You're absolutively spot on! 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]. In 1973 a character inspired by the wendigo appeared in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Windigo is a malevolent manitou or spirit whose insatiable appetite for human flesh can never be satisfied. 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. No cultural appropriation in it, I promise! 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. The latest addition to this lineup of wendigo tales is Scott Cooper and Guillermo del Toros horror film Antlers (2021) in which a Native American character provides some brief exposition before the story centered around a white community contending with the monster begins in earnest. Your culture and entertainment cheat-sheet. [31][32] Others have pointed to a number of credible eyewitness accounts, both by Algonquians and others, as evidence that Wendigo psychosis was a factual historical phenomenon. 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. LOL. 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. 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. PSA: These 11 Halloween "Costumes" Will Always Be Offensive. 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. But if they actually did, I would pick another monster from the giant Pandemonium one has at one's choice. The Windigo had a knife and he'd cut the boy on the hand to see if he was fat enough to eat, but the boy didn't get fat. Indigenous peoples have seen culturally . 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. That taste of human flesh, which out of that rose the wendigo.. We have to stop guarding cultures and subcultures in efforts to preserve them.. Archived post. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. [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. And were on the right side, thats what were working on but sometimes you get that cannibal tendency. In, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 02:58. 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. Dont like someones fetish? 12. wendigos originate from spiritual beliefs held by Algonquian Indigenous peoples, whom are from the north eastern part of north america. (A friend sent this screenshot to me, along with the info, because he knows how much PC-ism pisses me off. This inspired an entire thread -->, Sucks to be these artists I guess. 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. 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. Europeans may well have behaved like Wendigos when they invaded the Americasthey didbut they didnt bring the Wendigo with them. It will survive on it's own. "[36] Out of equilibrium and estranged by their communities, individuals thought to be afflicted by the wendigo spirit unravel and destroy the ecological balance around them. 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. [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? Hah hah! wendigo appropriationplymouth township mi police scanner. This country is seeking to be whole Stretching out its arms and consuming all it can. Ten years later, "cultural appropriation" is no longer an obscure academic term . Some researchers argued that, essentially, Wendigo psychosis was a fabrication, the result of nave anthropologists taking stories related to them at face value without observation. I do not know, nor can I. 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. 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. [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. [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. Until Dawn logo. No it isn't cultural appropriation, as long as it is researched and accurately presented in the story. I'm not skilled enough to draw these (")> lolz. What is cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation? 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. 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. It has become something else altogether. Don't tell lies to those Indians." Maybe ask a person of Chinese heritage. [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. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. He ultimately was granted a pardon but died three days later in jail before receiving the news of this pardon. My tongue and my brain do not speak the right language. Second, he determines the relevant issues as "aesthetic" and "moral," and then discusses the most prominent arguments that surround each type of appropriation. By Christian Chiakulas, Contributor Writer, musician, activist, single father from Chicago. 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. [57] In the 2018 first-person shooter video game Dusk, wendigos are enemies that remain invisible until they receive damage. Cultural appropriation, feel like a real blur to me but I never worry about it I feel it can dampen the creative process. 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. As a concept, wendigo can apply to situations other than some Native American-European relations. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but you should totally go buy my novella. To Helheimr with it! 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. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Oh yeah, Marvel. 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. It's fine for colonized Indians to incorporate European fitness . You dont have to be French to love the Phantom of the Opera. Further, cultural appropriation often occurs as the backwash of colonization, and contributes to widening existing divisions and perpetuating patterns of historic dispossession and oppression. 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. 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. creators (a large majority being white) . 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. [28] He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan. 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. arent cryptids thing. On the other hand, "The Wendigo" is one of the first representations of the windigo by a 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. Cultural appropriation is a huge red flag that the brand has minimal diversity or representation behind the scenes," she explains. 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. Myeesquatis was holding the other leg and we were praying. Wendigo Cannibalism in Native American Folklore. 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. My intentions were pure, as were Rowling's, I imagine. 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 . 