life and also be a means of maintaining an indigenous cultural identity. Anthropologist Joel Robbins, for example, has charged that anthropologists often make the mistake of overlooking the projects of change in which indigenous Pentecostals are engaged, and focusing on continuities amid conversions. The problem is not just a scholarly matter, however; it is often deeply intertwined with indigenous politics and the struggle for sovereignty. As Kimberly Jenkins Marshall shows in her monograph Upwards, Not Sunwise: Resonant Rupture in Navajo Neo-Pentecostalism, many Diné or Navajo communities regard Pentecostal converts "as not really Navajos" (46), while Navajo Pentecostals, who refer to themselves as Oodlání in the Navajo language, assert a Navajo cultural identity in their interactions with other Pentecostals.
Marshall's book is based on several years of ethnographic research in Navajo communities in the southwestern United States. The only lengthy study of Navajo Pentecostalism that has been published to date, it deftly tackles the problem of rupture and continuity among Pentecostal converts, and shows that Navajo Pentecostals reject, reinterpret, remake, and conserve traditional beliefs and practices in intricate and sometimes conflicting ways. Marshall pursues a pioneering approach to indigenous Pentecostalism that will interest folklorists: she attends carefully to the expressive forms within Pentecostalism, and through her analysis of expressive forms, she arrives at the argument that Navajo Pentecostalism can best be described as resonant rupture. Her argument takes seriously the commitment to change among the Oodlání, while also exploring the meaningful connections that exist between Pentecostal expressions and traditional Navajo cultures. To illustrate the "feelingful" resonance of Pentecostal practices (19), she provides a helpful, thorough description of the broader contexts to which the practices respond. Readers can gain from her book a better understanding of not only Pentecostalism, but also traditional Navajo cultures and cultural revitalization movements.
In chapters 1 and 2, Marshall lays a foundation for later chapters by discussing tent revivals, where many of the expressive forms that are essential to Oodlání communities are on display. Tent revivals are remarkably common on the Navajo Nation, and Marshall's discussion of tent revivals draws on observations of more than forty revivals. In chapter 1, her discussion of tent revivals provides a framework for explaining the history of Pentecostalism among Navajos, her entry into Oodlání communities, and the ethical challenges she faced in conducting her research. One of the challenges was exploring an alternative narrative of Navajoness in the face of significant objections to Pentecostalism among Diné scholars and activists, who are committed to a philosophy of cultural revitalization known as "sunwise path teaching" (47). In chapter 2, Marshall turns to a fuller discussion of tent revivals. She highlights similarities between tent revivals and traditional Navajo ceremonial gatherings, while emphasizing that Oodlání reject many traditional practices, especially practices that conflict with Pentecostalism, and reinterpret elements within traditional Navajo medicine as demonic forces that must be actively confronted. She concludes this chapter by noting, "For Oodláni, the beauty of the tent revival lies not in its social nature, but in the powerful movement of the anointing of God" (79).
Marshall adheres to this basic formula of finding meaningful connections between Oodlání practices and traditional Navajo practices, while highlighting assertions of dramatic rupture and change by the Oodlání, in chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6. She builds a convincing case for resonant rupture, but her focus on illustrating resonant rupture across different kinds of expressive forms leaves the reader wondering how the analysis of each expressive form could have developed in different, if contradictory, directions. It would have been useful, for example, if Marshall had included more from her interviews about how the Oodlání themselves interpret the practices in which they are engaged, and addressed how each expressive form is interconnected with practices that we find across Pentecostal communities--in other words, how it resonates not with indigenous cultures, but with a modern, global movement that offers the promise of radical transformation and novelty to many kinds of marginalized people.
Chapters 3 and 4 provide important contributions to ethnographic studies of Pentecostalism by attending to the important roles that music plays in Pentecostalism. Chapter 3 discusses the meanings of "Háálá Ayóo Diyin," a beloved song in Navajo Pentecostal communities and the only well-known Christian song originally composed in Navajo. The performance of the song reveals the importance of the Navajo language for the Oodlání, while reinforcing the projects of change in which Oodlání are engaged. Chapter 4 turns to a discussion of other music among Navajo Pentecostals, which incorporates the instrumentation, rhythms, vocal styles, and dress of country western music, a form of music that is very popular on the Navajo Nation. Although country music has shaped the style and symbolism of Oodlání music, Marshall explains that Oodláni maintain very strict boundaries between the two kinds of music, thereby reaffirming their commitment to separation from the broader Navajo community.
Chapter 5 analyzes dance among the Oodlání. Dancing among Pentecostals has received very little attention from scholars, and for this reason this chapter is fascinating, raising many questions that call for further research and analysis. It seems to me that Pentecostal "Spirit-filled" dance is radically different from many traditional forms of dance, because it is entirely subject to the movements of the Holy Spirit and other Pentecostal frames of reference, and it is therefore difficult to evaluate with reference to traditional Navajo aesthetics. Chapter 6 pursues interesting connections between Pentecostal forms of healing and traditional healing practices, while clarifying the distinctive logic and force of Pentecostal rituals and testimonies. Here again, Marshall provides the reader who is unfamiliar with Native American cultures useful information about not only healing among the Oodlání, but also other healing practices that can be found in Navajo communities.
In the conclusion, Marshall turns to instances in which Navajo Pentecostals self-consciously assert a Navajo identity within broader neo-Pentecostal networks, including donning traditional Navajo dress in international Pentecostal meetings. In this way, she returns to the importance of the broader Pentecostal movement for local Pentecostal communities. Perhaps the greatest contributions of Marshall's book are that it explores diversity and conflict within Navajo communities and illustrates the ways in which expressive forms within the Pentecostal movement easily adapt to and become deeply meaningful in indigenous and local contexts. Despite the objections of Diné activists, Marshall's book provides substantial evidence that Oodlání maintain a Navajo cultural identity amid rupture and change. As scholars like Marshall continue to take seriously Pentecostal projects of change and separation, it will also be important for them to recognize changes that occur within Pentecostalism across time, including reinterpretations of practices and reconfigurations of communities. Attending closely to change in all its forms, we will not be surprised if Marshall's book provides a basis for ongoing mutual appreciation and greater collaboration in the future between Diné activists and Oodlání communities.
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[Review length: 1221 words • Review posted on March 8, 2018]