You're absolutively spot on! . PDF Windigo manitou - Portland State University 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. Discover short videos related to wendigo cultural appropriation on TikTok. 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. 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. 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. 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. They travelled too much. 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. Western capitalistic expansion and cultural appropriation (see . Sacred creatures? 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. [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. What Is Cultural Appropriation? - Health: Trusted and Empathetic Health The appropriation, and reclamation, of Native American mythology', Journal of . 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. First, he gives definitions of the key concepts of "appropriation" and "arts," and delimits his investigation as one concerned with "cultural" appropriation. It really depends who you talk to. Now that I have a major problem with. Until Dawn logo. I can write whatever fiction I want, and draw whatever I want. (A friend sent this screenshot to me, along with the info, because he knows how much PC-ism pisses me off. No one can try to stake a singular claim to it. And whoever!). Unlike cultural appropriation, strategic anti-essentialism can be practiced by both minority cultures and majority cultures. While Bieber's locs may be perceived . 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. Oh yeah, Marvel. Is it cultural appropriation for a white author to use a Native He just gave the boy so much time to go there and back. To fully understand its consequences, though, we need to make sure we have a working definition of culture itself. As a concept, wendigo can apply to situations other than some Native American-European relations. In the 21st century, cultural appropriationlike globalizationisn't just inevitable; it's potentially positive. And were on the right side, thats what were working on but sometimes you get that cannibal tendency. Shock factor aside, it's especially eye-catching in that it isn't necessarily a result of being desperate for food. spellings (see Colombo 2) but is most commonly rendered as Windigo, Wendigo, or Witiko. Native Americans, Our headquarters are located at: 89 South Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02111. You dont have to be French to love the Phantom of the Opera. 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]. 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. 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. You're just making up a story. MORTUI VELOCES SUNT! 10 Examples of Cultural Appropriation You Never Thought About Further, cultural appropriation often occurs as the backwash of colonization, and contributes to widening existing divisions and perpetuating patterns of historic dispossession and oppression. 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. Mexicans: Cultural Appropriation PragerU 3.01M subscribers Subscribe 85K Share 2.2M views 4 years ago What is cultural appropriation? 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. Welcome to Facing Today, a Facing History blog. 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. And they are worth considering including in one's classroom teaching. Contents 1 History 2 Gallery 3 Trivia 4 Navigation History The Indians asked the Windigo if there was any fat on them. Okay, dont anybody get me wrong. 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. 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 . 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. But I do know the actual description of it. 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. 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. In the course of the transformation from human to wendigo, the person exhibits increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greedparticularly for human flesh. Watch popular content from the following creators: Thorn (@shr00mermaid), Thorn (@shr00mermaid), Nuoance(@nuoance), MattHatterPlays(@matthatterplays), Aidan Mattis(@theaidanmattis) . 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. Humans could also turn into wendigos by being in contact with them for too long. By the mid-1990s, it had gained a solid place in academic discourse, particularly in the field of sociology. 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). 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. During a panel at YES! It can serve as a metaphor explaining any pattern of domination by which groups subjugate and dominate or violently destroy and displace. 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. 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. View of Culturally Conceptualizing Trauma: The Windigo in Joseph - UNB In addition to denoting a cannibalistic monster from certain traditional folklore, some Native Americans also understand the wendigo conceptually. Exactly!! Is it Cultural Appropriation if I have a Wendigo character. Jack committed suicide, but Joseph was tried and sentenced to life in prison. Is it Cultural Appropriation if I have a Wendigo character? As long as theyre not shoving their porn in your face let them be as Paul McCartney sung. 5. 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. 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. The wendigo is a terrifying presence that feeds on negative energy and human flesh, making it a natural addition to the horror genre. without permission.1 I think people just need to chill out, no mater what their religion and culture is. So, thanks, Dave! identity. The concept of cultural appropriation began well enough, but just like everything else woke culture political correctness, it's gone way too far. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(443401, 'c61f3219-a9f3-4b0c-95ea-f614a80c184b', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); Pictured above: A portion of the poster for the film Antlers (Fox Searchlight, 2021). The e-book is here, and you can get a paperback copy here.). Cultural appropriation, feel like a real blur to me but I never worry about it I feel it can dampen the creative process. My tongue and my brain do not speak the right language. From Stephen Kings Pet Sematary to the television series Hanibal, the flesh-eating image of the wendigo is often presented apart from its original cultural contexts where it carries deep moral significance. I'm not skilled enough to draw these (")> lolz. 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. I wouldn't be offended if someone dressed up as a stereotypical native american even though my great grandma was half blackfoot native american. The use of the creature in horror stories . 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. 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. 1. 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. 8.1.2014. "Windigo Psychosis: A Study of Relationship between Belief and Behaviour among the Indians of Northeastern Canada." [28] He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan. 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. Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge and our Cultural appropriation: what does it mean and why is it such a They went back again to see if he was dead. I would refuse to be shackled by political correctness. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Copyright 2022 Facing History & Ourselves. I believe cultural appropriation is Only when someone of another 'race' or culture creates something and passes it off as if it is authentic. 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. One of those advisors I just mentioned, Chris Eyre, had this to say of the Wendigo: They [meaning Native peoples] truly, truly believe in it, because it represents greed and colonialism when we first came to the shores of what is now America, and pillaged all of their resources and forced them [into] cannibalism. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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. She annoys the hell out of me. 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. Not only is it not offensive, I LOVE seeing references to wendigos in popular culture! We should talk about how Thor and Loki are cultural appropriation of Norwegian mythology. It was created by Mayuki . Historically, deciding exactly what culture is hasn't been easy. [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. 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. 1. Send them to Marvel. I dont know who originally posted it, or where. I mentioned above that I was guilty of doing the same thing. 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. 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 Windigo is a malevolent manitou or spirit whose insatiable appetite for human flesh can never be satisfied. It's a term for what happens to people who for one reason or another turn to eating other people. PDF Baring the Windigo's Teeth: The Fearsome Figure in Native American 11 Culturally Appropriative Halloween Costumes You Should - Bustle It also seems to me to be unacceptable for authors to be unable to use one (or more) of those characters/symbols/etc. A Creature Without a Cave: Abstraction and (Mis)Appropriation of the And besides that, it never hurts to include your sources. The Windigo also has the power to turn humans into cannibals who suffer the same . Wendigo psychosis is a fascinating condition with a storied history. Marvel Comics pay tribute to classic Monsters. This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. It's fine for colonized Indians to incorporate European fitness . I would agree, only I am more likely to not care much even what an Algonquin cares about my monster character. You dont have to be of Afro-Caribbean descent to talk about, write about, or make movies about zombies. without permission. It has become something else altogether. Students Vs. Mexicans: Cultural Appropriation - YouTube 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. My Thoughts and Questions OllieOnyx 845 subscribers Subscribe 4.5K 119K views 2 years ago I just posted a new video. 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. Cultural appropriation by a dominant culture is harmful to underrepresented cultures because it reduces cultural significance and reinforces double standards. 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. Key elements of culture include: language art,. Their visitations speak to the inseparability of human experience National identity is irrelevant to this borderless horror. What Is Cultural Appropriation? - Verywell Mind [5], In his 2004 treatise Revenge of the Windigo on disorders and treatments of the behavioral health industry in the United States and Canada that are peculiar to indigenous people, James B. Waldram wrote,[34]. Representation in media is crucially important, something I have become very aware of as I've grown older and consumed more entertainment. 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. Aye, I love wendigos. Apparently it's wrong to draw wendigos for Halloween 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.). 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. J.K. Rowling's Cultural Appropriation Should Be A Lesson To White Theres something else. But I do notice that Eyre stopped short of saying colonialization is the origin for the Wendigo legend. [26][27] During the winter of 1878, Swift Runner and his family were starving, and his eldest son died. 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. A classic example is wearing a Plains Indian war bonnet (see the 80s band The Village People). In my blind quest to represent everyone, all I did was reinforce the problem. 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. 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). PSA: These 11 Halloween "Costumes" Will Always Be Offensive. But overall I can't stand JKR. There, he uses the cannibalistic wendigo as a metaphor for the behaviors and attitudes central to patterns of social domination visited upon his own people in the Americas and subjugated peoples everywhere. "[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. 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. Other sources say wendigos were created when a human resorted to cannibalism to survive. 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. (1961). It's just fiction, I thought. 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. [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. 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. In Ojibwe, Eastern Cree, Westmain Swampy Cree, Naskapi, and Innu lore, wendigos are often described as giants that are many times larger than human beings, a characteristic absent from myths in other Algonquian cultures. "** 40. But, but, what if they're looking at something that erodes the moral fabric of civilization? 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. In some traditions, humans overpowered by greed could turn into wendigos; the myth thus served as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation. These things feel formulaic, quantitative, mathematicbalancing equations and subtraction. The Wendigos - Until Dawn Wiki | Fandom 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.