Native American Folktales

This week, we read a number of folktales from various Native American cultures. As with many of the less familiar tales that we have read in this class, I did find it interesting that many of the basic motifs of these tales were quite similar to many of the other ones that we've read. That being said, however, there were also some features of the Native America tales that made them unique when compared to, for example, some of the more familiar European ones that we've read.

Related imageFor one thing, Native American cultures seem to include many more examples of stories intended to explain certain natural phenomena than European ones do. Among the stories we read, for example, were the stories of how mosquitos came to be, how two particular stars were created, and how men and women first "got together." The Native Americans stories also seemed to put a much greater emphasis on the importance of community. In the story of "Deer Hunter and White Corn Maiden," for example, the two main characters fall in love (which is seen as good thing), but end up wanting to spend all their time together. The result is that they neglect their duties to the community and are punished by being turned into the two stars mentioned above.

While these two themes were certainly less common in the European folktales we read, they were also pretty common in the Kenyan folktales told to us by Dr. K'Olewe, something I found to be very interesting.


Picture Credit
https://www.indiantime.net/story/2018/01/04/culture/another-flying-head-story/26657.html

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