wendigo cultural appropriation

Basically, the word wendigo can also function as a symbol for gluttony and the image of excess. Watch popular content from the following creators: Thorn (@shr00mermaid), Thorn (@shr00mermaid), Nuoance(@nuoance), MattHatterPlays(@matthatterplays), Aidan Mattis(@theaidanmattis) . 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. Cultural appropriation, defined Culture refers to the traditions, customs, beliefs, and practices of any given ethnic, racial, or religious group. Without really understanding the conflict here, it seems like the issue is not people illustrating the creature, but using it as a creepy Halloween themed prop. creators (a large majority being white) . For more information, please see our In some artistic depictions, it looks similar to the pop-culture wendigo and even makes an appearance in The Witcher games but instead it's called a Leshen. I'm just glad I learned this lesson from her before actually getting my book published. They travelled too much. Until Dawn logo. You dont have to be French to love the Phantom of the Opera. Aye, I love wendigos. It is unknown if it would have been an entire species or a singular creature. 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. I can write whatever fiction I want, and draw whatever I want. I have always felt a distinct emotional connection to it, in fact. 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. 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. 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. Seems to me a great deal of what people write about in fantasy stories is borrowing from other cultures & nations & communities. "Windigo Psychosis: A Study of Relationship between Belief and Behaviour among the Indians of Northeastern Canada." I always thought these are what cannibals are turning into. Privacy Policy. Shock factor aside, it's especially eye-catching in that it isn't necessarily a result of being desperate for food. 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. According to Professor Chris Schedler, the figure of the wendigo represents "consuming forms of exclusion and assimilation" through which groups dominate other groups. 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? Cookie Notice identity. 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. I have drawn my own version of golems too, and that is Jewish mythology. It also includes the unauthorized use of parts of their culture (their dress, dance, etc.) They are seen as malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural beings of great spiritual power . And besides that, it never hurts to include your sources. so no, if you're some white kid hearing crying in the forests of california you're not being "lured into the 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. [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. 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. 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 read some stuff yesterday saying that teepees are cultural appropriation and there was a long post about how wendigos arent cryptids and how stories about them are cultural appropriation. Latvians have their own version of Thor, so I probably should be offended, as well. Dollightful's Wendigo Doll - Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation? Still though, Im not sure I fully get the Native American spirits(?) I do not know, nor can I. I will draw whatever I feel like drawing. Facing History and Ourselves invites educators to explore our case study Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools, particularly our reading "Culture, Stereotypes, and Identity" which features reflection questions surrounding some of the stereotypical media representations that we touch upon at the beginning of this essay. 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 . [28] Given that he resorted to cannibalism so near to food supplies, and that he killed and consumed the remains of all those present, it was revealed that Swift Runner's was not a case of pure cannibalism as a last resort to avoid starvation, but rather of a man with Wendigo psychosis. The Windigo also has the power to turn humans into cannibals who suffer the same . 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. :)Looking to buy some stickers or look at some pictures of my art or my other things? 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. The protection of minorities from the materialization of the majority's different thoughts is an asset of democratic constitutionalism. Mythologynote my use of the capital M to convey that it is far more than just some made-up stories; it is stories containing deeper spiritual truthsbelongs to all of humanity. Now that I have a major problem with. 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. What makes the wendigo any different from other culturally important mythological creatures like unicorns? 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. Cultural appropriation means using a racial, religious, or social group's customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits without authority or right. For this screenshot controversy, I am actually going to go over a video game for this. C'est la maladie dont ces dputez furent atteints; et comme la mort est l'vnique remede parmy ces bonnes gens, pour arrester ces meurtres, ils ont est massacrez pour arrester le cours de leur manie. In my blind quest to represent everyone, all I did was reinforce the problem. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. See more. 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 Sacred creatures? It's a really cool beast that I personally would like to see more in fiction. As a result, in 1907, Fiddler and his brother Joseph were arrested by the Canadian authorities for homicide. 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. They're monsters. The Wendigo may be a figure from American Indian mythology, but it belongs to all of humankind. It sounds like you did research which is more that J. K. Rowling so I think yes? [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. And I accept that the Wendigo can symbolize for them that exploitation. 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. 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 too is cannibalistic; however, it is characterized as enlightened with ancestral insights. 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. [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. Thats just asking for trouble.) On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. During a panel at YES! Im just struggling to understand the significance of it. Contents 1 History 2 Gallery 3 Trivia 4 Navigation History 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. 