Let me know if you want me to dive deeper into Inuit myth, or native American, or any culture for that matter. I thoroughly enjoyed researching this, and thank you for all your support.
I’m in Oklahoma and we have a site nearby called the Spiro Mounds. There was a spiritual headquarters located there where rituals and art were shared. I would like to hear your take on this culture and time.
Personally, I'd love to know whether there are any North American indigenous myths that could be interpreted as alluding to the original crossing of the Bering Strait...peoples such as the Aleuts, for example!
Inuit culture is extremely interesting. There was a somewhat famous Inuit film about 20 years ago call "Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner", which was a big screen representation of on of their myths, written and directed by an Inuit man. It was excellent and you should really watch it. I think you'd enjoy it.
The video is immaculate as always. Just a quick correction, Algonquin isn’t a local dialect of the Inuit, it’s a completely different set of languages from a different language family (the Algic language family) whereas the Inuit are of the Eskimo-Aleut language family.
Can confirm. The Algonquin language family goes from Eastern Canada to the middle of Tennessee (Shawnee) with the greatest concentration being in Eastern Canada and New England where there are many different branches of the Algonquin language include the Pequot and Mohegan.
Is it Russian is it Vikings?, no but it this story has a similar vibe like it sounds hardcore but when you consider no media at all in sub arctic environment it takes stuff like that to be entertaining
Your timing is impeccable, the topic fits the time of the year like a warm fur glove. There's more to the arctics than gregarious parcel delivery men and rhinophymatous reindeer. These intriguing stories, they are part and parcel of being a _Crecganfordian,_ and Jon White delivers yet again.
This is one of my favorite videos you’ve ever made. I find Inuit lore endlessly fascinating as it’s so different from western mythology. Thanks for all your hard work!
I'd like to mention and recommend the movie Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner which represents a wonderful cinematic legacy for one of the many mythological stories of Inuit culture. I feel lucky to have watched the movie in cinema back in 2002. An immersive, magnificient experience.
Thank you as always for these, you truly are a light in the swamp of RUclips. And thank you especially for putting your links to your resources and sources in the description, it is always vital people read and learn and appreciate people like Franz Boas and such. Books and libraries the soul of humanity forever
Wonderfull introduction to the Arctic myths. I can tell you use Canadian sources - if you dive deeper into this, I suggest you investigate the polar expeditions of Knud Rasmussen, and his company They where themselves almost mythical Explorers in their time. Yet they met the Arctic inhabitants with humility and understood the importance of their work, and how the tales they collected may be as old as humanity itself.
Your very European voice did a pretty good job saying northern indigenous words. Don’t worry about apologizing for mispronunciations. You clearly tried to get the stories out there as close to accurate as possible. Thank yiu
Your work and the database have been gigantic in helping people, myself included, to write anthropology. I want to take this golden material in the Berezkin database, and tackle it with a more modern Campbell type lens, seeing what psychoanalysis and current neurology have to say about what story telling means to people. You fellas are doling out the catharsis!
Interesting video. I do love the different Native American cultures. Have you explored the Desert Southwest cultures yet like the Hopi and Zuni? I know you may have touched on their origin stories, but I think scholars widely consider them to have some of the more ancient Native cultures still in existence.
I am slowly reading as many books as I can on native American culture, and I should get a chance to visit some places in America in late Spring. And after that I will try and produce a video about these.
@@Crecganford Gladly looking forward to it. I wonder what your two cents is in how Hopi/Zuni myths and culture compare with the Navajo semi-mythological origins of the Anasazi, but I’d be content with any video from Crecganford that touches over the mesa valley region
Not a historian but as far as I understand, People traveled from South East Asia to Siberia to Canada to North America, then South America and then across to Polynesia. Do they all share similar mythology and spirit worship ? We also have witchdoctors, ancestor and animal spirits in Africa even whilst practicing Christianity and Islam. Can't be overstated how much I love this channel.
There were at least 4 migrations into the America's before the West discovered it, and so we would expect some similarity in some motifs. I do hope with time that I can examine the cultures in the Americas more, because there are some fascinating stories to be discovered, I am sure of that.
Why would people travel from lush jungles and rivers of south east asia to cold and barren of Siberia. This doesn't make logical sense. It should be the opposite. Science should do better.
The versions I have read of those first two stories are quite different in many ways. For example, I read that Sedna courted by her fathers dog, in human form, and got impregnated by him. This enraged her father who first killed the dog and then took Sedna away to live by herself for a time. When he returned, it played out in a similar way to your version, with the finger cutting and creation of sea creatures. A good example of how stories change over time and from place to place.
I would love to hear more about Inuit, but also as the culture stretches toward Greenland. A few years ago I heard a lecture given by a current Angakkuit who lives there & was sharing about their wisdom & practices. After this video, I'm struck with the migration of this culture & wisdom from Siberia to North America and to Greenland.
