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122-420: Wendigo ( / ˈ w ɛ n d ɪ ɡ oʊ / ) is a mythological creature or evil spirit originating from Algonquian folklore. The concept of the wendigo has been widely used in literature and other works of art, such as social commentary and horror fiction . The wendigo is often said to be a malevolent spirit, sometimes depicted as a creature with human-like characteristics, which possesses human beings. It

244-519: A culture-specific disorder , describing it as "Rare, historic accounts of cannibalistic obsession... Symptoms included depression, homicidal or suicidal thoughts, and a delusional, compulsive wish to eat human flesh... Some controversial new studies question the syndrome's legitimacy, claiming cases were actually a product of hostile accusations invented to justify the victim's ostracism or execution." Some metal, vitamin, and oligoelements deficiencies are linked to psychosis-like conditions, Wendigo could be

366-671: A grimoire , which gives the names and abilities of demons as well as detailed instructions for conjuring and controlling them. Grimoires are not limited to demons – some give instructions for the invocation of deity, a process called theurgy . The use of ceremonial magic to call demons is also known as goetia , a word derived from the Greek word " goes ", which originally denoted diviners , magicians , healers, and seers . The Age of Enlightenment conceptualizes humans as autonomous individuals , mostly independent from outer invisible forces, such as demons or gods ruling over human fate. While in

488-464: A satirical ceremonial dance is sometimes performed during times of famine to reinforce the seriousness of the wendigo taboo . The ceremony, known as wiindigookaanzhimowin , was performed during times of famine, and involved wearing masks and dancing backward around a drum. The last known wendigo ceremony conducted in the United States was at Lake Windigo of Star Island of Cass Lake , within

610-825: A bad smell in the air or sudden change in temperature would announce their presence. Similar to the Quranic prophet Solomon enslaving the jinn and devils, the Persian hero Jamshid is attributed with subjugating the Dīv . However, a general negative association remains during the Islamic period. Due to their reluctant nature, even enslaved, they do always the opposite of what has been commanded. In some tales, supernatural powers are attributed to them, such as causing sickness, mental illnesses, or even turn humans to stone. Demons are believed to be vanquished by sacred symbols. The content of

732-577: A cannibal. Wendigo psychosis is described as a culture-bound syndrome . In some First Nations communities, symptoms such as insatiable greed and destruction of the environment are also thought to be symptoms of wendigo psychosis. The word appears in many Native American languages, and has many alternative translations. The source of the English word is the Ojibwe word wiindigoo . In the Cree language it

854-480: A character who articulates that expansion brings displacement and destruction as side effects, explaining that "manifest destiny" and "western expansion" will bring "thousands of gold-hungry Americans... over the mountains in search of new lives... This country is seeking to be whole... Stretching out its arms... and consuming all it can. And we merely follow". As a concept, wendigo can apply to situations other than some Native American-European relations. It can serve as

976-403: A cluster of supernatural beings, such as daimons, spirits, and devils, affecting the mind. While some people fear demons, or attempt to exorcise them, others willfully attempt to summon them for knowledge, assistance, or power. William of Conches ( c.  1090/1091  – c.  1155/1170s ) understands 'demon' closer to the Greek 'daimon', reserving the concept of the "devil" only for

1098-601: A consequence of the rise of influence of the Babylonian Talmud over that of the Jerusalem Talmud, late rabbis, in general, took as fact the existence of shedim , nor did most of the medieval thinkers question their reality. However, rationalists like Maimonides and Saadia Gaon and others explicitly denied their existence, and completely rejected concepts of demons, evil spirits, negative spiritual influences, attaching and possessing spirits. They thought

1220-503: A cost of $ 3,200. The population of the new settlement was calculated in 1858 to be 201 persons, and its inhabitants' annual revenue from land purchases was $ 1894.21. Notwithstanding this income, a government report of 1858 commented on the "lamentable" conditions of life among the Chippewas of Rama, observing that, owing to government neglect, "the log houses built for them ... being badly constructed, are all going to decay", that farming

