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Author
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Comment
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JenCrouse
Registered User
(6/28/04 11:06 pm)
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Eskimo Fairy Tales
I have read a few Eskimo fairy tales, and I am perplexed about their
construction. They seem so blunt, lacking the imagination and complexity(?)
that is prevalent in so many tales from other lands. I read two
the other day written by Iraahuruk included in a book called "Alaska
Stories, Tales from the Last Frontier". It was a very unsatisfying
read. So choppy and abrupt. I've read some of these stories before
from other sources and they all share that similarity. Has anyone
else noticed this? Why are their stories so dissimilar from other
cultures?
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Amal
Registered User
(6/29/04 7:46 am)
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Translation?
Could it be a matter of poor translation? Or could the stories have been oral folktales transcribed, as opposed to composed by an author? I'm not very well-versed in stories from that culture, but I do know a couple, and they never struck me as being in any way flawed -- though I'm not certain of how one could judge that from one culture to another. How far should one go in ascribing literary merit to folktales, especially if the editor is trying to remain as faithful as possible to an oral source or tradition?
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(6/29/04 7:48 am)
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Re: Eskimo Fairy Tales
I've never found Inuit tales to be lacking in imagination or complexity. Have you read "Kakuarshuk," about how long ago women got children by digging them out of the earth, and one woman could find no children at all, no matter how hard she dug? She ends up digging to the other side of the earth where everything is reversed and babies take care of adults. Also, "The Woman who Married her Son's Wife," "Tuglik and her Granddaughter," and "Old Age." These tales seem to me to shorter than other tales I've read, but I don't know enough about Inuit tradition to say why. Did the oral transmission of tales last longer among the Inuit than in Western Europe? That might explain why the tales are shorter. I've always liked the bluntness of them--it's a good reminder of what folklore is about: sex and death.
I wouldn't say that Inuit tales are "dissimilar from all other cultures." I've read other short, blunt tales. But I wouldn't say that the ones I've read are lacking in imagination and complexity.
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Amal
Registered User
(6/29/04 7:55 am)
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Sedna
I really like the story of Sedna, too. Vengeful sea-goddesses of the world, unite!
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Nalo
Registered User
(6/29/04 8:00 am)
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Re: Eskimo Fairy Tales
I don't know much about the folklore of the northern Aboriginal
peoples, but I looked up the tales you mention. They were ancient
stories, not *written* by Iraahuruk and Pulungun, but retold by
them, as is usually the case with folk tales. The tales were translated
by two translators, then collected by Edwin and Leona Hall, who
appear to have also described the cultural context as thoroughly
as they could: www.indiana.edu/~jofr/book/hall.html
I can't comment on the tales themselves, since I haven't read them. But the process by which they were collected, as thorough and thoughtful as it seems to have been, still means that what we see is two iterations removed from the storyteller; it's a text-based transliteration of a translation of an oral text, and it's an attempt to translate that text from one culture into another. A difference in cultural context alone can render a story unintelligible to someone who's not from the original culture. (I'm not at all faulting the collectors for their methodology. I'm just trying to identify some of the challenges they were up against.)
I went looking online for folktales retold by contemporary Inuit
and Eskimo people. I figured they might be the best placed to accomplish
a cross-cultural--and cross-temporal, come to think of it--translation
of this sort. I found two retellings online, in a newspaper out
of Nunavut, Canada's newest territory, which is largely Inuit. The
tellings are by Rachel Attituq Qitsualik. Here's the article: www.nunatsiaq.com/archive...30_14.html
One of the things I noticed about the two stories is that they segue, one into the other. The first story is deliberately left feeling a little incomplete so that the audience demands to hear what happened next. Seems like a good technique for hooking your audience. Yet when the storyteller wants to stop, he simply says he can't remember any more. Leaving your audience wanting more is good, too; it means they'll come back for another.
Another thing I found online is a piece about Inuit habits of verbal
brevity. I don't know how accurate the piece is, but it's here:
www.treff-raum-espaciotim...achel.html
So it may be that the stories deliberately pack a lot of meaning into few words, and we who don't get the cultural context are losing a lot of the meaning.
BTW, Rachel Attituq Qitsualik also has a piece about the use of
"Inuit" versus "Eskimo:" indiancountry.com/?1076511949
She's also written a lot of articles about Inuit culture for Indian
Country Today. Among them are folk tales: indiancountry.com/?author=25
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rosyelf
(6/29/04 2:22 pm)
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eskimo tales
I agree with Veronica-the brevity of these tales(and any others, from anywhere) keeps us with the basics, sex and death. I like that. Perhaps it's because we live in a culture full of verbosity, whether it's politicians, newspapers, T.V. or the Internet. I'm reminded of a wonderful quote I came across a while back(can't remember the source, but I think it was a poet) : Say what you need to say, then shut up.
This thread has got me to do what I've been intending to do for
some time: order a copy of A
KAYAK FULL OF GHOSTS. These are Eskimo tales from Greenland.
By the way, on the subject of" Eskimo" versus" Inuit",
I understand that while "Eskimo" is not ideal, neither
is "Inuit", as that refers to only one particular tribe.