Very interesting video as usual. I was wondering for any relation there might be between the Inuit myths, Finno-Ugric myths, and Sami myths. Basically, across the arctic around the world.
These legend and spirit communicators sound surprisingly familiar. I can see Teutonic beliefs and Zoroastrian traditions also as well as a few other countries and islands. Amazing how similar the basic root concepts are to each other. Nearly all have a special person usually a priest who speaks to these spirits. ❤
It might be extremely interesting to study the agricultural myths of the Americas---many of the legends and stories about farming and harvests in the northern reaches of the Americas revolve around Hero Twins. In maize farming areas the twins theme is unavoidable. Potato farming places are more about the sun and mountains.
Thank you. And yes, we do see similar myths, the ones I have covered are the Cosmic Hunt and the Ferry Man of the Dead, both videos are well worth a watch.
Hello! Yes, I would love to hear more about the topic of pre-farming cosmology, from all over the globe. I read the story about how the sun and the moon came to be a very long time ago in a library, though in the version I read she cut off a part of her anatomy (her chest) and threw it at her brother before jumping into the sky... unsure if you came across this version? Very curious if it's an accurate version and if so what the significance of this act would be?
@@Crecganford That is also the most common versions we have in Greenland: and the Brother Moon fell while he desperately ran after his Sister Sun and his lamp moss torch almost went out, and therefore he doesn't shine so much as the Sister Sun.
I really love your Channel. I always learn something new from watching your videos. Unfortunately for me everything you talked about in your content, I'm unable to learn on my own. I'm always too busy and often too tired to pick up a pencil and write or pick up a book and read. And when it comes to wanting to learn something new about mythology, I often don't know what questions to ask when I want to look up something, so I often don't know where to look when I want to learn something new. So I really appreciate this Channel and this video for providing that for me when I only have free time to regain my energy.
Well done Jon white, thank you for another great video/lesson about another culture. I for one would like to know more about these groups of people and their lifestyles. Glad to see you are feeling better. Keep up your great work and have a great weekend.
THANK YOU. that was amazing. More please, more on native American myths and myths of hunter gatherer people. This is how we were, this is how it was before land ownership and greed started.
There is such a humility, and an appreciation for all life, that pervades the native cultures of the Americas. It is in dramatic contrast to the ego-centric monotheism we are all familiar with. Instead of a world made for us, its a world to be a part of.
I live in Fairbanks Alaska, which is in the interior of the state borders. Everything here is profound. Winter is epic, green-up (the pre-spring when stuff is no longer grey and white for the first time in half a year) is breath taking. Even the "harmless" fauna can kill you. The indigenous people here have expressed it in ways that make a hell of a lot more sense if you're here to see it.
Very interesting! It reminded me about the fact that stories are based on interaction with your direct surroundings. This made me interested in archaeology and will take this into my geography classroom the next time we’re talking about cultures.
It's an interesting video about a culture I barely know anything about. Are there many differences between the Inuit people and the Sámi people, in their stories, myths,...? Also, getting to know the native American folklore better would be great too.
Where/when in our imagination do the first gods appear? As ringleaders of certain groups of spirits? Or maybe as a twice distanced substitute for them?
The Inuit are very ignored when it comes to the Americas, interesting that their culture is fully developed 2000 years ago especially in the Old Bering Sea area, so either we've yet to discover an earlier culture or they came into the area culturally developed. Their early art is also a mystery, their stylized bird motifs are too similar to Melanesian art to deny, it also looks to have a pre-Buddhist and Scythian influence(or maybe the other way around). It makes you wonder if there was an archaic Pacific art style that we have yet to find.
I have come across the Sedna myth before, this is the first time I have come across this version, usually she sinks to the bottom of the sea, she accepts her fate and in doing so she becomes 'the deity of the sea', the picture at 8.18 shows Sedna with fingers at a point the timeline suggests she no longer has them. I really appreciate your channel and everything it teaches me, so I thought you should know of the consistencies in what I'm sure has been a time consuming labour of love.
For what it's worth, I live up here and have spoken with several Inuit elders and just in my one town alone the Sedna story can change quite a bit because each family came from a different tribe with different stories. The most common story I have been told aligns more with Sam O'nella's more crude rendition of a gluttonous Sedna being killed by her father. In my neck of the Inuit woods (lol) starvation was the big scare for the people, so a person who ate more than their share was a danger to the overall tribe.
My favourite Inuit 'myth' is the Amarok, a giant wolf. Perhaps they are based on Direwolves or perhaps they were even bigger. Long story short: Animism.
Were the Inuit, Indigenous Americans and/or other hunter/gatherer cultures beliefs more about harmony and the consequences of things like vengeance being calamitous. Yes, I definitely want to hear more about the cultures from before agricultural cultures made contact.