1342-460: A demon is believed to be a spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled. Belief in demons remains an important part of many modern religions and occult traditions. Demons are still feared largely due to their alleged power to possess living creatures. In contemporary Western esoteric traditions, demons may be used as metaphors for inner psychological processes ("inner demons"). The Ancient Greek word δαίμων ( daimōn ) denotes

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1464-484: A description of a wendigo: The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody ... Unclean and suffering from suppuration of

1586-839: A dit, d'vn mal qui nous est inconnu, mais qui n'est pas bien extraordinaire parmy les peuples que nous cherchons : ils ne sont ny lunatiques, ny hypocondriaques, ny phrenetiques; mais ils ont vn mélange de toutes ces sortes de maladies, qui, leur blessant l'imagination, leur cause vne faim plus que canine, et les rend si affamez de chair humaine, qu'ils se iettent sur les femmes, sur les enfans, mesme sur les hommes, comme de vrais loups-garous, et les deuorent à belles dents, sans se pouuoir rassasier ny saouler, cherchans tousiours nouuelle proye, et plus auidement que plus ils en ont mangé. C'est la maladie dont ces députez furent atteints; et comme la mort est l'vnique remede parmy ces bonnes gens, pour arrester ces meurtres, ils ont esté massacrez pour arrester le cours de leur manie. What caused us greater concern

1708-651: A factual historical phenomenon. The frequency of wendigo psychosis cases decreased sharply in the 20th century as Boreal Algonquian people came into greater and greater contact with European ideologies and more sedentary, less rural, lifestyles. In his 2004 treatise Revenge of the Windigo on disorders and treatments of the behavioral health industry in the United States and Canada that are peculiar to indigenous people , James B. Waldram wrote, ...no actual cases of windigo psychosis have ever been studied, and Lou Marano 's scathing critique in 1985 should have killed off

1830-472: A folk elaboration of some near-starvation mental disorders. In addition to denoting a cannibalistic monster from certain traditional folklore, some Native Americans also understand the wendigo conceptually. As a concept, the wendigo can apply to any person, idea, or movement infected by a corrosive drive toward self-aggrandizing greed and excessive consumption, traits that sow disharmony and destruction if left unchecked. Ojibwe scholar Brady DeSanti asserts that

1952-401: A hotly debated controversy in the 1980s over the historicity of this phenomenon. Some researchers argued that, essentially, Wendigo psychosis was a fabrication, the result of naïve anthropologists taking stories related to them at face value without observation. Others have pointed to a number of credible eyewitness accounts, both by Algonquians and others, as evidence that wendigo psychosis was

2074-539: A knife and he'd cut the boy on the hand to see if he was fat enough to eat, but the boy didn't get fat. They travelled too much. One day they came to an Indian village and the Windigo sent the boy to the Indian village to get some things for him to eat. He just gave the boy so much time to go there and back. The boy told the Indians that the Windigo was near them, and showed them his hand where the Windigo cut him to see if he

2196-466: A large Treaty area comprising Treaty 18, 16, 5, 20, 27, 27 1/4, Crawford Purchase and the Gunshot Treaty. Rama sits on approximately 2,350 acres (951 ha) of land on eight separate parcels. It was once known as Mnjikaning and Rama Mnjikaning but after a community referendum has since re-assumed the name of Chippewas of Rama First Nation. There are 1600 members with approximately 700 living on

2318-435: A metaphor explaining any pattern of domination by which groups subjugate and dominate or violently destroy and displace. Joe Lockhard, English professor at Arizona State University, argues that wendigos are agents of "social cannibalism" who know "no provincial or national borders; all human cultures have been visited by shape-shifting wendigos. Their visitations speak to the inseparability of human experience... National identity

2440-503: A metaphorical symbol for life-threatening animals, such as hyenas , ostrichs , and jackals . The shedim , however, are not pagan demigods, but the foreign gods themselves. They are evil insofar that they are not affiliated with the Jewish deity. These entities appear in a scriptural context of animal or child sacrifice to non-existent false gods . Various diseases and ailments were ascribed to demons, particularly those affecting

