Copyright 2022 Facing History & Ourselves. 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. 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. Theres something else. [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. As a creator, I believe it is my responsibility, the responsibility of any creator, if using characters that belong to a culture other than mine and exploring themes from that culture, to be accurate. Now that I have a major problem with. 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. Aye, I love wendigos. While Bieber's locs may be perceived . Contents 1 History 2 Gallery 3 Trivia 4 Navigation History This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Historically, deciding exactly what culture is hasn't been easy. 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. 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. 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. Magazine with fellow environmental thought leaders, LaDuke said: Theres this conflict between the cannibals and Mother Earth, and its going on everywhere. wa, which may have meant "owl". That's just pulling a potential explanation out of my ass, though, I have no idea if its accurate or not. Draw/write what you want, I say. The name comes from the animal's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats. We should talk about how Thor and Loki are cultural appropriation of Norwegian mythology. BLACKPINK. [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]. It just looks like a human that may be bigger than normal. Lurking in the deep woods of the Northern United States and Southern Canada lies a mysterious and fearsome Native American monster, the Wendigo. 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. It is unknown if it would have been an entire species or a singular creature. As researchers, most of us are lost in a wilderness filled with Windigo, Skinwalkers and various other indigenous cosmological entities, and we need to recognize we have no idea what we are talking about. I agree with some of it to a point, but disagree with most of it. [28] He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan. I always thought these are what cannibals are turning into. My tongue and my brain do not speak the right language. I would refuse to be shackled by political correctness. People were not really using Google until the 2000s and that kind of info might have not been available in the 90s. I do not possess the cultural or social knowledge required. But Native Americans shouldn't be a "niche," and neither should women, LGBT people, or people of color. 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. Basically, the word wendigo can also function as a symbol for gluttony and the image of excess. They heard the Windigo calling the boy. He said, "You bet there is, I have eaten lots of Indians, no wonder they are fat." [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. 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? And we merely follow".[38]. My Thoughts and Questions OllieOnyx 845 subscribers Subscribe 4.5K 119K views 2 years ago I just posted a new video. 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 . It turned its hunger on the Americas, a wendigo so hungry that it consumes its own lips if there is nothing else for it to eat. In theory, art and other cultural products are created for the. The concept of cultural appropriation began well enough, but just like everything else woke culture political correctness, it's gone way too far. I think she knew that her decision would be challenged and she wanted to let people know that she had valid reasons for doing what she did. It has become something else altogether. . I'm not skilled enough to draw these (")> lolz. This was the end of this Giant Windigo. The idea that diversity and representation can be addressed simply through a "balance between four guys and four girls" or through the removal of "traditional phallic stabbing" troubles me. This country is seeking to be whole Stretching out its arms and consuming all it can. Explore the latest videos from hashtags: #culturalappropriation, #cultureappropriation, #culturalappropiation, # . Don't tell lies to those Indians." "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. No cultural appropriation in it, I promise! Further, cultural appropriation often occurs as the backwash of colonization, and contributes to widening existing divisions and perpetuating patterns of historic dispossession and oppression. She states that the wendigo symbolically represents three major concepts: it is the incarnation of winter, the embodiment of hunger, and the personification of selfishness. No it isn't cultural appropriation, as long as it is researched and accurately presented in the story. Thats just asking for trouble.) 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. Cultural appropriation, defined Culture refers to the traditions, customs, beliefs, and practices of any given ethnic, racial, or religious group. without permission.1 Seems to me a great deal of what people write about in fantasy stories is borrowing from other cultures & nations & communities. 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. This form of cultural appropriation is deeply intertwined with systemic and institutionalized racism rooted in capitalism. [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. For this screenshot controversy, I am actually going to go over a video game for this. These bonnets are symbols of warrior achievements and are the equivalent of military medals. Mistgod Edited Oct 11, 2020 Hobbyist Traditional Artist Apparently, wendigos are sacred creatures from several indigenous cultures. New replies are no longer allowed. 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. [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? 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. Let's stop dancing around this ugly truth: Right now, Katy Perry is pop culture's most prominent purveyor of racist cultural appropriation. The reason I chose this game is due to how this game has story in it, and I think it would fit this meme well for an analysis and review. 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. 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 Welcome to Facing Today, a Facing History blog. What is cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation? Privacy Policy. 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. Appropriating the Wendigo As it so happens, I am currently working on a project involving a Wendigo, so this is personal to me. 11. I won't pretend I know everything about NA culture, but I believe that headresses and that kind of finery is only used on special occasions and was not how ordinary NAs dressed all the time. Tell us about it in the comments. 8.1.2014. Clunky prose aside, this is the "noble savage" trope repurposed for Rowling's universe, with just a pinch of Magical Negro thrown in for good measure. I wouldn't be offended if someone dressed as a stereotypical Scottish person whatever that looks like lol. Have you encountered wendigo stories in films, television shows, or books? and our 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 . 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. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but you should totally go buy my novella. I have drawn my own version of golems too, and that is Jewish mythology. The line between what differentiates cultural appropriation from cultural appreciation can be razor-thin, not to mention highly . Learn how your comment data is processed. Cookie Notice How dare they? 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. 