Why are Navajo Rugs Designs Important?

Answer 1

In part, certain rug designs are tend to be more popular in different areas of the Navajo Nation so in part they represent a sort of local pride or identity.

In general Navajo rug designs illustrate underlying Navajo philosophical preference for abstract fourfold symmetry and Hózhǫ́.. This central concept is often translated as "beauty" but more accurately means: 'beauty, harmony, health, peace, balance, happiness, contentment, wholeness, and goodness" in one idea. The weaver never exactly repeats a pattern, does not draw it out and rolls it up as it is made so when working on the last half one cannot see the first half. To do this one must be in a state of Hózhǫ́. The mental state is called the inner form and the outer form is the rug. They are two sides of a whole. In Navajo thought most things occur in complementary pairs and the weavers ideas and the completed rug are one of these pairs. A traditional weaver also leave what is sometimes called a "spirit line, a yarn of different colored wool that goes though the border to the edge. this line keeps the pattern from being perfectly symmetrical and is said to prevent the weaver from mentally getting "stuck" in the design and obsessing over it and repeating it. This would make one ill. To be creatively productive and in Hózhǫ́ one must prevent this.

Color elements are associated with the four different directions which in turn are associated with sacred mountains, times of life, time of year, jewels and philosophical ideas. The traditional colors are: white (east), blue or green (south), yellow (west), and black or red (north).

Other design elements that are often repeated have symbolism too. The diamond represents Changing Woman. The hourglass shape made of two triangles represents one of her sons, Born for the Water. The re-curved bow shape made of two triangles side by side represents her other twin son, Monster Slayer. These design elements combine and regenerate symbolizing continuing cyclical regrowth, fertility and creativity and Hózhǫ́.