2562-649: A pointed, decaying yellow tongue. These works set the template for later portrayals in popular culture, at times even replacing the Native American lore. In an early short story by Thomas Pynchon , "Mortality and Mercy in Vienna" (first published in 1959), the plot centers around a character developing Wendigo syndrome and going on a killing spree. In 1973 a character inspired by the wendigo appeared in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . Created by

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2684-471: A principal Devil (e.g. Satan) locked in an eternal struggle with God, demons are often also thought to be subordinates of the principal Devil. As lesser spirits doing the Devil's work, they have additional duties— causing humans to have sinful thoughts and tempting humans to commit sinful actions. The original Ancient Greek word daimōn ( δαίμων ) did not carry negative connotations, as it denotes

2806-464: A result, in 1907, Fiddler and his brother Joseph were arrested by the Canadian authorities for homicide. Jack committed suicide, but Joseph was tried and sentenced to life in prison. He ultimately was granted a pardon but died three days later in jail before receiving the news of this pardon. Fascination with wendigo psychosis among Western ethnographers , psychologists , and anthropologists led to

2928-558: A specific place; their demonic activity is topographically defined and their function can be benevolent towards those who have the secret knowledge to face them. Demons protecting the underworld may prevent human souls from entering paradise. Only by knowing the right charms is the deceased able to enter the Halls of Osiris . Here, the aggressive nature of the guardian demons is motivated by the need to protect their abodes and not by their evil essence. Accordingly, demons guarded sacred places or

3050-495: A spirit or divine power, much like the Latin genius or numen . Daimōn most likely came from the Greek verb daiesthai ("to divide" or "distribute"). The Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the philosophical works of Plato , where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates . The original Greek word daimōn does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of

3172-615: A spirit or divine power. The Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the philosophical works of Plato , where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates . In Christianity, morally ambivalent daimōn were replaced by demons, forces of evil only striving for corruption. Such demons are not the Greek intermediary spirits, but hostile entities, already known in Iranian beliefs. In Western esotericism and Renaissance magic , which grew out of an amalgamation of Greco-Roman magic , Jewish Aggadah , and Christian demonology,

3294-400: A torch but could not be seen". Chinese folktale, legend and literature are replete with malevolent supernatural creatures who are often rendered "demons" in English translations. These include categories of beings such as the yao 妖 - shapeshifters with the power to cause insanity, to inflict poison, and to bring about disease, and the mo 魔 - derived from Indian mythology and entering through

3416-413: Is wīhtikow , also transliterated wetiko . Other transliterations include Wiindigoo , Weendigo , Windego , Wiindgoo , Windgo , Windago , Windiga , Wendego , Windagoo , Widjigo , Wiijigoo , Wijigo , Weejigo , Wìdjigò , Wintigo , Wentigo , Wehndigo , Wentiko , Windgoe , Wītikō , and Wintsigo . A plural form windigoag

3538-687: Is Chief Rodney Noganosh and Councillors Ronald Douglas, Ted Williams, Tracey Snache, Nemke Quarrington, and Gina Genno. A by-election held in January 2015 elected a sixth councillor, Ted Snache. The First Nation is a member of Ogemawahj Tribal Council , a regional Chiefs' council, and in June 2016 rejoined the Union of Ontario Indians /Anishinabek Nation. Rama is also a part of the Chippewa Tri-Council which consists of Beausoleil First Nation and

3660-544: Is also spelled windegoag , wiindigooag , or windikouk . The Proto-Algonquian term has been reconstructed as * wi·nteko·wa , which may have meant " owl ". The Wechuge is a similar being that appears in the legends of the Athabaskan people of the Northwest Pacific Coast . It too is cannibalistic; however, it is characterized as enlightened with ancestral insights. The wendigo

3782-619: Is an Anishinaabe ( Ojibway ) First Nation located in the province of Ontario in Canada . The name Mnjikaning , or fully vocalized as Minjikaning , refers to the fishing weirs at Atherley Narrows between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching and it means "in/on/at or near the fence". Rama is one of the Williams Treaties First Nations which consists of Rama, Beausoleil, Georgina Island, Scugog Island, Curve Lake, Hiawatha and Alderville. Together these Nations have

