ABSTRACT
A Navajo origin story describes the structure of the world in terms of a journey the People took from their original home, the First World. They traveled through progressively larger, more complex, and brighter worlds, to arrive finally at the Fifth World, the present one. The story parallels “The Turtle Tower” from India, using different metaphors for each comprehension mode. For instance, the First World was a tiny, enclosed stone cavern, reminiscent of the great Turtle in the Hindu story, withdrawn into his shell. In the Fourth World, the Navajo learn farming from the Pueblo People and agriculture provides a metaphor for the objective comprehension mode: farmers commit themselves to planting, cultivating and harvesting their crops. It is a quest they repeat every year and exemplifies convergence, the fundamental process of the objective mode. The Fourth World also introduces games for the first time, when Coyote starts playing one. Games illustrate the virtual comprehension mode and the divergence between the game and real worlds. The sequence of comprehension modes depicted in the Navajo story echoes the normal cognitive development of children. The parallels imply that comprehension modes are indeed independent of culture.
