Now time to go back and make some changes. Though these misrepresentations of the wendigo beg for critical interrogation, the wendigo stories of Algonquian peoples offer a window into the endurance of cultural resources used to transmit significant moral values, and underscore the power of Native people using these stories to engage in social critique. 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. Privacy Policy. It's a really cool beast that I personally would like to see more in fiction. All of these Indians went to where the Windigo was and cut off his legs. [25], One of the more famous cases of Wendigo psychosis reported involved a Plains Cree trapper from Alberta, named Swift Runner. Historically, deciding exactly what culture is hasn't been easy. No cultural appropriation in it, I promise! This ailment attacked our deputies; and, as death is the sole remedy among those simple people for checking such acts of murder, they were slain in order to stay the course of their madness. So, now I realize, what the hell was I doing, thinking I could write about Native American folklore with anything approaching honesty? The line between what differentiates cultural appropriation from cultural appreciation can be razor-thin, not to mention highly . ][22][failed verification], In historical accounts of retroactively diagnosed Wendigo psychosis, it has been reported that humans became possessed by the wendigo spirit, after being in a situation of needing food and having no other choice besides cannibalism. J.K. Rowling, author of the absurdly-popular Harry Potter series (of which I'm a massive fan), recently waded into controversy with her four-part "Magic in North America" series, which outlines the Potterverse's American history. The moral lessons contained in wendigo stories are also used to support the task of social critique in the late Native American scholar Dr. Jack D. Forbes book Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wtiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism (1978). 12. It really depends who you talk to. :)Looking to buy some stickers or look at some pictures of my art or my other things? It was forbidden to resort to this practice, even out of desperation. The name comes from the animal's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats. 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. And besides that, it never hurts to include your sources. . For more information, please see our spellings (see Colombo 2) but is most commonly rendered as Windigo, Wendigo, or Witiko. And some natives don't care at all. It only becomes cultural appropriation when an element of culture is adopted from a marginalized group without respect for its cultural meaning or significance or with the purpose of exploiting the culture [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. Romantic scholar and documentarian Emily Zarka, also a professor at Arizona State University, observes that two commonalities among the indigenous cultures of Algonquian language family speakers are that they are situated in climes where harsh winters are frequent and may be accompanied by starvation. Pet Sematary is an important cultural artifact thanks to King's widespread popularity and recognition as a horror writer. They heard the Windigo calling the boy. It is unknown if it would have been an entire species or a singular creature. Funny how it's only creatures from certain culture's folklore people get pissy over and not others. This makes them so ravenous for human flesh that they pounce upon women, children, and even upon men, like veritable werewolves, and devour them voraciously, without being able to appease or glut their appetiteever seeking fresh prey, and the more greedily the more they eat. ". However, PCism taken to its extreme would say that neither Cooper, nor I, should be telling stories about Wendigos at all, since were not of aboriginal descent. The Wendigo happens to be part of my own (Anishiinaabe) cultural heritage. Jack committed suicide, but Joseph was tried and sentenced to life in prison. Cultural appropriation is perhaps the stupidest example of the stupidest concept , political correctness , that has ever been argued. Wendigos/Windigos/etc. He said, "You bet there is, I have eaten lots of Indians, no wonder they are fat." This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. When I got over my initial bout of self-defensiveness, I realized I was totally wrong. I really just want to learn about how to appreciate aspects of cultures that I am not included in respectfully. Climbing the totem pole. I can write whatever fiction I want, and draw whatever I want. According to Professor Chris Schedler, the figure of the wendigo represents "consuming forms of exclusion and assimilation" through which groups dominate other groups. "Cultural appropriation refers to the use of objects or elements of a non-dominant culture in a way that reinforces stereotypes or contributes to oppression and doesn't respect their original meaning or give credit to their source. "This isn't going to be the last time a story like this emerges about cultural appropriation, and what it emphasises is how much we need more diversity, in all components of the fashion industry," says Lewis. Humans could also turn into wendigos by being in contact with them for too long. What lips it had were tattered and bloody Unclean and suffering from suppuration of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.[15]. Doing so is an honorable endeavorbut only if we actually do our homework first. 