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3904-640: Is geographically located within the Township of Ramara , but functions separately. Rama First Nation is also home to 195,000-square-foot (18,100 m ) Casino Rama and Entertainment Complex. The people are descendants of the Chippewas of Lakes Huron and Simcoe (19th century) and were part of the Coldwater (1836) experiment before settling on the eastern shores of Lake Couchiching. While the ancestors used clan markings/drawings for signatures, original family names were replaced with English names. Arriving to

4026-564: Is irrelevant to this borderless horror." Lockhard's ideas explain that wendigos are an expression of a dark aspect of human nature: the drive toward greed, consumption, and disregard for other life in the pursuit of self-aggrandizement. Romantic scholar and documentarian Emily Zarka , also a professor at Arizona State University, observes that two commonalities among the indigenous cultures of Algonquian language family speakers are that they are situated in climes where harsh winters are frequent and may be accompanied by starvation. She states that

4148-525: Is not clear from his work, if he considered these images of se'irim as manifestations of actual spirits or merely delusions. Despite academic consensus, Rabbis disputed that Maimonides denied the existence of demons entirely. He would only dispute the existence of demons in his own life time, but not that demons had existed once. Occasionally an angel is called satan in the Babylon Talmud. But satans do not refer to demons as they remain at

4270-651: Is part of the traditional belief system of a number of Algonquin-speaking peoples, including the Ojibwe , the Saulteaux , the Cree , the Naskapi , and the Innu . Although descriptions can vary somewhat, common to all these cultures is the view that the wendigo is a malevolent , cannibalistic , supernatural being. They were strongly associated with winter, the north, coldness, famine , and starvation. Basil H. Johnston , an Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario , gives

4392-464: Is said to cause its victims a feeling of insatiable hunger , the desire to eat other humans , and the propensity to commit murder. In some representations, the wendigo is described as a giant humanoid with a heart of ice, whose approach is signaled by a foul stench or sudden unseasonable chill. In modern psychiatry , the disorder known as "Wendigo psychosis " is characterized by symptoms such as an intense craving for human flesh and fear of becoming

4514-465: Is the Bunyip , which was originally a term applied to malevolent spirits in general. Tasmanian mythology in particular has many beings translated as "devils"; these include malicious spirits like Rageowrapper as well as spirits summoned in magic. Tasmanian Aboriginal people would describe these entities as "devils" and related that these spiritual beings as walking alongside Aboriginal people "carrying

4636-573: The Koine δαιμόνιον ( daimonion ), and later ascribed to any cognate words sharing the root. The Greek terms do not have any connotations of evil or malevolence. By the early centuries of the Roman Empire , cult statues were seen, by Pagans and their Christian neighbors alike, as inhabited by the numinous presence of the Greco-Roman gods : "Like pagans, Christians still sensed and saw

4758-777: The Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota . In historical accounts of retroactively diagnosed wendigo psychosis, it has been reported that humans became possessed by the wendigo spirit, after being in a situation of needing food and having no other choice besides cannibalism. In 1661, The Jesuit Relations reported: Ce qui nous mit plus en peine, fut la nouvelle que nous apprismes dés l'entrée du Lac, à sçauoir : que les deputez par nostre Conducteur, qui deuoient conuoquer les Nations à la Mer du Nord, et leur donner le rendez-vous pour nous y attendre, auoient esté tuez l'Hiuer passé, d'une façon estonnante. Ces pauures gens furent saisis, à ce qu'on nous

4880-549: The National Book Award , depicts a situation where an individual person becomes a wendigo. The novel describes its primary antagonist, a rapist whose violent crimes desecrate a sacred site, as a wendigo who must be killed because he threatens the reservation's safety. In addition to characterizing individual people who exhibit destructive tendencies, the wendigo can also describe movements and events with similarly negative effects. According to Professor Chris Schedler,

