Diné (Navajo) TraditionHoly Person
First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́)
Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́(Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́)
Also known as Atsé Estsán (Matthews's spelling)
- the lower worlds and the emergence
- the relationship of women and men
First Man's partner in the lower worlds, whose quarrel with him leads to the separation of women and men and, in many tellings, to the birth of the monsters; she helps raise Changing Woman.
About First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́)
Partner of First Man
Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́, First Woman, comes into being in the lower worlds with First Man, and the two are partners through the journey upward. Like First Man, she is a being of great and ambiguous power.
The separation of the sexes
A central episode of the origin story in many tellings, including Matthews's and Zolbrod's, is a quarrel between First Woman and First Man that leads the men and women to live apart, on opposite sides of a river. Both sides suffer, and eventually they reunite. In many tellings the monsters that later prey on the people were born as a consequence of that separation. The episode is often told as a lesson about the interdependence of women and men.
Raising Changing Woman
In many tellings First Woman raises the infant Changing Woman with First Man, and takes part in her Kinaaldá.
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́)
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 Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́)'s family at a glance
- Who were First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́)'s spouses and consorts?
- Spouses and consorts of First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́) recorded in the atlas: First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin).
In the atlas
Where First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́) 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 Estsán (origin legend)
Further reading
Diné bahane': The Navajo Creation Story
The separation of the sexes
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 Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́)'s parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.