Diné (Navajo) TraditionHoly Person
First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)
Áłtsé Hastiin(Áłtsé Hastiin)
Also known as Atsé Hastín (Matthews's spelling)
- leadership in the lower worlds
- the ordering of the world
- power used for good and ill
One of the first beings of the lower worlds, who with First Woman leads the people through the emergence, helps order the world above, and in many tellings finds the infant Changing Woman.
About First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)
In the lower worlds
Áłtsé Hastiin, First Man, is formed in the lower worlds, in many tellings together with First Woman, and he is a leader of the beings who journey upward through successive worlds into this one, the Glittering World. Tellings differ on the number and colours of the worlds and on how First Man and First Woman come into being.
Ordering the world
In the world above, First Man takes part in shaping and ordering things: setting the sacred mountains in place and, in many tellings, arranging the stars in the sky, a careful work that Coyote disrupts by scattering the rest. He holds a medicine bundle of great power.
An ambiguous power
First Man is not simply good. In some tellings he is associated with witchcraft as well as with protective knowledge, and he is linked to the origin of the monsters that later threaten the people. Diné tradition treats power as something that can be used for good or ill, and First Man embodies that ambiguity.
Finding Changing Woman
In many tellings, including Zolbrod's, it is First Man who finds on Chʼóolʼį́ʼí the turquoise figure that becomes the infant Changing Woman, and he and First Woman raise her; Matthews's version has no such fostering.
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)
The Holy People are part of a living religion. Ceremonies associated with them, including the Blessingway (Hózhǫ́ǫ́jí) and the chantways conducted by hataałii (ceremonial practitioners), are not described on this site, and sandpaintings are not reproduced, because they are sacred and made for healing within ceremony. Many Diné families teach that the origin stories in which the Holy People appear should be told only in winter, after the first frost and before the first thunder of spring.
Family
First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)'s family at a glance
- Who are First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)'s children?
- Children of First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin) recorded in the atlas: Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé).
- Who were First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)'s spouses and consorts?
- Spouses and consorts of First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin) recorded in the atlas: First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́).
In the atlas
Where First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin) appears
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Washington Matthews, Navaho Legends
Appears in
Ancient and classical works featuring this figure.
Atsé Hastín, leader in the lower worlds (origin legend)
Diné bahane': The Navajo Creation Story
finds Changing Woman as an infant (Part Three)
Further reading
Diné bahane': The Navajo Creation Story
First Man in Parts One to Three
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.
Family relationships come from the atlas's kinship records. Ancient sources often disagree on divine genealogy.
Genealogy
Family tree
First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)'s parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.