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. "[39] Lockhard's ideas explain that wendigos are an expression of a dark aspect of human nature: the drive toward greed, consumption, and disregard for other life in the pursuit of self-aggrandizement. This was the end of this Giant Windigo. People can appreciate and draw as many wendigo and other scary monsters as they like, it's all entirely fictional and doesn't hurt anyone. 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. Their visitations speak to the inseparability of human experience National identity is irrelevant to this borderless horror. 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. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. What is cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation? On the other hand, "The Wendigo" is one of the first representations of the windigo by a If I don't, I'll never know what it is I'm so angry about! Most sensible thing said ever. The Windigo also has the power to turn humans into cannibals who suffer the same . [10], The Wechuge is a similar being that appears in the legends of the Athabaskan people of the Northwest Pacific Coast. Cultural appropriation can be defined as the "cherry picking" or selecting of certain aspects of a culture, and ignoring their original significance for the purpose of belittling it as a trend. Hah hah! I don't don't value cultural pluralism. In some traditions, humans overpowered by greed could turn into wendigos; the myth thus served as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation. Not so for anyone who isn't a straight, white male, and this trend in entertainment forces many people to seek out "niche" markets to find characters who look like them and are portrayed honestly and realistically. Representation in media is crucially important, something I have become very aware of as I've grown older and consumed more entertainment. And whoever!). Creative freedom is a beautiful luxury too many do not understand; it wasn't but a hundred years ago when art was said to have an objective hierarchy, and that was how it was for thousands of years. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Posted by So, thanks, Dave! Watch popular content from the following creators: Thorn (@shr00mermaid), Thorn (@shr00mermaid), Nuoance(@nuoance), MattHatterPlays(@matthatterplays), Aidan Mattis(@theaidanmattis) . Chippewa author Louise Erdrich's novel The Round House, winner of the National Book Award, depicts a situation where an individual person becomes a wendigo. Aye, I love wendigos. [44], Contemporary Indigenous works that explore the legend include the 1995 novel Solar Storms by author and poet Linda K. Hogan (Chickasaw), which explores the stories of the wendigo and incorporates the creatures as a device to interrogate issues of independence, spirituality, politics, an individual's relationship to the family, and as a metaphor for corporate voracity, exploitation, and power - all viewed as a form of cannibalism. [23], What caused us greater concern was the news that met us upon entering the Lake, namely, that the men deputed by our Conductor for the purpose of summoning the Nations to the North Sea, and assigning them a rendezvous, where they were to await our coming, had met their death the previous Winter in a very strange manner. In addition to characterizing individual people who exhibit destructive tendencies, the wendigo can also describe movements and events with similarly negative effects. If it's so vulgar and offensive that many hate it, well they can just not look at it lmao - it clearly wasn't made for them. The appropriation, and reclamation, of Native American mythology', Journal of . I'm all for respecting other people's cultures, but straight up trying to tell people they can't respectfully depict a fictional creature because it's ,,stealing" or ,,evoking the creature" or something is just way too overboard. Cultural appropriation takes place when members of a majority group adopt cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical way. Not only is it not offensive, I LOVE seeing references to wendigos in popular culture! The windigo, however, continues to seek revenge for this attempted scholarly execution by periodically duping unsuspecting passers-by, like psychiatrists, into believing that windigo psychosis not only exists but that a psychiatrist could conceivably encounter a patient suffering from this disorder in his or her practice today! [49][50] In the 2021 film The Inhuman (L'Inhumain) the arrival of a wendigo symbolizes inner turmoil after a character turns his back on his Indigenous heritage in the pursuit of material success. And you know what? The protection of minorities from the materialization of the majority's different thoughts is an asset of democratic constitutionalism. The legend of the Wendigo stems from Native American folklore, primarily in Algonquian-speaking tribes located in south and southeastern Canada, the Great Lakes Region, and northeastern United States. They went back again to see if he was dead. Oh yeah, Marvel. Whether you understand it fully or not, cultural appropriation is a real thing and a real problem. And were on the right side, thats what were working on but sometimes you get that cannibal tendency. 