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. Im glad, because I dont believe that it is. You're just making up a story. [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. By Derrick Clifton. "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. In addition to characterizing individual people who exhibit destructive tendencies, the wendigo can also describe movements and events with similarly negative effects. It really depends who you talk to. spellings (see Colombo 2) but is most commonly rendered as Windigo, Wendigo, or Witiko. The concept of cultural appropriation began well enough, but just like everything else woke culture political correctness, it's gone way too far. 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." You're absolutively spot on! It springs from the well of the collective human unconscious, the communal soul. 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. Cultural appropriation by a dominant culture is harmful to underrepresented cultures because it reduces cultural significance and reinforces double standards. To Helheimr with it! "To the people present, it was suspected that Moostoos was becoming a 'Whitego', an insane person capable of murdering and cannibalism.41 To the natives without jails or asylums, there was only one thing to do. It has become something else altogether. wendigo appropriationplymouth township mi police scanner. 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. Cookie Notice This inspired an entire thread -->, Sucks to be these artists I guess. If ANYTHING is disrespectful to woke (does not exist in the real world) culture then I say: DO IT - AND DO IT BIG!!! A classic example is wearing a Plains Indian war bonnet (see the 80s band The Village People). Is it Cultural Appropriation if I have a Wendigo character. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. No one can try to stake a singular claim to it. Whether you understand it fully or not, cultural appropriation is a real thing and a real problem. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. Ten years later, "cultural appropriation" is no longer an obscure academic term . You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Appropriating the Wendigo As it so happens, I am currently working on a project involving a Wendigo, so this is personal to me. My tongue and my brain do not speak the right language. Blackwood's work has influenced many of the subsequent portrayals in mainstream horror fiction,[42][43] such as August Derleth's "The Thing that Walked on the Wind" and "Ithaqua" (1933 and 1941),[41] which in turn inspired the character in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary,[42] where it is a personification of evil, an ugly grinning creature with yellow-grey eyes, ears replaced by ram's horns, white vapor coming from its nostrils, and a pointed, decaying yellow tongue. 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 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. Create what you want; let the audience decide its fame. 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. 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. The Indians then killed him and cut him to pieces. If an idea has merit, it doesn't need protecting. 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. 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. 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. [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. 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. "[37] This application allows Native Americans to describe colonialism and its agents as wendigos since the process of colonialism ejected natives from their land and threw the natural world out of balance. 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. 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. We should talk about how Thor and Loki are cultural appropriation of Norwegian mythology. 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 Indigenous, I agree with some of it to a point, but disagree with most of it. 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. Funny how it's only creatures from certain culture's folklore people get pissy over and not others. Facing History and Ourselves combats racism and antisemitism by using history to teach tolerance in classrooms around the globe. Humans could also turn into wendigos by being in contact with them for too long. (A friend sent this screenshot to me, along with the info, because he knows how much PC-ism pisses me off. 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). He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories, often presented apart from its original cultural contexts, At Facing History and Ourselves, we value conversationin classrooms, in our professional development for educators, and online. He said, "You bet there is, I have eaten lots of Indians, no wonder they are fat." 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. 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. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Historically, deciding exactly what culture is hasn't been easy. Draw/write what you want, I say. It also includes the unauthorized use of parts of their culture (their dress, dance, etc.) (1961). [28] He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan. Lurking in the deep woods of the Northern United States and Southern Canada lies a mysterious and fearsome Native American monster, the Wendigo. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. But I do notice that Eyre stopped short of saying colonialization is the origin for the Wendigo legend. 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. The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation; its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. 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. 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. While Bieber's locs may be perceived . Myeesquatis was holding the other leg and we were praying. The cultural appropriation police answer the yoga and banh mi objections with a familiar counter-argument: it's about power. Discover short videos related to wendigo cultural appropriation on TikTok. 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. Dont like someones fetish? The horror film Antlers adopts an old monster for its story, which serves as both a benefit and a hindrance. 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. By Christian Chiakulas, Contributor Writer, musician, activist, single father from Chicago. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Unlike cultural appropriation, strategic anti-essentialism can be practiced by both minority cultures and majority cultures. Payals, or anklets, are meant to symbolize the arrival of a wife into her husband's house. 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.

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