Hogan

A hogan or hoghan is the primary traditional home of the Navajo people. Other traditional structures include the summer shelter, the underground home, and the sweat house.

For those who practice the Navajo religion the hogan is considered sacred. The religious song "The Blessingway" describes the first hogan as being built by Coyote with help from beavers to be a house for First Man, First Woman, and Talking God. The Beaver People gave Coyote logs and instructions on how to build the first hogan, now known as a "forked stick" or "male" (ách í ádeez áhí) hogan. This hogan resembles a pyramid with five triangular faces, which are named morning (east), afternoon, sunset (west), darkness (north), argonite (or jet), and heat wave. Earth may fill the spaces between the framework logs, hiding the five faceted shape and creating thick, winter-protective walls. The "forked stick" or "male" Hogan contains a vestibule in the front and was used only for sacred or private ceremonies.

The "circular" or "female" Hogan (tsé beehooganí), the family home for the Diné people, is much larger and does not contain a vestibule. In it, the children play, the women cook, weave, talk, and entertain and men tell jokes and stories. Navajos made their hogans in this fashion until the 1900s, when they started to make them in hexagonal and octagonal shapes. The change in shape may have been due to the arrival of the railroad. A supply of wooden cross-ties, which could be laid horizontally to form walls of a larger, taller home, allowed the retention of the "female" hogan shape but with more interior room.

Many cultural taboos are associated with the hogan and its use. Should a death occur in the structure, the body is either buried in the hogan with the entry sealed to warn others away, or the deceased is extracted through a hole knocked in the north side of the structure and it is abandoned and often burned. A hogan may also become taboo for further use if lightning strikes near the structure or a bear rubs against it. Wood from such structures is never reused for any other purpose by a Navajo.

Today, while some older hogans are still used as dwellings and others are maintained for ceremonial purposes, new hogans are rarely intended as family dwellings.

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Hogan is also a surname. If derived from the Gaelic, it is diminuative of "Og" meaning "Young", but if it is derived from Cornish, it means mortal. This youthful definition of the name is also reflected in the Welsh, where Hogyn means stripling.

It has been claimed that those who bear the name are decended of an uncle of Brian Boru, the first (and last) Irish High King.

The name, in Northern Ireland, has been further Anglicized to the form "Hagan".

Related Links

• Hogan's Heroes
• Paul Hogan
• Hulk Hogan
• Hogan Knows Best
• Hogan's Fix and Paint

External links

• Navajo Hogan: North American Native American Indian Pre-Contact Housing
• Building a Hogan