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. It springs from the well of the collective human unconscious, the communal soul. As a result, in 1907, Fiddler and his brother Joseph were arrested by the Canadian authorities for homicide. We do the same thing with a lot of mythological creatures. One example is Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke who has called for a decisive shift away from what she has termed Wendigo Economics for the sake of the health of the natural world. Cultural appropriation means using a racial, religious, or social group's customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits without authority or right. No they ain't. After thinking about it more, I think I get it about the wendigos. Cookie Notice Just as the vampire and werewolf do not belong exclusively to people of European descent and the Mummy doesnt belong to Egyptians. In, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 02:58. Don't miss a beat. Mistgod Edited Oct 11, 2020 Hobbyist Traditional Artist Apparently, wendigos are sacred creatures from several indigenous cultures. For Indigenous peoples in Canada, cultural appropriation is rooted in colonization and ongoing oppression. Wendigo psychosis is a fascinating condition with a storied history. So yeah, if anyone could offer any insight/information, thatd be appreciated. [17] Therefore, wendigos are portrayed as simultaneously gluttonous and extremely thin due to starvation. For example, dressing up as a Native American while using redface and using the gaudiest, most elaborate costume you can think of (using the stereotypical feathered headress, tribal print tan clothing, holding a spear, etc.). The novel describes its primary antagonist, a rapist whose violent crimes desecrate a sacred site, as a wendigo who must be killed because he threatens the reservation's safety. 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. I think if a Native American person were telling me not to speak about wendgos or name them out loud near them, I would comply, as I don't want to unreasonably make someone feel anxious or uncomfortable. [57] In the 2018 first-person shooter video game Dusk, wendigos are enemies that remain invisible until they receive damage. He just gave the boy so much time to go there and back. 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? [24], Although in many recorded cases of Wendigo psychosis the individual has been killed to prevent cannibalism from resulting, some Cree folklore recommends treatment by ingestion of fatty animal meats or drinking animal grease; those treated may sometimes vomit ice as part of the curing process. In my blind quest to represent everyone, all I did was reinforce the problem. Mythical being in Native American folklore, "Windigo" redirects here. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. iii 3 four quarters: Jack D. Forbes' concept of colonialism as a manifestation of wtiko psychosis; ethnographical works that feature fearsome figures from the stories of North American tribal .mw-parser-output .verse_translation .translated{padding-left:2em}@media only screen and (max-width:43.75em){.mw-parser-output .verse_translation.wrap_when_small td{display:block;padding-left:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .verse_translation.wrap_when_small .translated{padding-left:0.5em}}, Ce qui nous mit plus en peine, fut la nouvelle que nous apprismes ds l'entre du Lac, sauoir: que les deputez par nostre Conducteur, qui deuoient conuoquer les Nations la Mer du Nord, et leur donner le rendez-vous pour nous y attendre, auoient est tuez l'Hiuer pass, d'une faon estonnante. Wendigo is a part of MCU, too. Okay, dont anybody get me wrong. 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. Is it Cultural Appropriation if I have a Wendigo character. Check it out here:https://youtu.be/fHE4fkvUpWMI really just made this video to express how I am currently feeling about the wendigo doll situation and the questions I have about it. "** 40. But I do know the actual description of it. Rowling tries (and fails) to mitigate these implications by saying "although it is generally held to be a mark of the very greatest witches and wizards that they have also been able to produce wandless magic of a very high quality." I have always felt a distinct emotional connection to it, in fact. But I do notice that Eyre stopped short of saying colonialization is the origin for the Wendigo legend. Its incredibly validating to know that other people have heard about it and enjoy the story enough to make reference to the name and concept. He writes: Wtiko is a Cree termwhich refers to a cannibal or, more specifically, to an evil person or spirit who terrorizes other creatures by means of terrible evil acts, including cannibalism I have come to the conclusion that imperialism and exploitation are forms of cannibalism and, in fact, are precisely those forms of cannibalism which are most diabolical or evil It should be understood that wtikos do not eat other humans only in a symbolic sense. I always thought these are what cannibals are turning into. Lipsitz, writing in the the 1990s, argued that cultural appreciation becomes cultural appropriation "when an element of culture is adopted from a marginalized group without respect for its . 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. The heroes of books I read, movies I watched, and games I played almost exclusively looked like me when I was growing up, people I could easily identify with. It also seems to me to be unacceptable for authors to be unable to use one (or more) of those characters/symbols/etc. 