Even as American ethnology in the late‐nineteenth century continued to accumulate data about indigenous groups for comparative study, the surgeon‐turned‐ethnographer Washington Matthews found standardized documentary methods constricting, unable to reflect the complexity of a community's spiritual practices. Through studies of Navajo Indians in the 1880s and 90s, Matthews experimented with documentation techniques to capture the multisensorial and ephemeral elements of Navajo healing ceremonialism, such as the design of sandpaintings that were later destroyed as the rites concluded. Investigating his ethnographic strategies and his relationships with Navajo knowledge stewards, this article charts Matthews’ emerging conviction in social immersion and bonding with indigenous informants, tenets that predated the rise of cultural relativism in anthropology. The article argues that his experience among and tutelage from Navajo medicine “singers” reshaped Matthews’ documentary practices to emphasize the irreducibility of cultural facets to tabular columns, raising doubts about then‐dominant theories of social evolution.

中文翻译：

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记录多感官和短暂的事件：纳瓦霍·尚特威（Navajo Chantway）的歌手和礼仪主义“科学”的麻烦。

即使在19世纪末期美国民族学继续积累有关土著群体的数据以进行比较研究时，由外科医生转变的民族志学家华盛顿·马修斯（Washington Matthews）仍发现标准化的记录方法受到限制，无法反映社区精神实践的复杂性。通过研究1880年代和90年代的纳瓦霍印第安人，马修斯尝试使用记录技术来捕捉纳瓦霍愈合仪式的多感官和短暂元素，例如沙画的设计，后来随着仪式的结束而被破坏。通过调查他的人种学策略以及与纳瓦霍知识管理者的关系，本文描绘了马修斯在融入社会和与土著信息提供者的交往中的新兴信念，在人类学中出现文化相对主义之前的信条。这篇文章认为，他在纳瓦霍医学“歌手”中的经历和指导使马修斯的纪录片作法得以重塑，以强调文化方面对表格专栏的不可还原性，使人们对当时的主流社会进化理论产生怀疑。