@@AnjiThornton, well what I was mostly thinking was about their dependence and closeness to nature, being very aware of how everything is interconnected and pretty much everything happens in cycles. And of course they have awareness of vengeance if they have stories about it. Stories have been passed down in every culture about the slippery slope of vengeance, and cutting losses (well-being and otherwise) with forgiveness.
@@augusthavince8909 sort of. I can definitely say my Norwegian grandmother spoke quite highly of vengeance and tended to be quite devious getting hers. From talking with Cheyenne and Crow nation members they still haven't forgiven the Lakota for taking the Black Hills
26:42 The Navajo also believe a person cannot die within their hogans or else the ghost or chindi, which is not friendly, will remain in the home. Therefore they abandon it. Interesting connection. 🌅
I must say, your work and your collaboration with crowhag convinced me to actually putting into action my fantasies of explaining people pre christian survivals and folklore in the italian peninsula (and related areas) so... Who knows if all works well perhaps it will become reality...
From what I understand, Inuits consider “Eskimo” a pejorative exonym. The didn’t come up with that name, other groups did as a way to look down on them.
Another fascinating video, thank you! I was interested in the idea that flesh shoukd be removed from a body as quickly as possible. There are many Stone Age human bones that have cut marks on them. Sonetines, these are interpreted as evidence of cannibalism, which may well be true as some have evidence of bone marrow removal. However, many could equally be evidence of de-fleshing. Also, some neolithic sites have areas in front of tombs which are enclosed spaces that may have been used for ex-carnation. It makes one wonder if the desire for flesh removal was similar to the Inuit's 'freeing of the soul.' Additionally, at the site made famous as 'The Tomb of the Eagles' there were numerous sea eagle skulls amongst the human remains. If there was a sense of equality with at least some animals that would potentially provide an explanation for theur burial along with humans.
I enjoy all your content, and I am especially intrigued by this and your Cosmic Hunt vids where you explore the migration of stories through the human diaspora going as far back as we can, with reasonable assurance. I would love to see you explore these stories metamorphoses and/or sources as far back as some of our less-successful human cousins, assuming there is some empirical evidence off which to go. I know there are extant Neanderthal records out there, but I am particularly interested in the groups that migrated Eastward and made it to the Americas. Also, I'm sure there are thousands of versions of these myths and legends which are lost with clans and groups that died out, but is there any (albeit unofficial) evidence of these lost threads that anyone is looking into? Thanks so much for your work.
This is something a number of academics in this field would love to do, but to get the data, and prove, with some certainty, that the story is from another group of homonyms originally is incredibly challenging. Still, we will persevere, just in case we get lucky.
The Algonquin were neighbors.....and something that sounded like "Eskimo" was *their* word for the folks who call themselves Inuit. The Europeans met Algonquin speakers first, and so called the Inuit "Eskimos" from their neighbors' name for them--- not the name they called themselves. Like Germany vs Deustchland.
My favorite story from a book called red swan a collection of American indigenous stories, about why the bear walks the way they do, I need that book I got it from the school library a long time ago and I remember that and other stories especially about the coyote the trickster .
@Crecganford Thanks for taking up the inuit mythology! One of my favourite topics, also as an artist from Greenland. May I suggest the researcher I know the best, and THE capacity from Denmark: Prof. Em. Birgitte Sonne, from Copenhagen University. The works of her is highly recommendable, and she has a more than lifelong love for Inuit mythology and world view. May I also suggest that you take a look on some of my old videos with my artistic interpretations of the very same inuit mytholgy from Greenland.
I know this wasn't the intent behind the story about the giants, but I couldn't help hearing the first "fat mama" joke. "Your mama so fat, it takes two caribou skins just to make her boots!"
if you are going on a North American Natives exploration, i would love to see - and very curious about - what you'd dig up about the Iroquois confederation nations. Their social and political structure is very interesting, so i would guess their mythology might be as fascinating.
i must add, as a canadian, this is more information and knowledge about one of our first nation's mythology than i was ever taught in school. thank you so much for this.
Always fantastic videos-thank you! Im interested in the fact that the Hopi had 9 relms(universe's)and so did the vikings. With 9 being an ancient sacred number-is there a connection anywhere i might have missed?
May I suggest looking up The Sleeping Giant in what is now Thunder Bay, Ontario? Would love to hear what you have to say about the stories surrounding him!
The consistency across from Neolithic to early farming societies seems to track with the dual notions of "ownership" which reaches from the blubber in one's larder to a more virtual concept of responsibility for public works.