5002-632: The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which drew on the mythology of ancient Semitic religions . This was then inherited by the Koine text of the New Testament . The English use of demon as synonym for devils goes back at least as far as about 825. The German word ( Dämon ), however, is different from devil ( Teufel ) and demons as evil spirits, and akin to

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5124-684: The Watchers or Nephilim , who are first mentioned in Genesis 6 and are the focus of 1 Enoch Chapters 1–16, and also in Jubilees 10. The Nephilim were seen as the source of the sin and evil on Earth because they are referenced in Genesis 6:4 before the story of the Flood . In Genesis 6:5, God sees evil in the hearts of men. Ethiopic Enoch refers to Genesis 6:4–5, and provides further description of

5246-445: The galla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld. Like other demons, however, galla could also be benevolent and, in a hymn from King Gudea of Lagash ( c. 2144 – 2124 BCE), a minor god named Ig-alima is described as "the great galla of Girsu ". Lamashtu was a demonic goddess with the "head of a lion, the teeth of a donkey, naked breasts, a hairy body, hands stained (with blood?), long fingers and fingernails, and

5368-507: The underworld was home to many demonic beings, which are sometimes referred to as "offspring of arali ". These demons could sometimes leave the underworld and terrorize mortals on earth. One class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld were known as galla ; their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. They are frequently referenced in magical texts, and some texts describe them as being seven in number. Several extant poems describe

5490-437: The "demons of the lower regions": You think, as I infer from your words, that a demon is the same as a devil, which is not the case. For a demon is said to be any invisible being using reason, as if knowing. Of these the two high orders are called calodemons, that is, 'good knowing ones', the lower order is called cacodemon, that is, 'evil knowing one', for calos means 'good', cacos 'bad'. The ceremonial magician usually consults

5612-428: The "demons that bring famine" and "such as cause storm and earthquake". According to some aggadic stories, demons were under the dominion of a king or chief, usually Asmodai . In Kabbalah , demons are regarded as a necessary part of the divine emanation in the material world and a byproduct of human sin ( Qlippoth ). After they are created, they assume an existence on their own. Demons would attach themselves to

5734-557: The 2016 debut novel by First Nations horror fiction writer Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler ( Lac Des Milles Lacs Anishinaabe ), combines the traditional Ojibwe legend with the author's ideas inspired by non-Indigenous writers like Anne Rice and Tim Powers . Other creatures based on the legend, or named for it, appear in various films and television shows, including Dark Was the Night , Ravenous (1999), The Lone Ranger (2013), and

5856-478: The 2018 first-person shooter video game Dusk , wendigos are enemies that remain invisible until they receive damage. Several of these creatures also appear in the game's cover art. Evil spirit Demons may or may not also be considered to be devils: minions of the Devil . In many traditions, demons are independent operators, with different demons causing different types of evils (destructive natural phenomena, specific diseases, etc.). In religions featuring

5978-414: The 2021 film Antlers by Scott Cooper , where the wendigo is portrayed as a deer-like creature with a glowing heart that moves from person to person with a never ending hunger. Guillermo del Toro , producer of the film, developed the wendigo on the basis that the more the creature eats, the more it gets hungry and the more it gets hungry, the weaker it becomes. In the 2021 film The Inhuman (L'Inhumain)

6100-709: The Chippewas numbered approximately "550 souls" under the leadership of "Chief Yellow Head"—the same "Musquakie or Yellow Head, Chief of the Rein Deer Tribe", who was involved in the Lake Simcoe-Lake Huron Purchase and the South Simcoe Purchase. They still occupied their remaining lands about Lake Simcoe and the Holland River, and reportedly had "expressed a strong desire to be admitted to Christianity, and to adopt

6222-550: The Chippewas of Georgina Island as well as descendants in Neywash (Huron-Robinson Treaty). The Chippewa Tri-Council were once one reserve, the Coldwater Narrows Reserve established in 1830, under one principal chief, Chief Yellowhead. Further, before The Coldwater Narrows Reserve was established this group was the Chippewas of Lake Simcoe and Huron. Separated municipalities but remain a census subdivision of