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. He just gave the boy so much time to go there and back. Thus I support Scott Cooper, the director of the forthcoming (hopefully by next spring) ANTLERS, in his efforts to seek out consultation from Indian advisors when making his movie, which features a Wendigo. Now why cant that be said to prudes lurking here. When you comment on, Asian American and Pacific Islander History, Race and Membership in American History: Eugenics. 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. Europeans may well have behaved like Wendigos when they invaded the Americasthey didbut they didnt bring the Wendigo with them. Dont like someones fetish? According to Professor Chris Schedler, the figure of the wendigo represents "consuming forms of exclusion and assimilation" through which groups dominate other groups. 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. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. The wendigo is seen as the embodiment of gluttony, greed, and excess: never satisfied after killing and consuming one person, they are constantly searching for new victims. But as far as cultural appropriation and the Wendigo goes, dont you daredont you DAREtry to take our monsters away from us, PC wankers! Why is indigenous culture suddenly more sacred than any other culture? And some natives don't care at all. They're monsters. One does not need to delve very deeply into the annals of American film, television, and literature to find an array of caricatured depictions of Native American peoples and a distortion of their knowledge. so no, if you're some white kid hearing crying in the forests of california you're not being "lured into the I do not know, nor can I. [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. It's fine for colonized Indians to incorporate European fitness . The legend of the Wendigo is, in fact, one of the oldest manifestations of a taboo peculiar to most human societies, and which was already widespread among Anglophone tribes: cannibalism. Joe Lockhard, English professor at Arizona State University, argues that wendigos are agents of "social cannibalism" who know "no provincial or national borders; all human cultures have been visited by shape-shifting wendigos. We feed it because we don't know how else to live, and so we live disconnected lives watching the seasons change through windows . I know people who are absolutely terrified of them, branching out from their fear of deer. Okay, dont anybody get me wrong. Theyre revered spirits to the point where people wont speak their name so it must be frustrating when people are just like Oh yeah, I saw one of those, it was so spooky or have an aesthetic called wendigocore. This term only applies to a . He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. My basic rule is simple: be respectful. You're absolutively spot on! It will survive on it's own. Now neither Christian culture is by any means endangered to become a minority (although some US Bible Belt hate preachers consistently claim so) nor is Chinese culture, so both are out of ansatz here. Until Dawn logo. Facing History and Ourselves combats racism and antisemitism by using history to teach tolerance in classrooms around the globe. Cultural appropriation is a bullshit term made up by people who feel some bizarre psychological need to make up reasons to punish themselves. It's just fiction, I thought. I can write whatever fiction I want, and draw whatever I want. I have not always done so, and it appears that in this case, J.K. Rowling did not either. identity. Ojibwe scholar Brady DeSanti asserts that the wendigo "can be understood as a marker indicating a person imbalanced both internally and toward the larger community of human and spiritual beings around them. Cultural appropriation definition, the adoption, usually without acknowledgment, of cultural identity markers from subcultures or minority communities into mainstream culture by people with a relatively privileged status. [30], Fascination with Wendigo psychosis among Western ethnographers, psychologists, and anthropologists led to a hotly debated controversy in the 1980s over the historicity of this phenomenon. 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 . I dont know who originally posted it, or where. does not have antlers or have any wolf features. People don't get offended on scotland's behalf over the common depiction of their national animal as a rainbow farting fairy horse. Twenty-five miles away from emergency food supplies at a Hudson's Bay Company post, Swift Runner butchered and ate his wife and five remaining children. It's taking those cultural. 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. One recurring theme across these storytelling mediums is the use of the wendigoalso spelled wtikoa monstrous figure from Algonquian mythology who exhibits an insatiable greed along with a desire for human flesh. Humans could also turn into wendigos by being in contact with them for too long. Mythical being in Native American folklore, "Windigo" redirects here. As a creator, I believe it is my responsibility, the responsibility of any creator, if using characters that belong to a culture other than mine and exploring themes from that culture, to be accurate. (A friend sent this screenshot to me, along with the info, because he knows how much PC-ism pisses me off. to tell a new tale. Climbing the totem pole. In some traditions, humans overpowered by greed could turn into wendigos; the myth thus served as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation. [12] Although descriptions can vary somewhat, common to all these cultures is the view that the wendigo is a malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural being. Cultural appropriation by a dominant culture is harmful to underrepresented cultures because it reduces cultural significance and reinforces double standards. [clarification needed] The ceremony, known as wiindigookaanzhimowin, was performed during times of famine, and involved wearing masks and dancing backward around a drum. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. 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. no actual cases of windigo psychosis have ever been studied, and Lou Marano's scathing critique in 1985 should have killed off the cannibal monster within the psychiatric annals. [56], Various characters inspired by the legend, or named for it, appear in Role-playing video games, such as 2018's Fallout 76 by Bethesda Game Studios, where wendigos are featured as one of the cryptid enemies found in the area of Appalachia, mutated from people who consumed human flesh in isolation. 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. (the proceeding statement may contain some levels of sarcasm.). 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. As a concept, wendigo can apply to situations other than some Native American-European relations. The wendigo is a terrifying presence that feeds on negative energy and human flesh, making it a natural addition to the horror genre. 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. 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. Dont look at it! Cultural appropriation consists of borrowing something from another culture in mockery or thoughtless misuse. [29], Another well-known case involving Wendigo psychosis was that of Jack Fiddler, an Oji-Cree chief and medicine man known for his powers at defeating wendigos. wendigo appropriationplymouth township mi police scanner. 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. She annoys the hell out of me. [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. Some controversial new studies question the syndrome's legitimacy, claiming cases were actually a product of hostile accusations invented to justify the victim's ostracism or execution."[35]. No they fucking aren't. MORTUI VELOCES SUNT!
wendigo cultural appropriation