If, like you said, to the inuit, killing a human was just like killing a rat or any other animal... and these were the "I ♧ seals" people, hard-core hunters... and they're relatively recent arrivals from Asia who "displaced" the native cultures in a very similar way to what the Europeans did (almost completely, using superior technology to reduce them to a few remnants on small areas of bad land)... and in their own version of the Abraham & Isaac story, the father repeatedly actually tries to kill the kid, like he's got rooster-brain, yet she survives despite him, and grows up to be an angry whiner... some interesting stories, that's for sure. You can't ask if we want MORE native american stories, because we haven't had any. We've had inuit stories, and that's different from algonquin stories, as other people have pointed out. There are many distinct indigenous populations here, and inuit is the most different from all of them.
Algonquin is probably the largest indigenous language group in North America, but there are many in the Americas, and then hundreds of languages within those. Some of them, you wonder how they got there - maybe there are remnants of an even older population that was displaced. Sadly, norther Canada is going to look a lot different to the kids of today's kids. They'll find mineral and even archeological resources as the snows recede, especially in Greenland.
yes more of this please, and perhaps maybe why stories of giants seem to be ubiquitous among peoples in the arctic circle. Is there a connection between the viking giants and the stories of giants in the Inuit? There must have been contact in Greenland for example, pre-Colombus...I can't imagine a sea faring people that would settle places like Iceland would have been unaware of native cultures in the arctic
Purely speculation on my part, but I'd bet it is a human reaction to whales. Enormous beings that exist in a realm separated from the ordinary life of humanity
As a child i was told the tale of the old hunter that woke one winter morning - his family was gone! His party packed everything - abandoning two old sled dogs too. Not ready to die - yet - the creative old man ' dumps' his last meal...fashions his own 'waste' into a shape object - let it freeze ! After He killed & fed himself & the remain dog...he makes a harness & sleigh ... Using the sacrificed dogs inners as leash & line ! By morning - his family welcome back within their igloo & he told his tale by the fire in new dog fur coat !🇨🇦
all pre-chritian folk lore and mythology, is deemed golden knowledge! since it's part of our history as humans.. of course until the crusaders ruined everything and forced everyone to copy their own stuff.. keeping this kind of history is a noble work!
Let me know if you want me to dive deeper into Inuit myth, or native American, or any culture for that matter. I thoroughly enjoyed researching this, and thank you for all your support.
Anything Indigenous, brother. Thanks for what you do.
I’m in Oklahoma and we have a site nearby called the Spiro Mounds. There was a spiritual headquarters located there where rituals and art were shared. I would like to hear your take on this culture and time.
This is very interesting, thanks Jon. I'm a Pagan and a lot of this reminds me of what I see. There are spirits in all things.
Personally, I'd love to know whether there are any North American indigenous myths that could be interpreted as alluding to the original crossing of the Bering Strait...peoples such as the Aleuts, for example!
Yes, please.
Inuit culture is extremely interesting. There was a somewhat famous Inuit film about 20 years ago call "Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner", which was a big screen representation of on of their myths, written and directed by an Inuit man. It was excellent and you should really watch it. I think you'd enjoy it.
Thanks for the suggestion
Yay, I currently live where this was filmed. The creators production company, Isuma TV has quite a few hidden treasures to find.
Amazing movie. It’s absolutely engaging from the opening.
Definitely interested in more North American Native myths. Anything you have!
The video is immaculate as always. Just a quick correction, Algonquin isn’t a local dialect of the Inuit, it’s a completely different set of languages from a different language family (the Algic language family) whereas the Inuit are of the Eskimo-Aleut language family.
Thank you for correcting that... I'll add that to the video's description.
Can confirm. The Algonquin language family goes from Eastern Canada to the middle of Tennessee (Shawnee) with the greatest concentration being in Eastern Canada and New England where there are many different branches of the Algonquin language include the Pequot and Mohegan.
yes, thank you for this
Is it Russian is it Vikings?, no but it this story has a similar vibe like it sounds hardcore but when you consider no media at all in sub arctic environment it takes stuff like that to be entertaining
@@Crecganford this is the beauty of a public forum, so many other creators would ignore
Here is a man that asks many questions and finds answers in his humble heart.
Deep love, deep love... .
Your timing is impeccable, the topic fits the time of the year like a warm fur glove. There's more to the arctics than gregarious parcel delivery men and rhinophymatous reindeer. These intriguing stories, they are part and parcel of being a _Crecganfordian,_ and Jon White delivers yet again.
Your kind words are much appreciated. Thank you.
Your comment wins the internet
💯
I would definitely love to see more North and South American mythology! This was wonderful.
This is one of my favorite videos you’ve ever made. I find Inuit lore endlessly fascinating as it’s so different from western mythology. Thanks for all your hard work!
I always am interested in folklore and mythology of indigenous cultures. Thank you.
I'd like to mention and recommend the movie Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner which represents a wonderful cinematic legacy for one of the many mythological stories of Inuit culture. I feel lucky to have watched the movie in cinema back in 2002. An immersive, magnificient experience.