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6344-620: The Chippewas received an annual income from the interest. As a consequence of the Simcoe-Coldwater Purchase, the Chippewas had to abandon the villages built for them by Colborne in 1830. The Coldwater band relocated to Beausoleil Island in Georgian Bay, whereas, in 1838, the main band at the Atherley Narrows relocated to Rama, where they had obtained 1600 acres of land "purchased out of their own funds" at

6466-487: The Chippewas to give up this country "[rather] than to continue [living] on it, surrounded as it was by the White Population, and consequently deprived as it was of its Game". Musquakie/Yellowhead and his chiefs afterwards objected to this Simcoe-Coldwater Purchase , writing to Governor General Charles Bagot in 1842 that "we were not made sensible of the full purport" of the deal, which paid them only one-third of

6588-461: The Muling 木灵 lit. "tree spirit" (also muzhong 木肿 lit. "tree swelling") - demons forming over time in trees of immense age, capable of inflicting disease and killing human passers-by and birds flying overhead. Examples include the penghou 彭侯 (lit. "drumbeat marquis"), a demon associated with camphor trees in mountain forests, and which takes the form of a human-headed dog, and in the southern provinces,

6710-473: The United States. The rejection of demons as the cause of natural events also contributed to the association of demons with delusions and merely mental phenomena. For example, the notion that demons could possess an individual, stripped the individual away from their personhood and was at odds with modern Western philosophy. The most prominent ones, such as the American Dream and capitalism , imply

6832-628: The Wendigo from a native myth into a descriptive template for the Indian savage ." Blackwood's work has influenced many of the subsequent portrayals in mainstream horror fiction, such as August Derleth 's "The Thing that Walked on the Wind" and "Ithaqua" (1933 and 1941), which in turn inspired the character in Stephen King 's novel Pet Sematary , where it is a personification of evil, an ugly grinning creature with yellow-grey eyes, ears replaced by ram's horns, white vapor coming from its nostrils, and

6954-696: The area during the Great Anishinaabe migration, the Chippewas of Lakes Huron and Simcoe briefly migrated north during conflict with the Haudenosaunee during the Beaver Wars. Following resolution of the Beaver Wars and the creation of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt, the Chippewas of Lakes Huron and Simcoe returned to Mnjikaning. The Chippewas of Lakes Huron and Simcoe occupied, at their greatest known extent,

7076-456: The arrival of a wendigo symbolizes inner turmoil after a character turns his back on his Indigenous heritage in the pursuit of material success. Various characters inspired by the legend, or named for it, appear in role-playing video games , such as 2018's Fallout 76 by Bethesda Game Studios , where wendigos are featured as one of the cryptid enemies found in the area of Appalachia, mutated from people who consumed human flesh in isolation. In

7198-647: The banana-leaf spirits. From the Tang dynasty onwards, belief in shapeshifting foxes, tigers and wolves, amongst other creatures, also featured in Chinese folk belief, partly due to the existence of outlawed fox-spirit cults. Fox Demons (狐妖) are described as cunning and lustful, capable of clairvoyance, and of inflicting disease and poisoning at will. They are sometimes seen as beings requiring worship to be appeased or placated. Tiger Demons (虎妖) and Wolf Demons (狼妖) are ravening beings roaming large territories for prey, taking

7320-507: The belief that everyone is responsible for their own fate and not at the mercy of external forces, thus has no room left for demons or demonic possessions. The concept of demons has nevertheless not disappeared from the public, permeating media, arts, and psychology. Others assert that the Age of Enlightenment did not compete with beliefs in subjugation of demons, but derived from them. In the 16th - early 17th century, conjuration of demonic forces

7442-415: The brain and those of internal nature. Examples include catalepsy , headache, epilepsy and nightmares. There also existed a demon of blindness, "Shabriri" (lit. "dazzling glare") who rested on uncovered water at night and blinded those who drank from it. Demons supposedly entered the body and caused the disease while overwhelming or "seizing" the victim. To cure such diseases, it was necessary to draw out

