wendigo cultural appropriation

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. Cultural appropriation is the use of a people's traditional dress, music, cuisine, knowledge and other aspects of their culture, without their approval, by members of a different culture. That taste of human flesh, which out of that rose the wendigo.. Is it Cultural Appropriation if I have a Wendigo character. 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. Now why cant that be said to prudes lurking here. [21] The last known wendigo ceremony conducted in the United States was at Lake Windigo of Star Island of Cass Lake, within the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.[when? For more information, please see our Cultural appropriation is a bullshit term made up by people who feel some bizarre psychological need to make up reasons to punish themselves. [45] Wrist, the 2016 debut novel by First Nations horror fiction writer Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler (Lac Des Milles Lacs Anishinaabe),[46] combines the traditional Ojibwe legend with the author's ideas inspired by non-Indigenous writers like Anne Rice and Tim Powers. I really just want to learn about how to appreciate aspects of cultures that I am not included in respectfully. I will draw whatever I feel like drawing. He just gave the boy so much time to go there and back. In contrast to modern horror stories that appropriate the wendigo as a plot device, Forbes implies that what actually ought to be terrifying to us is that we live in societies enveloped in violence and exploitation that we struggle to identify as such. I wouldn't be offended if someone dressed up as a stereotypical native american even though my great grandma was half blackfoot native american. 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 Certainly Navajo "skin walkers" are one of the more common Native American legends that non-native writers reference (the only other example I can think of that comes close is the Algonquin Wendigo), but like I said, it would be presumptuous of me to guess at Rowling's research style. After thinking about it some more, I understand that its a kind of It was okay for these kids to pretend to be Indians but not for these kids to actually be Indians thing but I saw someone claim that it was contributing to colonisation and the death of death of their culture and that felt a bit strong. [57] In the 2018 first-person shooter video game Dusk, wendigos are enemies that remain invisible until they receive damage. Im glad, because I dont believe that it is. The Wendigo is a mythical creature that has been reported in many different forms. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Their visitations speak to the inseparability of human experience National identity is irrelevant to this borderless horror. Part of HuffPost Entertainment. It's taking those cultural. Apparently, wendigos are sacred creatures from several indigenous cultures. It's also linked to the many cultural taboos against these negative actions and behaviors. That will depend on who you ask. I am just reacting to what I read in this ridiculous PSA journal out there on Deviantart. The Wendigo may be a figure from American Indian mythology, but it belongs to all of humankind. Create what you want; let the audience decide its fame. And we merely follow".[38]. Posted by For other uses, see, Graham, John Russell; John Coates; Barbara Swartzentruber; Brian Ouellette; ", harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFSchwarz1969 (, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, descriptive template for the Indian savage, corporate voracity, exploitation, and power, "Windigo: The Flesh-Eating Monster of Native American Legend", International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, "Windigo, the Ice Cannibal (Wendigo, Wiindigoo, Windgo, Windego)", "Relations des Jsuites contenant ce qui s'est pass de plus remarquable dans les missions des Pres de la Compagnie de Jsus dans la Nouvelle-France", "The Jesuit Relations: Travels and Expectations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 16101791", "Love, and Death in Stephen King's 'Pet Sematary', "The In Character Interview with Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler", "Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler on writing an Indigenous horror story", "ANTLERS: GUILLERMO DEL TORO E SCOTT COOPER SVELANO IL SIGNIFICATO DEL WENDIGO", "Supernatural - Season 1, Episode 2: Wendigo", "Fallout 76 Creatures: Bethesda Tells Tales of the Wendigo", "The Wiitiko Psychosis in the Context of Ojibwa Personality and Culture", Seeing Wetiko: on Capitalism, Mind Viruses, and Antidotes for a World in Transition, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wendigo&oldid=1139431905, Legendary creatures of the indigenous peoples of North America, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism, Articles with text in Algonquian languages, Articles containing Proto-Algonquian-language text, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2022, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Articles with failed verification from August 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Teicher, Morton I. Myeesquatis was holding the other leg and we were praying. .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. 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. Exactly!! Maybe ask a person of Chinese heritage. The name comes from the animal's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats. 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. That, I would affirm, is truly and literally cannibalism, and it is cannibalism accompanied by no spiritually meaningful ceremony or ritual., More than a commentary on the life of wendigo stories amongst his own people, Forbes deploys the metaphor of the wendigo to advance nothing less than a critique of civilization at large and describes the violence that he argues lies at its foundation as one driven by a kind of wendigo psychosis. 17spaz 2 yr. ago 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). 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. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. No, I read your comment. We do the same thing with a lot of mythological creatures. 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! 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. 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. We should show proper respect to our Cryptids at all times, and Im rightfully righteously indignant at the thought of anyone doing otherwise with Mothman. to tell a new tale. I'm just glad I learned this lesson from her before actually getting my book published. It's just fiction, I thought. The Wendigo is by far one of the most mysterious and feared monsters in not only in the Algonquian folklore which it is attributed to, but also other . 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. My tongue and my brain do not speak the right language. I mean yeah I see what your saying, personally I do research on what its about even if I don't use it in it's entirety. These things feel formulaic, quantitative, mathematicbalancing equations and subtraction. If ANYTHING is disrespectful to woke (does not exist in the real world) culture then I say: DO IT - AND DO IT BIG!!! That's just pulling a potential explanation out of my ass, though, I have no idea if its accurate or not. 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. . 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. When first hearing this criticism, I, as a wannabe author of fiction (by the way, you can buy my debut novella here) rolled my eyes and whitesplained to myself why Rowling wasn't doing anything wrong. In my blind quest to represent everyone, all I did was reinforce the problem. If so, what did you think about it? 