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Margarita Spirida. Amerikas indiâòu mîti
“Windigos arose in the deep forests in the dead of winter; they stood 20
to 30 feet tall; their lipless mouths contained great jagged teeth; their
eyes rolled in blood; and their footsteps in the snow were soaked with
blood… They were friendless, enemies to each other as well as to man” 10
249
As all the mythologies of aboriginal culture this legend wasn’t invented out of
the blue. It was triggered by the continual difficulties of existence, viz. starvation
which by and large was a quite frequently occurring phenomenon. In general, Indians
didn’t take to cannibalism in such a situation, however, for some of their fellow–men
it was a resolution. Considering the fact that cultural realities are telling precursors
and instrumentalities to form social mechanisms and mediate psychological structures
one can refer Windigo psychosis to culturally – bound disorders.
Mental disturbances point to the specific kinds of value conflicts in a society as
culture nourishes certain stress systems and encourages definite ways of emotional
expression and response. And all that finds its reflection in the mobile of mythological
worlds.
It is obvious that mythologies being a mobile non–actualizable in the factual
world belong to a different sphere of rational and irrational altogether therefore the
possibility of reasonable rendering of mechanisms and instrumentalities within mythological
structures is out of question. The core interest lies in the adopted conventions
to scrutinize one’s spiritual search, to invent answers.
It may be worth half a word to mention that when reality of a possible world is a
matter of belief–system, there is little point in trying to draw a borderline to split the
whole of binary oppositions sanity / insanity, rational / irrational, supernatural / natural
and to distinguish the “truth” of every possible world within mythologies as each
is true within a particular paradigm.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.The British Museum Encyclopaedia of Native North America, Rayna Green with Melanic
Fernander, British Museum Press, 1999.
2.America’s Fascinating Indian Heritage. The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 1984.
3.American Indians, ed. Keith Cunningham, Wordsworth Ed. Ltd, FLS Books, 2001.
4.Native American Myths and Legends, ed. Colin F.Taylor, Cavendish Books Vancouver, 1994.
5.Native North American Art. Janet C. Berlo and Reith B. Phillips, Oxford University Press,
1998.
6.North American Indians, ed. Lewis Spence, Senate, 1996.
7.On the Plurality of Worlds, Lewis, David, Basil Blackwell, 1986.
8.Shaman. The wounded healer, Joan Halifax, Thames and Hudson, 1997.
9.Tales of Native America. Edward W. Huffstetler Metro Books, 1996.
10. Piper D. The Illustrated History of Art. – NY: Crescent Books, 1995.