"Northern Aboriginal peoples" is correct but cumbersome.
Can't think of anything else which would quite do. Compromise time
?
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Amal
Registered User
(6/29/04 3:37 pm)
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Inuit vs. Eskimo
Nalo, I tried to read the article that explains the difference between the two, but it takes me to a front page requesting a zip code, and I wasn't sure where to go from there (especially as I don't have a zip code, and it wouldn't take a postal code). I tried keyword-searching the author's name but didn't turn anything up... Could you possibly post the difference, if it isn't too complex?
I'd always been taught that Inuit meant "man" or "person" in Inuktutuk (sp?), whereas "Eskimo" referred to one particular tribe. Is that it?
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Nalo
Registered User
(6/30/04 6:41 am)
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Re: Inuit vs. Eskimo
Amal, I don't trust myself to summarize it accurately, and I don't want to post large sections from the author's article. I don't have a zip code either, but I invented one, and the programme seemed happy with that.
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Amal
Registered User
(6/30/04 1:57 pm)
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Most sheepish
...Well, that worked, and the fraudulent-zipcode police haven't come a-knocking yet, so I guess I'm safe.
It's a very interesting article... And very sobering, to learn that what I thought was the little-known truth was in fact wrong. It sucks that we're taught these things in highschool, though.
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JenCrouse
Registered User
(6/30/04 3:27 pm)
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Inuit vs. Eskimo
I wasn't sure which one was the most politically correct - so I used Eskimo rather than Inuit since that was used in the book.
I appreciate all the feedback and I take back my comment about imaginitive and complex - after reading some of the other tales I am happy to admit being wrong!
I do think that something special is possibly being lost in poor translation.
I don't agree that a story should be about just saying what you have to say and shut up. It is a story, after all... shouldn't there be some time taken in the telling? In the details? In an oral tradition of storytelling the storyteller can leave openings for questions that lead to other stories for the listener. But what about the reader? We don't get to ask questions or clarify detail, so doesn't that make the writer responsible to give us answers to probable questions? I'm not expecting (or wanting) James Michener, but even just a few more adjectives would be nice.
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(6/30/04 8:30 pm)
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Eskimo vs. Inuit
The designation "Eskimo" is from an Algonquin word meaning something like "eaters of raw flesh," which is I suppose true but hardly complimentary. And then there's the issue of being identified in a language not your own. However, "Eskimo" gets used because it does refer to Northern Aboriginal people in general, whereas Inuit is the name of a particular tribe. Something like the situation with "Indian": I learned at some point that this was not P.C. and it should at all occasions be replaced by Native American, so I was somewhat surprised to be told, in an anthropology class last semester, that different tribes naturally had different opinions on it. Some peoples prefer Native American, others Indian. And when you think about it, both are fairly inadequate. Any time you give a group of people a name other than the one they've already given themselves, you're on tricky political footing.
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rosyelf
(7/3/04 12:24 pm)
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eskimo tales
Jen, I realize I didn't explain myself very well there. When I said I appreciated brevity, the basics of a tale, I should certainly have qualified it by saying "sometimes." It depends on mood, I suppose. Of course, in some tales, the embellishments, the little details are in themselves necessary, if not entirely to the plot, then at least to a real enjoyment of the tale. I suppose, to sum up, I had in mind some of the literary French tales which start off just fine, become-or are-elaborate in language and imagery,etc. . .and then seem to go off at a tangent, even to the extent of telling another tale within the original one, not necessarily as a direct contrast but because, it appears, the writer feels like it. Of course, the writers/tellers of literary tales in C17th France were entertaining an audience who not only appreciated wit but also, crucially, had a lot of time on their hands in which to listen to stories. In that sense, the going-off-at-a-tangent-telling-a-new-tale is entirely appropriate. I do however find them a bit tedious! To use a poetry analogy, I enjoy and appreciate long poems and sequences of poems but sometimes a haiku is just the thing.
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JenCrouse
Registered User
(7/3/04 4:28 pm)
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Re: eskimo tales
I definitely agree that there are times when the writers drag on so long you just want to slap them and say "GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!" (Robert Jordan springs to mind first). To talk to me, you would learn that I speak quickly and to the point - not a lot of rhetoric here! My personal preferences would be the sonnet to the haiku, and the novella to the short story, but I understand that there is a time and place for everything.
Speaking of haikus, I recently heard a couple of funny ones written by local students about their teachers, homework and summer vacation. Do you know of any funny collections of haikus that I could get for my oldest daughter (age 10)?
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Yukihada
Registered User
(7/7/04 7:42 am)
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Haida
Are you also looking for Haida myths as well?? I have a fantastic
small and I think very eloquent book called Raven
Steals the Light from Shambhala Press...really fantastic and
most certainly I think lyrical in its way.
I'm also quite confused as to the note about Eskimo/Inuit/Northern native tribes being to brief in their tales, I've found most translations/transcriptions of the Native American tales to be yes brief but having this turn of phrase that has that sucker-punch to it...potent and not wasteful with words at all...being of the rambling sort I admire such skills at storytelling that are economic with words...each word is so precisely placed...
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