Week 11 Extra Reading

For extra reading this week, I read stories from the Eskimo unit. I had read Inuit stories, which I really enjoyed, and I wanted to learn more about myths from the region. My favorite story was one called "The Wife Who Lied."

Notes:

• Navaranapulak was a woman who came from a tribe of man-eaters, and was married into a tribe without man-eaters
• She returned to her home village with mittens on her feet to make it look like her husband had mutilated her
• Her home tribe was mad, and agreed to declare war against the new tribe
• As the tribe circled the new tribe, a woman had a strange dream that they were being attacked
• As the attack actually commenced, she was happy, but then two men dragged her away
• They cut off her arms, and she was left to die for lying.

I thought this story was especially interesting because it was a very callous way of teaching a moral. There were elements of "Boy Who Cried Wolf" to the story, and it is interesting to see how different cultures tell similar morals differently.

Ekimo mode of transportation

This story is part of the Eskimo Folk Tales unit. Story source: Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).