This book is a field study of how ceremonialism is continued in Navajo society with certain comparison with related Chinese and Tibetan cases. The continuation of tradition or culture is a central issue in cultural anthropology. The author’s ambition is to construct models, based on fieldwork, of the processes by which a tradition or culture is continued in societies at different levels of social and economic development. This book, as dealing with a preliterate and simple society, is a first attempt at such a model.

　　本書旨在探討北美最大的印第安族群─拿瓦侯族如何傳承和延續「傳統」，並比較儒學在中國社會傳承的狀況。本書是台灣研究美洲原住民文化的先驅著作，曾於1971年由中央研究院民族學研究所出版；此次藉由重新出版的機會，作者新增一篇內容為第六章且重新作序，亦修訂原書內容，因此內容更為豐富、確實，具有參閱與收藏的價值。