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. "** 40. Still though, Im not sure I fully get the Native American spirits(?) People don't get offended on scotland's behalf over the common depiction of their national animal as a rainbow farting fairy horse. [25], One of the more famous cases of Wendigo psychosis reported involved a Plains Cree trapper from Alberta, named Swift Runner. As it so happens, I am currently working on a project involving a Wendigo, so this is personal to me. For more information, please see our Dont look at it! Create what you want; let the audience decide its fame. Cultural appropriation means using a racial, religious, or social group's customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits without authority or right. 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]. I do not know whether Algonquin People indeed consider Wendigo depictions in mainstream media so culturally sensitive or taboo as the "woke" in your lead comment implied I would somehow doubt it but do not know for sure. Return to Article Details Culturally Conceptualizing Trauma: The Windigo in Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road I have not always done so, and it appears that in this case, J.K. Rowling did not either. With the comments turned off on Dollightful's apology video, I thought that maybe we could have some discussion here(if anyone ever sees this, anyway). 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. The use of the creature in horror stories . And they are worth considering including in ones classroom teaching. appropriation, or - as I argue - misappropriation, of the Wendigo as a In an as-yet unpublished urban fantasy novel of mine, I basically did the same thing; I made a supporting character an Acheri, completely bungling any semblance of folkloric accuracy in my attempt to come up with a "cool" and "unorthodox" monster. In a report from the Contemporary Folklore conference covered in issue 388 of FORTEAN TIMES, the go-to magazine for all things paranormal, weird, or unexplained, a complaint is voiced about the cultural appropriation of the Wendigo, likening it to the sexualization of the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. It never occurred to me that what I was doing might be offensive, because I've never even met a Native American person in real life. 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. I'm just struggling to understand the significance of it. [2], Although distinct from how it appears in the traditional lore, one of the first appearances of a character inspired by, or named after, a wendigo in non-Indigenous literature is Algernon Blackwood's 1910 novella The Wendigo. 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 . 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. Only assholes think thats offensive. (Anything that isnt outright vandalism isnt likely to harm the statue at all, but I wouldnt dare do anything disrespectful around it. Character can be mean, evil or complete asshole but you still should be respectful while writing said character. This form of cultural appropriation is deeply intertwined with systemic and institutionalized racism rooted in capitalism. New replies are no longer allowed. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. I will draw whatever I feel like drawing. 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. Other sources say wendigos were created when a human resorted to cannibalism to survive. Writer, musician, activist, single father from Chicago. It springs from the well of the collective human unconscious, the communal soul. [58] Several of these creatures also appear in the game's cover art.[59]. And that's exactly the problem. Im glad, because I dont believe that it is. In 1661, The Jesuit Relations reported: [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. 5. Welcome to Facing Today, a Facing History blog. Beyond Forbes, other Native American thinkers have also used wendigo stories to present critical perspectives on various social problems and call for their resolution. (the proceeding statement may contain some levels of sarcasm.). Most sensible thing said ever. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 See more. The "Dark Horse" singer . 11. 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. 1. Historically, deciding exactly what culture is hasn't been easy. wa, which may have meant "owl". 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 . I would not care much about what a statistically likely personally unrelated "woke" thinks about what Algonquin descendants may think about it, but only what Algonquin descendants. 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. He wasn't dead. But its none of your concern what turns someone on! In the 21st century, cultural appropriationlike globalizationisn't just inevitable; it's potentially positive. It was created by Mayuki . ][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. MORTUI VELOCES SUNT! 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. I know people who are absolutely terrified of them, branching out from their fear of deer. The people who get offended over it, on behalf of someone else, are pathetically absurd. Send them to Marvel. The book's cul-tural importance granted it not one, but two movie adaptations, the first in 1989 and the second in 2019. 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. But overall I can't stand JKR. 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. 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. MORTUI VELOCES SUNT! It first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #162 (April 1973), and again in the October 1974 issue. 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. I wouldn't be offended if someone dressed up as a stereotypical native american even though my great grandma was half blackfoot native american. 17spaz 2 yr. ago The protection of minorities from the materialization of the majority's different thoughts is an asset of democratic constitutionalism. I always thought these are what cannibals are turning into. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. And you know what? [43] These works set the template for later portrayals in popular culture, at times even replacing the Native American lore. I can't even think about bank without getting mad, why did she need to make them like that..EVERY name is filled with stereotypes , well every name from minority .I don't even want to talk about Fantastic Beasts problems. 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 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. Only those entitled to them should wear them. The legend of the wendigo has long been associated with real-life problems like insatiable greed, selfishness, and violence. 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."
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