Week 10 Essay: Eskimos: Single Men, Wizards, and Paranormal

This week there were many reoccurring motifs in the unit Eskimo Folk Tales.  These motifs included unmarried men (in the beginning of just about every tale), shamans, and in some cases the undead or ghosts.  When going through the unit, one can see that all of the stories are single paged and not very long. They get straight to whatever point they are trying to make then it abruptly ends.  At first this kind of annoyed me while reading, but I had to remind myself that the tales were derived from oral stories.  I believe that since these stories stay as true to oral traditions as they can, explains the reoccurring themes.

Of the many stories that began with a man he was always unmarried and either a good or bad hunter.  Whether he could hunt was an important aspect to the Eskimos for they thrived on the animals they hunted.  Many times these men would have many brothers that either took care of him or competed him when it came to how much game they were able to obtain.  This was effective for Eskimo storytellers since this gave the audience a homely perspective when listening to this story around a fire.

Wizards, magic men, or shamans were prevalent in this unit as well.  They were mentioned many times in the text, but they were by far more prevalent in the images before the stories.  Many times you almost miss the images.  There were many that did no seem to pertain to the actual stories, and were just pieces of art the author presented.  I look at the wizards and shaman as their sort of religious belief system.  Majority of the time villagers went to the wizards for help and advice.  The wizards would consult on the "spirits" a lot of the time in order to know what to do.

                      Source          Wizards preparing for a "spirit fight."     I have no clue what this is.

Lastly, I feel like in todays society and culture we fear death (at least here in the US).  The Eskimo's, at least of this time, do not seem to have this belief system.  As explained in their creation story, The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago, the first people created actually accepted the new concept of death in order to be privileged with light.  They believe that if one dies with a grudge on their heart that they were able to come back as a ghost and attack their enemies.  Much to my surprise there was a story where a man was able to bring back a zombie to attack one of his brothers.  I just feel like this unit was about more than just the stories themselves, they gave insight on how the Eskimo's routines and cultural beliefs.

Week 10 Storytelling: Little Bear Kidnapper

There once was an old woman who lived on her own a moderate distance from her villiage.  Her hut was located on the seashore, near a seal cove, and because of this the men of the village always brought her part of the days catch.  One day the men were able to take down a mother polar bear.  As the women were preparing the meat, they noticed a cub clutching to the bear.  They removed the cub, and brought him to the old woman to see if she wanted him.  Not having company in such a long time, she welcomed him with open arms.  He immediately warmed up to the old woman, and was named Little Bear. The old woman tended to all of the cub's needs, and in return he quickly grew big and strong.

Polar bear

Now one of the main hunters of the village had a son named Ángángûjik, but everyone called him Áng for simplicity.  Áng was very adventurous and would try to sneak away often, much to the distress of his stepmother.  One day Áng became curious of this new polar bear cub that everyone had been talking about.  He decided he wanted to play with him.  Although Little Bear was technically a wild animal, the old woman taught him to play gentle with children when they visited.  When Áng met Little Bear an inseparable bond formed between the two.  They played on most days whenever Áng could get out of his stepmother's site.  Eventually, though, Little Bear had grown big enough to learn how to hunt on his own.  The men of the village saw worth in this, and ask the old woman's permission to take Little Bear hunting with them.  She agreed to the proposition, and the men made plans to arrive early the next morning to fetch him.  The old woman was unaware that Little Bear and Áng were playing in secrecy, so she assumed that Áng's father would tell him that Little Bear would not be home the next day.

The next day's plans worked according, and Little Bear left early in the morning to join in on the hunt.  Unfortunately for Áng he was unaware and made way for the old woman's hut a few hours later.  On the way he came across an inlander couple who was hiding in the forest along the path.  They were curious of her Little Bear, and was trying to sneak a peak of this iceberg of a bear they had heard of.  The inlanders were unfamiliar with polar bears since they did not live near the ice and obtained their food from the earth.  The couple did not have children of their own so they snuck up on Áng, snatched him off the path, and ventured back to their village with plans of raising him as their own.  When Little Bear and the men returned from their hunt, they found Áng's stepmother at the old woman's hut in much distress.  When Áng's father asked her why she was there, she disclosed that she had noticed he was missing from their home, and found little footprints heading in this direction.  As she followed them she realized they were headed towards the old woman's hut, but about half way there she saw another pair suddenly appear, then all of a sudden there were none.  She was to afraid to venture into the forest, so she continued to the old woman's hut to wait for the men to return from hunting. 

Áng's father was angered by the woman's cowardice, but then demanded they immediately set out to find his son.  The other men agreed it was important to find Áng, but it was already late in the day and the village needed meat from their hunt for food.  The old woman then disclosed that Áng and Little Bear had been playing together for some time.  She stated that he and Áng's parents should be sufficient enough to find the young boy.  Áng's parents agreed and set off towards the path.  When they came upon where footprints had disappeared, they asked Little Bear to try and catch Áng's scent.  Little Bear sniffed the surrounding area for a while then suddenly ran off into the forrest.  Áng's parents followed until they came across an inlader village.  They could hear a child crying in one of the homes, crept to one of the windows, and peered in.  What Áng's parents witnessed angered their hearts.  They could see Áng sitting in the middle of the hut crying very loudly.  There was a couple with him asking many questions. "Are you hungry?  Thirsty?  What can we do for you child," the strangers asked him.  "Nothing," cried Áng, "I would like nothing else except to be brought back home!"  The couple explained they could not do this, and told him that he was now their son.  Áng's father decided he had heard enough and asked Little Bear if he would intervene.

Little Bear walked to the front door and let out a big growl.  There was silence coming from the home now, and Little Bear tore the door off the hinges.  Áng, delighted to see his friend, ran to the bear and jumped on his back.  Little Bear came back to the boys parents and allowed them to get on his back as well (for he was indeed very large).  They were soon back at the old woman's hut and everyone rejoiced to have the boy back safely.  From this day on Áng was allowed to visit Little Bear at the woman's hut, but only if he told his parents where he was.  In return, Little Bear made a point to frequently walk the perimeter of the village guarding the children of the inladers. 

The End

Author's note:
This week I decided to combined two stories from Eskimo Folk Tales: The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son & Ángángŭjuk.  I like both so much, and couldn't pick from the two, so I decided to combine the tales.  Some components of each story I stayed true to, but there are a lot of parts I also had to come up with in order to merge the stories.  In The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son, Little Bear becomes so big that while hunting with the men he begins to get attacked himself.  The attacks and threats became so frequent that the old woman eventually told him to leave her home and return to the wild.  In Ángángŭjuk the story does not disclose how the boy was taken by the inladers, but it takes the use of magic men to find him.  When they find Ángángŭjuk crying in the hut, his father asks the wizards to put the couple to sleep in order to retrieve the boy.  After saving Ángángŭjuk they quickly return home, gather their belongings, and immediately relocate. What was interesting is that the inlanders then returned to their hut and smash it to pieces, all in anger of course.

Bibliography:

Book title: Eskimo Folk Tales

Author: Knud Rasmussen

Year Published: 1921

Web Source: Sacred Texts

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.