Week 11 Reading - Alaskan Legends B
Today, we continue with the legends of the native people of Alaska, the Inuit people. Once again, they provide a long series of extremely unique stories that differ strongly in content and even moral from many of the common stories in American peoples, but with a tone and motifs very similar to their continental counterparts.
The first story that stuck out to me in the context of writing was "The Land of the Dead". I hope to be able to explore, at the end of my storybook and perhaps in my weekly writing, the idea of a place after death and the people who guide you there. Right off the bat, this story hits with an interesting concept - being a shade of yourself in the very world you lived. It quickly turns around to show the various punishments being inflicted on people, such as taking the place of a beaten dog or being stuck in the grass for chewing stems. Eventually, she finds herself at the village of the dead, surrounded by the gifts of her people and her ancestors. She learns that her original guide to the world of the dead, her grandfather, was selected because of his being the last person the girl thought of before death. This sort of explanation of the world beyond death has an obvious connotation to the culture of the people - explaining what happens to the dead is integral to any culture, and especially examining the punishments afforded to those after death is a way of ensuring that certain behaviors as discouraged amongst the growing youth hearing these stories.
Overall, the tales of Alaska were incredible to experience. Like every week, getting to hear the intimate stories of another culture is awesome, and the way these compared against last week's stories made for a way to better understand the native peoples of all across America.
Bibliography: Alaskan Legends, Untextbook
The first story that stuck out to me in the context of writing was "The Land of the Dead". I hope to be able to explore, at the end of my storybook and perhaps in my weekly writing, the idea of a place after death and the people who guide you there. Right off the bat, this story hits with an interesting concept - being a shade of yourself in the very world you lived. It quickly turns around to show the various punishments being inflicted on people, such as taking the place of a beaten dog or being stuck in the grass for chewing stems. Eventually, she finds herself at the village of the dead, surrounded by the gifts of her people and her ancestors. She learns that her original guide to the world of the dead, her grandfather, was selected because of his being the last person the girl thought of before death. This sort of explanation of the world beyond death has an obvious connotation to the culture of the people - explaining what happens to the dead is integral to any culture, and especially examining the punishments afforded to those after death is a way of ensuring that certain behaviors as discouraged amongst the growing youth hearing these stories.
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| Plain of the Dead (Sea) |
Overall, the tales of Alaska were incredible to experience. Like every week, getting to hear the intimate stories of another culture is awesome, and the way these compared against last week's stories made for a way to better understand the native peoples of all across America.
Bibliography: Alaskan Legends, Untextbook
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