One time long ago a big Windigo stole an Indian boy, but the boy was too thin, so the Windigo didn't eat him up right away, but he travelled with the Indian boy waiting for him till he'd get fat. Dollightful's Wendigo Doll - Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation? J.K. Rowling's Cultural Appropriation Should Be A Lesson To White Writers Native Americans shouldn't be a "niche," and neither should women, LGBT people, or people of color. Their visitations speak to the inseparability of human experience National identity is irrelevant to this borderless horror. wendigos originate from spiritual beliefs held by Algonquian Indigenous peoples, whom are from the north eastern part of north america. I hate that I am defending JKR but I think a lot of people don't really think about how the internet was in in the late 90s and what kind of content was on the internet. Windigo psychosis may well be the most perfect example of the construction of an Aboriginal mental disorder by the scholarly professions, and its persistence dramatically underscores how constructions of the Aboriginal by these professions have, like Frankenstein's monster, taken on a life of their own. I wouldn't be offended if someone dressed up as a stereotypical native american even though my great grandma was half blackfoot native american. The Windigo also has the power to turn humans into cannibals who suffer the same . The deaths of tens of millions of Jews, Slavs, etc., at the hands of the Nazis, the deaths of tens of millions of blacks in slavery days, the deaths of up to 30 million or more Indians in the 1500s, the terribly short life spans of Mexican Indian farm workers in the US, and of Native Americans generally today, the high death rates in the early industrial centers among factory workers, and so on, all clearly attest to the fact that the wealthy and exploitative literally consume the lives of those that they exploit. Appreciation is honoring and respecting another culture and its practices, as a way to gain knowledge and understanding. I will draw whatever I feel like drawing. Even before it went live, she was being criticized for her apparently blatant cultural appropriation of Native American folklore, and since publishing the criticism has only grown more pointed. To fully understand its consequences, though, we need to make sure we have a working definition of culture itself. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 so no, if you're some white kid hearing crying in the forests of california you're not being "lured into the There, he uses the cannibalistic wendigo as a metaphor for the behaviors and attitudes central to patterns of social domination visited upon his own people in the Americas and subjugated peoples everywhere. The question of how to challenge the wtiko psychosis as described by Forbes and Wendigo Economics as described by LaDuke is a difficult one, but the mythic force of the concept of the wendigo helps to underscore the urgency of these questions. [40][41] Joe Nazare wrote that Blackwood's "subtly-demonizing rhetoric transforms the Wendigo from a native myth into a descriptive template for the Indian savage."[42]. Representation in media is crucially important, something I have become very aware of as I've grown older and consumed more entertainment. [2], Although distinct from how it appears in the traditional lore, one of the first appearances of a character inspired by, or named after, a wendigo in non-Indigenous literature is Algernon Blackwood's 1910 novella The Wendigo. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Have you encountered wendigo stories in films, television shows, or books? Halloween is literally a holiday (most Americans see it as a good excuse to dress as a sexy cat or whatever, but there are actually still people left who believe it's sacred and who perform rituals etc for the holiday). I think it's okay because you're not trying to rewrite actual history or actual legend. [47], Other creatures based on the legend, or named for it, appear in various films and television shows, including Dark Was the Night, Ravenous , The Lone Ranger (2013),[48] and the 2021 film Antlers by Scott Cooper, where the wendigo is portrayed as a deer-like creature with a glowing heart that moves from person to person with a never ending hunger. I can't say for sure how much research Rowling did when writing her series, but others have pointed out that it doesn't seem like much. They are afflicted with neither lunacy, hypochondria, nor frenzy; but have a combination of all these species of disease, which affects their imaginations and causes them a more than canine hunger. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. They are seen as malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural beings of great spiritual power . [57] In the 2018 first-person shooter video game Dusk, wendigos are enemies that remain invisible until they receive damage. Cookie Notice The appropriation, and reclamation, of Native American mythology', Journal of . Myeesquatis was holding the other leg and we were praying. Cookie Notice Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Mythical being in Native American folklore, "Windigo" redirects here. Only those entitled to them should wear them. How stupid to think otherwise. "[36] Out of equilibrium and estranged by their communities, individuals thought to be afflicted by the wendigo spirit unravel and destroy the ecological balance around them. Posted by And FWIW, I've read stories that disturbed me & even disgusted me but the author has the right to tell their story whether I like it or don't. In some cases, this entailed killing people with Wendigo psychosis. 8.1.2014. "Windigo Psychosis: A Study of Relationship between Belief and Behaviour among the Indians of Northeastern Canada." It just looks like a human that may be bigger than normal. In a report from the Contemporary Folklore conference covered in issue 388 of FORTEAN TIMES, the go-to magazine for all things paranormal, weird, or unexplained, a complaint is voiced about the "cultural appropriation" of the Wendigo, likening it to the "sexualization" of the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Create what you want; let the audience decide its fame. #QuickBooksVictoryPose #vtuber #culturalappropriation #nativeamerican #wendigo #folklore, justin bieber interview with ellen arranged marriage, Airplane ticket off at terminal five on 2023 on the 10th 2023, enriquecrespo habla de la hija de alexandra, Command too spawn in iron in a township tale. And they are worth considering including in ones classroom teaching. I believe cultural appropriation is Only when someone of another 'race' or culture creates something and passes it off as if it is authentic. The cultural appropriation police answer the yoga and banh mi objections with a familiar counter-argument: it's about power. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. The use of the creature in horror stories . 17spaz 2 yr. ago This year's Met Gala theme China: Through the Looking Glass was just begging for cultural appropriation, which led many starlets to play it safe with minimal references to China.Emma Roberts, however, earned herself Twitter backlash for wearing chopsticks in her hair.. Chopsticks in the hair is one of many broadly "Asian" styles tried on by Western dressers (for what it's worth . It's a term for what happens to people who for one reason or another turn to eating other people. It also seems to me to be unacceptable for authors to be unable to use one (or more) of those characters/symbols/etc. Exactly!! I have not always done so, and it appears that in this case, J.K. Rowling did not either. What I do think is not so great was it could have been something that was corrected for the films, where they do have access to people and the internet was more developed in the mid 2000s. The boy told the Indians that the Windigo was near them, and showed them his hand where the Windigo cut him to see if he was fat enough to eat. This form of cultural appropriation is deeply intertwined with systemic and institutionalized racism rooted in capitalism. As a result, in 1907, Fiddler and his brother Joseph were arrested by the Canadian authorities for homicide. I know people who are absolutely terrified of them, branching out from their fear of deer. [31][32] Others have pointed to a number of credible eyewitness accounts, both by Algonquians and others, as evidence that Wendigo psychosis was a factual historical phenomenon. Strictly speaking, cultural appropriation is the adoption of some element of another culture -- food, language, practices, fashion, etc. BTW, I love rainbow farting unicorns! I am ashamed I watched all the movies. Key elements of culture include: language art,. He was eating the juice (marrow) from the inside of the bones of his legs that were cut off. [43] These works set the template for later portrayals in popular culture, at times even replacing the Native American lore. Humans could also turn into wendigos by being in contact with them for too long. An uncontrollable craving for consuming human flesh, even if a plenty of other food is available. minority cultures deserve a higher level of protection from being put on display than mainstream cultures," Nah, https://forum.deviantart.com/community/complaints/2612415/, https://www.deviantart.com/comments/18/2611618/4878314665, (, literally "goat-sucker") is a legendary cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas, with the first sightings reported in Puerto Rico. For more information, please see our In most traditions, the wendigo is human in origin and becomes a monster through a process that results either from acts of starvation-induced cannibalism or from possession by a spirit. Wendigo Cannibalism in Native American Folklore. [12] Although descriptions can vary somewhat, common to all these cultures is the view that the wendigo is a malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural being. Ces pauures gens furent saisis, ce qu'on nous a dit, d'vn mal qui nous est inconnu, mais qui n'est pas bien extraordinaire parmy les peuples que nous cherchons: ils ne sont ny lunatiques, ny hypocondriaques, ny phrenetiques; mais ils ont vn mlange de toutes ces sortes de maladies, qui, leur blessant l'imagination, leur cause vne faim plus que canine, et les rend si affamez de chair humaine, qu'ils se iettent sur les femmes, sur les enfans, mesme sur les hommes, comme de vrais loups-garous, et les deuorent belles dents, sans se pouuoir rassasier ny saouler, cherchans tousiours nouuelle proye, et plus auidement que plus ils en ont mang. Sentences like "The Native American wizarding community was particularly gifted in animal and plant magic" are cringe-worthy if you give them a little thought, and the notion that only European wizards were clever enough to invent wands, which make magic "more precise and more powerful" borders on horrific levels of cluelessness. From Stephen Kings Pet Sematary to the television series Hanibal, the flesh-eating image of the wendigo is often presented apart from its original cultural contexts where it carries deep moral significance. Climbing the totem pole. Those poor men (according to the report given us) were seized with an ailment unknown to us, but not very unusual among the people we were seeking. It will survive on it's own. The cannibalistic forest creature is known for allegedly . It too is cannibalistic; however, it is characterized as enlightened with ancestral insights. Discover short videos related to wendigo cultural appropriation on TikTok. In the course of the transformation from human to wendigo, the person exhibits increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greedparticularly for human flesh. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Differing thinking is one of the cherished assets of democratic cultural pluralism. [clarification needed] The ceremony, known as wiindigookaanzhimowin, was performed during times of famine, and involved wearing masks and dancing backward around a drum. Apparently, wendigos are sacred creatures from several indigenous cultures. Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge "** 40. Political correctness started out as one thing, a good thing. Sacred creatures? In my blind quest to represent everyone, all I did was reinforce the problem. In addition, for many Indigenous peoples and local communities, making traditional clothes is a source of income; as such, cultural appropriation can . I mean, I have native heritage, grew up with the culture and I even have a wendigo character in my own comic that's based on the pop-culture version with the elk skull and whatnot so I honestly don't see an issue with it but if you're really concerned then perhaps try a different monster called the Leshy from Slavic folklore? This was the end of this Giant Windigo. You're absolutively spot on! This country is seeking to be whole Stretching out its arms and consuming all it can. She annoys the hell out of me. And were on the right side, thats what were working on but sometimes you get that cannibal tendency. A nice summary is found here: The concept of cultural appropriation emerged in academia in the late 1970s and 1980s as part of the scholarly critique of colonialism. So for some woke culture types it's considered a form of disrespectful cultural appropriation to make your own Halloween monster or character based on a wendigo. There's too much variety of opinion on the question to obtain a consensus. In Algonquian traditions, the wendigo monster emerges not randomly or in violent response to colonialism as it often does in popular media but through a specific set of circumstances that are unique to different tribal groupings. Replying to @luciproletariatfox #culturalappropriation #wendigoon, #yeti #wendigo #voodoodoll #culturalappropriation, #duet with @firelotusthewitch #culturalappropriation #vvitchtok #vvitch #witchywoman #pagantok #norsepagan #norsetok #pagansoftiktok #pagancommunity, I am curious to hear the opinions of others on this one. However, when reading Magic in North America, it's hard not to get the sense that Rowling did not understand the thin ice she was treading on when it came to representation of Native Americans, nor did she make any effort to treat these themes with the weight they deserve. I do know some natives believe you should not say or write its name because that may make it come or you may be infected and become it. Native Americans, Our headquarters are located at: 89 South Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02111. Some of this critique was rightly directed at literal cultural theft . I have drawn my own version of golems too, and that is Jewish mythology. And how many would have known that in the past - and even now - the originators of the cornrows, the headdresses, the bindis, would have been persecuted for wearing them? Cultural appropriation, feel like a real blur to me but I never worry about it I feel it can dampen the creative process. MORTUI VELOCES SUNT! The people who get offended over it, on behalf of someone else, are pathetically absurd. The latest addition to this lineup of wendigo tales is Scott Cooper and Guillermo del Toros horror film Antlers (2021) in which a Native American character provides some brief exposition before the story centered around a white community contending with the monster begins in earnest. It was already here. appropriation, or - as I argue - misappropriation, of the Wendigo as a Far from just being a monster in an escapist horror flick, Forbes and LaDuke demonstrate that the wendigo can help us grasp the horrors of our real world so we can be here now and, ultimately, work toward solutions. A specimen of folk story collected in the early 20th century by Lottie Chicogquaw Marsden, an ethnographer of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, in which a wendigo also exhibits tool use, an ability to survive partial dismemberment, and autocannibalism, reads:[19]. The idea of getting down to the nitty-gritty came from the 18th century English slave trade, when nitty-gritty referred to the worthless debris left at the ship's bottom compartment after slaves had been evacuatedand evolved to include the slaves themselves. Welcome to Facing Today, a Facing History blog. I'm just struggling to understand the significance of it. It's also linked to the many cultural taboos against these negative actions and behaviors. Let's stop dancing around this ugly truth: Right now, Katy Perry is pop culture's most prominent purveyor of racist cultural appropriation. Windigo is a malevolent manitou or spirit whose insatiable appetite for human flesh can never be satisfied. Now why cant that be said to prudes lurking here. :)Looking to buy some stickers or look at some pictures of my art or my other things? See more. One of those advisors I just mentioned, Chris Eyre, had this to say of the Wendigo: They [meaning Native peoples] truly, truly believe in it, because it represents greed and colonialism when we first came to the shores of what is now America, and pillaged all of their resources and forced them [into] cannibalism. Ten years later, "cultural appropriation" is no longer an obscure academic term . For more information, please see our It shouldn't be bad thing if you don't mock culture, make sure to have all information you can ( read books from culture or ask someone who grew up with said culture if they are willing to teach you) but then again they aren't from your culture and unlike creatures like vampires they are a bit more closed i don't know is it good to use them. [20], Among the Assiniboine, the Cree, and the Ojibwe, a satirical ceremonial dance is sometimes performed during times of famine to reinforce the seriousness of the wendigo taboo. It has no place in the world of Folklore and monsters. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Those things, the predation on the Indians by Europeans, most certainly happened. It has become something else altogether. Privacy Policy. Cultural appropriation is a huge red flag that the brand has minimal diversity or representation behind the scenes," she explains. Further, cultural appropriation often occurs as the backwash of colonization, and contributes to widening existing divisions and perpetuating patterns of historic dispossession and oppression. Aye, I love wendigos. As a concept, the wendigo can apply to any person, idea, or movement infected by a corrosive drive toward self-aggrandizing greed and excessive consumption, traits that sow disharmony and destruction if left unchecked. The wendigo -- a creature from Native American myth -- carries powerful symbolism and is presumably sufficiently mysterious to keep enough audience members guessing at its motives and abilities. The Wendigo (Also known as windigo, weendigo, windago, waindigo, windiga, witiko, wihtikow, and various other names including manaha) originates from Native-American legend, and is said to be a demonic half-beast as told by the Algonquian peoples along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada.