I hope you guys forgive the general quality of this vlog. I'm tired and apparently my video camera is, too, but I'm here anyway!
Question: So, I know that this is sort of coming out of nowhere, but I was wondering if you could talk about the White Buffalo Calf Woman. Do you think she's Legend 12, and do you think the Lakota have enough Legend 12 gods that they might one day in the future qualify for a write-up (after the Navajo. Go Navajo!)?
Question: Since the other options on the poll are getting it, could you tell us a little bit about Navajo myth and culture?
Question: Guarani mythology eh? Yeah, can uh, can we get some o' that here? I mean, not right away, 'course, but, ya know, eventually maybe? Least a little?
The problem with doing these posts about various cultures is that now I want to write four new pantheons at once!
So before people existed, did the gods just hang out in certain regions doing godly things? And then people just wandered into their territory so the gods started interacting with them? From an IC perspective, why are the gods so geographically restricted?
ReplyDeleteFor most cultures, the gods (or occasionally a Titan) created humanity at some point; seldom do humans just sort of appear without genesis, and almost every culture has a myth about where they came from. The gods interacted with them as soon as they made them, for whatever reason they had for inventing them in the first place (company, worshipers, workers, children, whatever). Remember that since all myths are true, all creator gods did in fact create humanity, which likely means that each pantheon's creator made their particular culture of humans. Ra and Ptah made the Egyptians, Nuwa made the Chinese, and so on. In other cultures, humanity is descended through several generations from the gods themselves, in which case the gods have been busy with their own cosmic projects and family issues in the meantime.
DeleteBasically, pantheons are not really geographically restricted, but rather culturally restricted; they cover exactly as much geography as the people they are attached to, because outside those areas other pantheons hold sway. You can think of them kind of like countries, if you want to, except that there are no fixed borders and the rules about who can interfere where are divinely byzantine.
Before people existed is generally the primordial creation stage of most mythologies, when the gods are busy creating the world or their overworlds, inventing other races and beings, starting up the celestial bodies and otherwise keeping busy. They also have a lot of politics and emotional stuff going on between various gods - some pantheons really don't need humans to have anything to do, since they have their own dramas behind the scenes.
The Lakota are actually an interesting one for this because their origin myth involves humans pre-existing in caverns deep beneath the earth, from which Iktomi, the spider trickster, retrieved them to release them into the World. It's similar to the Mexican myth of the Mexica originating in the caves of Aztlan; in both cases, it's implied that they probably owe their existence to the earth goddess (Maka for the Lakota, Coatlicue for the Mexica), which in some later versions of the mythology has led to variant stories of her creating them.
I'm actually writing a notes/script for my own vlog about the Guarani (Jurupari storytime). Now I just need to figure out how to use my iPad to do it (I'm sure it's simple, I just haven't done it before)
ReplyDeleteOoh, I know it's not too hard, John does it. John! Wake up and share apps!
DeleteToo late, in progress
DeleteSpoke too soon, been trying for hours and can't get it to upload via Youtube capture (at least not to the point where it's playable)
DeleteJohn's iPad is being a pain in the butt, but he wants me to tell you he uses Pinnacle Studio, which is a free app.
Delete$12.99 is an odd definition of free
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DylcoDbejTE
DeleteHe says there's a free version if you search the "free only" part of the app store? Whatever, he's the worst, I'm sorry.
DeleteYay, link!
Could you tell me a bit about the Navajo Sacred Clown Koshare? Is he like a uzume for the Navajo, a semi-mythic figure like the Polynesian Kupua, or some kind of lesser legendary being?
ReplyDeleteKoshare and his fellow dance clowns are actually more properly Hopi, though of course there is plenty of cultural borrowing in the area and both Navajo and Zuni have similar concepts. :) As a unit, the sacred clowns are whimsical spirits that possess or empower dancers involved in certain rituals and perform important functions within those rituals. They also perform a traditional trickster role in that they perform things that would normally be taboo and shock and outrage their audiences, thus reinforcing the normal status quo with their opposed antics.
DeleteI would suspect that Koshare and the other dancing kachinas are probably low-Legend gods, but I haven't done a lot in-depth with the Hopi lately, so don't take my word as gospel.
Well at least one thing becomes immediately clear when looking into the Navajo; Harmony. Couldn't say any virtues past that, but Harmony definitely is a thing.
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ReplyDeleteSo the Wabanaki Confederacy was a union of 5 different Native American nations, right? So did the Wabanaki follow Abenaki beliefs, Algonquin beliefs, a mixture of the two, or did each tribe just follow it's own belief system?
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