SOURCE: "Laguna Prototypes of Manhood in Ceremony," in MELUS, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring, 1991–1992, pp. 39-61.

In the following essay, Swan discusses the male relationships in Silko's Ceremony and how they relate to the customs and practices of the Pueblo of Laguna.

Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony unfolds a half-breed's search for identity amidst fragmented shards of his own tribalism, a way of life torn asunder by centuries of oppression. His story is written by a Laguna woman of mixed ancestry who does not speak the old language. Neither does her hero whose name is Tayo. Both however, make their homes at the Keres Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico, and both must forge bridges spanning their biogenetic footing in diverse cultural systems.

Tayo is lost, and his quest is to find his place so that he may attain his identity as a mixed-breed person within the world fabricated by Thought...