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. Facing History and Ourselves combats racism and antisemitism by using history to teach tolerance in classrooms around the globe. How stupid to think otherwise. BLACKPINK. Even in the face of ongoing cultural appropriation and erasure, wendigo stories are but one reflection of the survivance, wisdom, and brilliance of Native peoples. Payals, or anklets, are meant to symbolize the arrival of a wife into her husband's house. wa, which may have meant "owl". Send them to Marvel. As a concept, wendigo can apply to situations other than some Native American-European relations. By Derrick Clifton. His line of questioning effectively asks what if the monstrosity we face is actually not an otherworldly presence but our all too human selves?. In the course of the transformation from human to wendigo, the person exhibits increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greedparticularly for human flesh. I believe cultural appropriation is Only when someone of another 'race' or culture creates something and passes it off as if it is authentic. In their most recent music video for 'How You Like That', fans spotted a Ganesha idol kept on the ground, in the background of the music video. People don't get offended on scotland's behalf over the common depiction of their national animal as a rainbow farting fairy horse. The Cambridge Dictionary, defines it as "the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture."And a lot of times, it is marked by a dominant culture taking from one that has been colonized and oppressed . wendigos originate from spiritual beliefs held by Algonquian Indigenous peoples, whom are from the north eastern part of north america. Wendigos specifically represent the very real threat of starvation and what moral depths a person will sink to to avoid starving to death in the hard, cold de Continue Reading More answers below KEY OOY Exactly!! Magazine with fellow environmental thought leaders, LaDuke said: Theres this conflict between the cannibals and Mother Earth, and its going on everywhere. The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation; its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. Indigenous peoples have seen culturally . The Wendigo, also known as the Hollowed, was a type of Creature of Grimm that was proposed to appear in the animated webseries RWBY. That's just pulling a potential explanation out of my ass, though, I have no idea if its accurate or not. Thank god I am not from USA, where this seems to be an issue. Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge As described by the Native American Cree legends, they were humans who have been mutated into cannibalistic monsters after being possessed by the Wendigo spirit, causing them to eat the flesh of other humans. 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. During a panel at YES! It will survive on it's own. "Today, many believe the crows to be . Writer, musician, activist, single father from Chicago. This is a story shared not merely for entertainment but to reinforce the communal values that allow the communities in which this practice occurs to live well with one another and within their environments. MORTUI VELOCES SUNT! "Windigo Psychosis: A Study of Relationship between Belief and Behaviour among the Indians of Northeastern Canada." And I accept that the Wendigo can symbolize for them that exploitation. They're monsters. Dont look at it! 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. [42] In an early short story by Thomas Pynchon, "Mortality and Mercy in Vienna" (first published in 1959), the plot centers around a character developing Wendigo syndrome and going on a killing spree. Ten years later, "cultural appropriation" is no longer an obscure academic term . He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 And we merely follow".[38]. [33], The frequency of Wendigo psychosis cases decreased sharply in the 20th century as Boreal Algonquian people came into greater and greater contact with European ideologies and more sedentary, less rural, lifestyles. Appreciation is honoring and respecting another culture and its practices, as a way to gain knowledge and understanding. This inspired an entire thread -->, Sucks to be these artists I guess. WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. J.K is weird for using name like that, it isn't hard to google names, i know she wrote books before internet was as "popular" as now, but i honestly doubt that she couldn't find name and surname of east asian person, she could of used names from either celebrity ( use surname of one and name of other or something like that), she could of used name from character from some book, there were ways of finding name that isn't bad as Cho-Chang, also i find it a bit weird that said character is in "smart" house, feels way to stereotypical for me. Your culture and entertainment cheat-sheet. That borrowing and exchanging of cultural elements is what makes America the melting pot of the world. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. I am just reacting to what I read in this ridiculous PSA journal out there on Deviantart. https://www.deviantart.com/forum/community/complaints/2611618/. America is the symbol of inclusion, so as part of the American culture we embrace foreign influences in our society. 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. We enjoy liberties today that aren't even a freckle on the face of human history, and yet some individuals would go so far as to throw them all away because something offends them. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. [18], A wendigo need not lose the human's powers of cognition or speech and in some depictions may clearly communicate with its prospective victims or even threaten or taunt them. [12] Although descriptions can vary somewhat, common to all these cultures is the view that the wendigo is a malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural being.
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