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. Marvel Comics pay tribute to classic Monsters. It can serve as a metaphor explaining any pattern of domination by which groups subjugate and dominate or violently destroy and displace. https://www.deviantart.com/forum/community/complaints/2611618/. does not have antlers or have any wolf features. 9 Neil Jamieson-Williams Science Fiction Writer (part-time/now full-time) at Self-Employment (1977-present) Author has 1.7K answers and 1.1M answer views Updated 6 mo Ah, another Mike Wilson question On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Seems to me a great deal of what people write about in fantasy stories is borrowing from other cultures & nations & communities. Posted By : / actual instructions in flowcharting are represented in /; Under :nose exercise before and afternose exercise before and after [58] Several of these creatures also appear in the game's cover art.[59]. You dont have to be of Afro-Caribbean descent to talk about, write about, or make movies about zombies. In addition, for many Indigenous peoples and local communities, making traditional clothes is a source of income; as such, cultural appropriation can . Representation in media is crucially important, something I have become very aware of as I've grown older and consumed more entertainment. 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. LOL. By Christian Chiakulas, Contributor Writer, musician, activist, single father from Chicago. So some of it may be that natives don't want people to be waking this monster. The "Dark Horse" singer . Monsters like Wendigos often represent, in the imprecise language of emotion, a common cultural fear. So some may be fine if you draw it but don't say its full name. identity. It's a term for what happens to people who for one reason or another turn to eating other people. Native Americans shouldn't be a "niche," and neither should women, LGBT people, or people of color. Just as the vampire and werewolf do not belong exclusively to people of European descent and the Mummy doesnt belong to Egyptians. In some cases, this entailed killing people with Wendigo psychosis. "Today, many believe the crows to be . This form of cultural appropriation is deeply intertwined with systemic and institutionalized racism rooted in capitalism. 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. Cooper and del Toro made the conscious decision to tell the story of the wendigo in a way that is respectful to its Native American roots, which in turn helps make Antlers a more authentic horror film. The film dives deep into cultural appropriation during those pivotal scenes in which the black crows help save the day for the titular flying elephant. I'm not skilled enough to draw these (")> lolz. wa, which may have meant "owl". But if they actually did, I would pick another monster from the giant Pandemonium one has at one's choice. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Dollightful's Apology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-KBzKWvrUTo clear up the addition that I made even more, I think that it would be pretty important for the information on this topic to be easily accessible to her viewers. Ojibwe scholar Dr. Brady Santi has developed this guide for teachers who would like to teach students about her communitys unique belief systems with an emphasis on the wendigo as it appears in popular films. He said, "You bet there is, I have eaten lots of Indians, no wonder they are fat." 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 . 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. For more information, please see our As a concept, wendigo can apply to situations other than some Native American-European relations. BTW, I love rainbow farting unicorns! I know what cultural appropriation is but Ive not been as involved in social justice as I used to be and I guess its showing. [43] These works set the template for later portrayals in popular culture, at times even replacing the Native American lore. 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? I believe that the Wendigo is far older than that, far more primal. The protection of minorities from the materialization of the majority's different thoughts is an asset of democratic constitutionalism. Archived post. I would advise anyone, however, who feels that way about my choice to create art or literature based on a wendigo, to simply avoid my gallery and writing. They are seen as malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural beings of great spiritual power . America is the symbol of inclusion, so as part of the American culture we embrace foreign influences in our society. With teepees, Im not sure I get it. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. I think people just need to chill out, no mater what their religion and culture is. "Why is indigenous culture suddenly more sacred than any other culture?". 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. "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. Privacy Policy. 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]. (1961). In addition to characterizing individual people who exhibit destructive tendencies, the wendigo can also describe movements and events with similarly negative effects. His line of questioning effectively asks what if the monstrosity we face is actually not an otherworldly presence but our all too human selves?. (A friend sent this screenshot to me, along with the info, because he knows how much PC-ism pisses me off. 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. Ill admit, my initial reaction was very dismissive. So it seems to me like the objection might have something to do with an inappropriate mixing of religious contexts from two different belief systems. 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. 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. It's a really cool beast that I personally would like to see more in fiction. [11], This was the end of the wendigo is part of the traditional belief system of a number of Algonquin-speaking peoples, including the Ojibwe, the Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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]. It can serve as a metaphor explaining any pattern of domination by which groups subjugate and dominate or violently destroy and displace. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but you should totally go buy my novella. Guillermo del Toro, producer of the film, developed the wendigo on the basis that the more the creature eats, the more it gets hungry and the more it gets hungry, the weaker it becomes. Eat what you want to eat, tattoo yourself with whatever you want to tattoo yourself with, wear what you want to wear, and let those ove Continue Reading More answers below Most sensible thing said ever. It was forbidden to resort to this practice, even out of desperation. On the other hand, "The Wendigo" is one of the first representations of the windigo by a 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. I dont know who originally posted it, or where. The Windigo also has the power to turn humans into cannibals who suffer the same . The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation; its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. My basic rule is simple: be respectful. Cho isn't even only problematic character, Lavander changed her race (in movies, i'm not sure about books but still, Rowling could of said something). Oh yeah, Marvel. [28] He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan. [16] Whenever a wendigo ate another person, it would grow in proportion to the meal it had just eaten, so it could never be full.