Watching this from Iqaluit, Nunavut 😁 very fitting. I've heard a lot about mythology here.
I've been waiting for this mythology for a long time. Thank you so much.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Your voice is so relaxing and you talk about such interesting things
Thank you.
Love your videos. Please consider looking at the San mythology from Southern Africa.
I will, I do have a book on their mythology with a view of producing a video in the new year.
Thank you as always for these, you truly are a light in the swamp of RUclips. And thank you especially for putting your links to your resources and sources in the description, it is always vital people read and learn and appreciate people like Franz Boas and such. Books and libraries the soul of humanity forever
Wonderfull introduction to the Arctic myths. I can tell you use Canadian sources - if you dive deeper into this, I suggest you investigate the polar expeditions of Knud Rasmussen, and his company They where themselves almost mythical Explorers in their time. Yet they met the Arctic inhabitants with humility and understood the importance of their work, and how the tales they collected may be as old as humanity itself.
Thank you, I shall look up any sources they have written.
Added to reading list
Your very European voice did a pretty good job saying northern indigenous words. Don’t worry about apologizing for mispronunciations. You clearly tried to get the stories out there as close to accurate as possible. Thank yiu
More Inuit please 🙏🏽
This was a great video and I'd love to hear more about Inuit mythology and culture.
Your work and the database have been gigantic in helping people, myself included, to write anthropology.
I want to take this golden material in the Berezkin database, and tackle it with a more modern Campbell type lens, seeing what psychoanalysis and current neurology have to say about what story telling means to people.
You fellas are doling out the catharsis!
Hmm very interesting, glad your looking at other parts of mother earth and studying their stories and culture.
Isn't it beautiful??!!
@@JourneyIntoAnimism indeed! 😊 love it!
Interesting video. I do love the different Native American cultures. Have you explored the Desert Southwest cultures yet like the Hopi and Zuni? I know you may have touched on their origin stories, but I think scholars widely consider them to have some of the more ancient Native cultures still in existence.
I am slowly reading as many books as I can on native American culture, and I should get a chance to visit some places in America in late Spring. And after that I will try and produce a video about these.
@@Crecganford Gladly looking forward to it. I wonder what your two cents is in how Hopi/Zuni myths and culture compare with the Navajo semi-mythological origins of the Anasazi, but I’d be content with any video from Crecganford that touches over the mesa valley region
@@Crecganford i would love a video on some of your favorite books!
Not a historian but as far as I understand, People traveled from South East Asia to Siberia to Canada to North America, then South America and then across to Polynesia. Do they all share similar mythology and spirit worship ? We also have witchdoctors, ancestor and animal spirits in Africa even whilst practicing Christianity and Islam.
Can't be overstated how much I love this channel.
There were at least 4 migrations into the America's before the West discovered it, and so we would expect some similarity in some motifs. I do hope with time that I can examine the cultures in the Americas more, because there are some fascinating stories to be discovered, I am sure of that.
Why would people travel from lush jungles and rivers of south east asia to cold and barren of Siberia. This doesn't make logical sense. It should be the opposite. Science should do better.
@@kb.e3762because during the time of the migrations the landscape was very different, and the world was likely in an ice age.
The versions I have read of those first two stories are quite different in many ways. For example, I read that Sedna courted by her fathers dog, in human form, and got impregnated by him. This enraged her father who first killed the dog and then took Sedna away to live by herself for a time. When he returned, it played out in a similar way to your version, with the finger cutting and creation of sea creatures.
A good example of how stories change over time and from place to place.
Very good recitation of the stories.
I loved it. Please do more on the Innuit and the Native Americans. It's fascinating.
Thanks!
Thank you so much for your support, it is appreciated.
I would love to hear more about Inuit, but also as the culture stretches toward Greenland.
A few years ago I heard a lecture given by a current Angakkuit who lives there & was sharing about their wisdom & practices.
After this video, I'm struck with the migration of this culture & wisdom from Siberia to North America and to Greenland.
Very interesting video as usual. I was wondering for any relation there might be between the Inuit myths, Finno-Ugric myths, and Sami myths. Basically, across the arctic around the world.
My next video will start a journey into looking at this, and so I hope you will watch it.
I knew hardly anything about Inuit beliefs.Thanks for this video.
And thank you for watching.
This was a really good one, Jon. Kudos!
These legend and spirit communicators sound surprisingly familiar. I can see Teutonic beliefs and Zoroastrian traditions also as well as a few other countries and islands. Amazing how similar the basic root concepts are to each other. Nearly all have a special person usually a priest who speaks to these spirits. ❤
I enjoy these windows into different times and cultures. I live in the mountains of Montana and want to here about Salish myths.
Thank you, and I will investigate these.
Wonderful video! Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
It might be extremely interesting to study the agricultural myths of the Americas---many of the legends and stories about farming and harvests in the northern reaches of the Americas revolve around Hero Twins. In maize farming areas the twins theme is unavoidable. Potato farming places are more about the sun and mountains.
Great content and would love more. Also, is there any relationship between the Inuit and Siberian myths?
Thank you. And yes, we do see similar myths, the ones I have covered are the Cosmic Hunt and the Ferry Man of the Dead, both videos are well worth a watch.
@@Crecganford Thanks, I'll be watching them.
Hello! Yes, I would love to hear more about the topic of pre-farming cosmology, from all over the globe. I read the story about how the sun and the moon came to be a very long time ago in a library, though in the version I read she cut off a part of her anatomy (her chest) and threw it at her brother before jumping into the sky... unsure if you came across this version? Very curious if it's an accurate version and if so what the significance of this act would be?
I haven't heard of that version of the myth before, but I still have plenty of literature to read, and so I will look out for it.
@@Crecganford That is also the most common versions we have in Greenland: and the Brother Moon fell while he desperately ran after his Sister Sun and his lamp moss torch almost went out, and therefore he doesn't shine so much as the Sister Sun.
THANK YOU for covering this topic - it’s SO fascinating!
I really love your Channel. I always learn something new from watching your videos. Unfortunately for me everything you talked about in your content, I'm unable to learn on my own. I'm always too busy and often too tired to pick up a pencil and write or pick up a book and read. And when it comes to wanting to learn something new about mythology, I often don't know what questions to ask when I want to look up something, so I often don't know where to look when I want to learn something new. So I really appreciate this Channel and this video for providing that for me when I only have free time to regain my energy.
Howard Norman's retelling collection Northern Tales is one of my favorites.
Well done Jon white, thank you for another great video/lesson about another culture. I for one would like to know more about these groups of people and their lifestyles. Glad to see you are feeling better. Keep up your great work and have a great weekend.
Thank you for your kind words.
i love your videos so much!
Thank you.
THANK YOU. that was amazing. More please, more on native American myths and myths of hunter gatherer people. This is how we were, this is how it was before land ownership and greed started.
Fascinating, would love more videos on the non-agricultural mindset from any culture
Thanks so much!! This is si interesting!
There is such a humility, and an appreciation for all life, that pervades the native cultures of the Americas. It is in dramatic contrast to the ego-centric monotheism we are all familiar with. Instead of a world made for us, its a world to be a part of.
I live in Fairbanks Alaska, which is in the interior of the state borders. Everything here is profound. Winter is epic, green-up (the pre-spring when stuff is no longer grey and white for the first time in half a year) is breath taking. Even the "harmless" fauna can kill you. The indigenous people here have expressed it in ways that make a hell of a lot more sense if you're here to see it.
Very interesting! It reminded me about the fact that stories are based on interaction with your direct surroundings. This made me interested in archaeology and will take this into my geography classroom the next time we’re talking about cultures.
Loved this video with my English breakfast tea. We need to get you up to a million subscribers
It's an interesting video about a culture I barely know anything about. Are there many differences between the Inuit people and the Sámi people, in their stories, myths,...?
Also, getting to know the native American folklore better would be great too.
I'm hoping you're feeling better. I have enjoyed this posting. Can you do a video on Native American myths?
Yes, I will, probably many videos.
Looking forward to this!
Where/when in our imagination do the first gods appear? As ringleaders of certain groups of spirits? Or maybe as a twice distanced substitute for them?
I have made a few videos about this, the one called "Finding the Oldest Religion" may appeal to you the most.
your perspective. Thank you.
Like the story I'm plains cree indigenous from Saskatchewan and i really do enjoy the myths stories
The Inuit are very ignored when it comes to the Americas, interesting that their culture is fully developed 2000 years ago especially in the Old Bering Sea area, so either we've yet to discover an earlier culture or they came into the area culturally developed. Their early art is also a mystery, their stylized bird motifs are too similar to Melanesian art to deny, it also looks to have a pre-Buddhist and Scythian influence(or maybe the other way around). It makes you wonder if there was an archaic Pacific art style that we have yet to find.
very nicely done, thanks.
I have come across the Sedna myth before, this is the first time I have come across this version, usually she sinks to the bottom of the sea, she accepts her fate and in doing so she becomes 'the deity of the sea', the picture at 8.18 shows Sedna with fingers at a point the timeline suggests she no longer has them. I really appreciate your channel and everything it teaches me, so I thought you should know of the consistencies in what I'm sure has been a time consuming labour of love.
That was a good spot, thank you...
For what it's worth, I live up here and have spoken with several Inuit elders and just in my one town alone the Sedna story can change quite a bit because each family came from a different tribe with different stories. The most common story I have been told aligns more with Sam O'nella's more crude rendition of a gluttonous Sedna being killed by her father. In my neck of the Inuit woods (lol) starvation was the big scare for the people, so a person who ate more than their share was a danger to the overall tribe.
My favourite Inuit 'myth' is the Amarok, a giant wolf. Perhaps they are based on Direwolves or perhaps they were even bigger. Long story short: Animism.
Were the Inuit, Indigenous Americans and/or other hunter/gatherer cultures beliefs more about harmony and the consequences of things like vengeance being calamitous. Yes, I definitely want to hear more about the cultures from before agricultural cultures made contact.
I think harmony is a trait in these cultures, although there will always be periods of time, and examples where this isn't the case.
Yeah no. Vengeance is just as prevalent in Native Culture as everyone else. What you are talking about is the Victorian concept of the Noble Savage.
@@AnjiThornton, well what I was mostly thinking was about their dependence and closeness to nature, being very aware of how everything is interconnected and pretty much everything happens in cycles. And of course they have awareness of vengeance if they have stories about it. Stories have been passed down in every culture about the slippery slope of vengeance, and cutting losses (well-being and otherwise) with forgiveness.
@@augusthavince8909 sort of. I can definitely say my Norwegian grandmother spoke quite highly of vengeance and tended to be quite devious getting hers. From talking with Cheyenne and Crow nation members they still haven't forgiven the Lakota for taking the Black Hills
26:42 The Navajo also believe a person cannot die within their hogans or else the ghost or chindi, which is not friendly, will remain in the home. Therefore they abandon it. Interesting connection. 🌅
I must say, your work and your collaboration with crowhag convinced me to actually putting into action my fantasies of explaining people pre christian survivals and folklore in the italian peninsula (and related areas) so...
Who knows if all works well perhaps it will become reality...
From what I understand, Inuits consider “Eskimo” a pejorative exonym.
The didn’t come up with that name, other groups did as a way to look down on them.
Excellent!!!
Thank you.
I love your channel!
It would be really interesting if you made a video about Crom Cruach/Crom Dubh.
God damn these myths are 🔥
How are you certain that the dreamstate is just 'housekeeping'?
Another fascinating video, thank you!
I was interested in the idea that flesh shoukd be removed from a body as quickly as possible.
There are many Stone Age human bones that have cut marks on them. Sonetines, these are interpreted as evidence of cannibalism, which may well be true as some have evidence of bone marrow removal. However, many could equally be evidence of de-fleshing.
Also, some neolithic sites have areas in front of tombs which are enclosed spaces that may have been used for ex-carnation.
It makes one wonder if the desire for flesh removal was similar to the Inuit's 'freeing of the soul.'
Additionally, at the site made famous as 'The Tomb of the Eagles' there were numerous sea eagle skulls amongst the human remains. If there was a sense of equality with at least some animals that would potentially provide an explanation for theur burial along with humans.
I agree, we don't know why the flesh was taken in the neolithic and paleolithic sites, but I think this suggestion must have some value.
@@Crecganford Thanks! I appreciate the reply. 🙂
I’d be keen on more Sumer stuff
The Inuit sun and moon story is very similar to one found among the Australian Aboriginal peoples.
Yesss yhi and bahoo yhi chasing the moon😂
I enjoy all your content, and I am especially intrigued by this and your Cosmic Hunt vids where you explore the migration of stories through the human diaspora going as far back as we can, with reasonable assurance. I would love to see you explore these stories metamorphoses and/or sources as far back as some of our less-successful human cousins, assuming there is some empirical evidence off which to go. I know there are extant Neanderthal records out there, but I am particularly interested in the groups that migrated Eastward and made it to the Americas. Also, I'm sure there are thousands of versions of these myths and legends which are lost with clans and groups that died out, but is there any (albeit unofficial) evidence of these lost threads that anyone is looking into? Thanks so much for your work.
This is something a number of academics in this field would love to do, but to get the data, and prove, with some certainty, that the story is from another group of homonyms originally is incredibly challenging. Still, we will persevere, just in case we get lucky.
@@Crecganford Hate that darned autocorrect!
Please do !
The Algonquin were neighbors.....and something that sounded like "Eskimo" was *their* word for the folks who call themselves Inuit. The Europeans met Algonquin speakers first, and so called the Inuit "Eskimos" from their neighbors' name for them--- not the name they called themselves. Like Germany vs Deustchland.
I suspect you may love looking into the Salish people from the Pacific Northwest.
Thank you for educating us on Inuit traditions.
I would like to inform you that there are 5 minutes of dead air after your video was complete.
Thank you, I also just noticed that and RUclips should have fixed it in the next hour or so.
You're inspiring me to reread Lands of Ice and Mice...
Thanks. I wonder if there is mention of 5h3 previous inhabitants in their tales?
