Week 10 Reading Diary: Eskimo Folk Tales

This week I decided to read the Un-Textbook unit: Eskimo Folk Tales.  I liked the stories of the unit, but the process of reading it was bittersweet.  I like how the stories were short and sweet, but then again I feel like some components just didn't make sense.  I think this is secondary to the stories being derived from oral tales.  Below are my notes for this unit.

The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago:
This was an interesting take on a creation story.  I like the simplicity in that pretty much all the geological features of the earth, that we recognize today, just randomly fell out of the sky.  Then babies just sprung out of the ground and fed on the earth until women game to take care of this.  The most ironic fact, in my opinion, was how man decided to call for dogs with a dog leash.  How can one have something such as a dog leash lying around when there were no dogs yet?  I like how this culture didn't seem to fear death since they speak of how those how lived at the time of creation decided to take death in exchange of living with light.

The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son:
I loved this story so much!  I think the bond the old woman had with the bear was adorable, and I felt sad for the pair when they had to separate.  Although the bear was somewhat domesticated, it was still a wild animal and had to eventually be set free.  I feel this was what the theme of the tale followed.  I like how the villagers excepted him though, and worked along side him for hunting.

(Polar bear)

Isigâligârssik:
I thought the way the wizard treated the man was very unfair, and his fate was inevitable.  It didn't make sense that the other men of the home accepted him, and his new wife, but the wizard wouldn't.  I like the note in the beginning of the story, explaining the child dress, and its superstitious power.  My mother being Filipino, there are many superstitions correlated with her culture and their are interesting at time.

Papik, Who Killed His Wife's Brother:
Now this story reminds me of today's scary stories.  The way the mother-in-law waited until her death, then performed some type of ritual, reminded me of some voodoo magic.  At this point of the storybook there is a definite trend in this unit's stories.  There is always a wifeless man and someone is either injured or dying in these stories.

Ángángŭjuk:
This story brings out the mother in me.  When the mother was preparing the meal and the child went missing, I could feel her distress. Granted, I felt that it was extreme that she was more afraid of her husband killing her for losing the child, but I can also understand how upset the father was as well.  When the parents retrieved their child and traveled away, I thought it was absurd that the inlanders came back with vengeance and destroyed their home.