My favorite story from a book called red swan a collection of American indigenous stories, about why the bear walks the way they do, I need that book I got it from the school library a long time ago and I remember that and other stories especially about the coyote the trickster .
I'll have a look for that, thank you for sharing.
Please do more Inuit and other ancient american peoples! Taíno or Caribs are my vote!
@Crecganford Thanks for taking up the inuit mythology! One of my favourite topics, also as an artist from Greenland. May I suggest the researcher I know the best, and THE capacity from Denmark: Prof. Em. Birgitte Sonne, from Copenhagen University. The works of her is highly recommendable, and she has a more than lifelong love for Inuit mythology and world view.
May I also suggest that you take a look on some of my old videos with my artistic interpretations of the very same inuit mytholgy from Greenland.
I know this wasn't the intent behind the story about the giants, but I couldn't help hearing the first "fat mama" joke. "Your mama so fat, it takes two caribou skins just to make her boots!"
if you are going on a North American Natives exploration, i would love to see - and very curious about - what you'd dig up about the Iroquois confederation nations. Their social and political structure is very interesting, so i would guess their mythology might be as fascinating.
i must add, as a canadian, this is more information and knowledge about one of our first nation's mythology than i was ever taught in school. thank you so much for this.
31:38 where's the link to the story? Can't find it 😅
Yes, I will love more videos about peoples I'm the Americas
Fascinating! Is there much of an overlap with the myths of the peoples of the North-East of Siberia?
Always fantastic videos-thank you! Im interested in the fact that the Hopi had 9 relms(universe's)and so did the vikings. With 9 being an ancient sacred number-is there a connection anywhere i might have missed?
Good choice of topic. One rarely told. How about the Alutes? I think they were coming from Kamchatka area.🔥 Another is the Selk Nam.
Yes, I want to really dive into these cultures more, I find them so interesting.
Creatures made from the severed fingers seems to be a motif. It also appears in contemporary fantasy writing e.g. shadow and bone.
First
Also, love the series
May I suggest looking up The Sleeping Giant in what is now Thunder Bay, Ontario? Would love to hear what you have to say about the stories surrounding him!
The consistency across from Neolithic to early farming societies seems to track with the dual notions of "ownership" which reaches from the blubber in one's larder to a more virtual concept of responsibility for public works.
Good talk
I know a nice topical book
"Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy" by Mircea Eliade.
His book on Shamanism is very good, and I'm a big fan of one of his pupils, Lincoln.
me, rocks, animals share the same maker. its a very eye opening point of view. so thanks for trying. good job.
If, like you said, to the inuit, killing a human was just like killing a rat or any other animal... and these were the "I ♧ seals" people, hard-core hunters... and they're relatively recent arrivals from Asia who "displaced" the native cultures in a very similar way to what the Europeans did (almost completely, using superior technology to reduce them to a few remnants on small areas of bad land)... and in their own version of the Abraham & Isaac story, the father repeatedly actually tries to kill the kid, like he's got rooster-brain, yet she survives despite him, and grows up to be an angry whiner... some interesting stories, that's for sure. You can't ask if we want MORE native american stories, because we haven't had any. We've had inuit stories, and that's different from algonquin stories, as other people have pointed out. There are many distinct indigenous populations here, and inuit is the most different from all of them.
Algonquin is probably the largest indigenous language group in North America, but there are many in the Americas, and then hundreds of languages within those. Some of them, you wonder how they got there - maybe there are remnants of an even older population that was displaced.
Sadly, norther Canada is going to look a lot different to the kids of today's kids. They'll find mineral and even archeological resources as the snows recede, especially in Greenland.
yes more of this please, and perhaps maybe why stories of giants seem to be ubiquitous among peoples in the arctic circle. Is there a connection between the viking giants and the stories of giants in the Inuit? There must have been contact in Greenland for example, pre-Colombus...I can't imagine a sea faring people that would settle places like Iceland would have been unaware of native cultures in the arctic
Purely speculation on my part, but I'd bet it is a human reaction to whales. Enormous beings that exist in a realm separated from the ordinary life of humanity
ive heard another version of the sedna story
As a child i was told the tale of the old hunter that woke one winter morning - his family was gone! His party packed everything - abandoning two old sled dogs too.
Not ready to die - yet - the creative old man ' dumps' his last meal...fashions his own 'waste' into a shape object - let it freeze !
After He killed & fed himself & the remain dog...he makes a harness & sleigh ... Using the sacrificed dogs inners as leash & line !
By morning - his family welcome back within their igloo & he told his tale by the fire in new dog fur coat !🇨🇦
all pre-chritian folk lore and mythology, is deemed golden knowledge!
since it's part of our history as humans.. of course until the crusaders ruined everything and forced everyone to copy their own stuff.. keeping this kind of history is a noble work!
Wow, that is an...interesting approach to parenting! 😮