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7564-411: The cannibal monster within the psychiatric annals. The windigo, however, continues to seek revenge for this attempted scholarly execution by periodically duping unsuspecting passers-by, like psychiatrists, into believing that windigo psychosis not only exists but that a psychiatrist could conceivably encounter a patient suffering from this disorder in his or her practice today! Windigo psychosis may well be

7686-495: The curing process. One of the more famous cases of wendigo psychosis reported involved a Plains Cree trapper from Alberta , named Swift Runner. During the winter of 1878, Swift Runner and his family were starving, and his eldest son died. Twenty-five miles away from emergency food supplies at a Hudson's Bay Company post, Swift Runner butchered and ate his wife and five remaining children. Given that he resorted to cannibalism so near to food supplies, and that he killed and consumed

7808-778: The deceased giants, cursed by God to wander the Earth. Dale Martin disagrees with this interpretation, arguing that the ghosts of the Nephilim are distinct. The evil spirits would make the people sacrifice to the demons, but they were not demons themselves. The spirits are stated in Enoch to "corrupt, fall, be excited, and fall upon the earth, and cause sorrow". Chippewas of Rama First Nation Chippewas of Rama First Nation , also known as Chippewas of Mnjikaning and Chippewas of Rama Mnjikaning First Nation ( Ojibwe : Mnjikaning Anishinaabek , also alternatively Rama Anishinaabek),

7930-535: The demonic powers of impurity have become correspondingly weak, too. The Hebrew Bible mentions two classes of demonic spirits, the se'irim and the shedim . The word shedim (sing shed or sheyd ) appears in two places in the Hebrew Bible. The se'irim (sing. sa'ir , "male goat") are mentioned once in Leviticus 17 :7, probably a recollection of Assyrian demons in the shape of goats. They might be

8052-591: The demons of mountains and forests (the seductive Chimei 魑魅), demons of trees and rocks (a necrophagous fever-demon, the Wangliang 魍魎), subterranean demons of the earth and of decay (the goat-like and necrophagous Fenyang 墳羊 (lit. "grave-goat"), who caused disease and miscarriage) and fever demons born from water ( Wangxiang 罔象 , a child-like being with red eyes). These demons were said to be born of aberrant qi (breath or energy), known to accost and kill travellers, and held responsible for sickness. People also feared

8174-403: The divine will. The existence of demons can be related to the realm of chaos, beyond the created world. But even this negative connotation cannot be denied in light of the magical texts. The role of demons in relation to the human world remains ambivalent and largely depends on context. Ancient Egyptian demons can be divided into two classes: "guardians" and "wanderers". "Guardians" are tied to

8296-499: The early 20th century by Lottie Chicogquaw Marsden, an ethnographer of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation , in which a wendigo also exhibits tool use , an ability to survive partial dismemberment, and autocannibalism , reads: One time long ago a big Windigo stole an Indian boy, but the boy was too thin, so the Windigo didn't eat him up right away, but he travelled with the Indian boy waiting for him till he'd get fat. The Windigo had

8418-417: The essential teaching about shedim and similar spirits is, that they should not be an object of worship, not a reality to be acknowledged or feared. Their point of view eventually became mainstream Jewish understanding. The opinion of some authors is not clear. Abraham ibn Ezra states that insane people can see the image of se'irim , when they go astray and ascribe to them powers independent from God. It

8540-602: The evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic performances, at which the Essenes excelled. Josephus , who spoke of demons as "spirits of the wicked which enter into men that are alive and kill them", but which could be driven out by a certain root , witnessed such a performance in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian and ascribed its origin to King Solomon . In mythology, there were few defences against Babylonian demons . The mythical mace Sharur had

8662-511: The fantasy genre, and especially in entertainment aimed at children and young adults. Belief in wilderness demons haunted China from the very earliest periods and persisted throughout the late imperial era. In the Xia dynasty, nine bronze cauldrons with their forms were cast to help the common people to identify and to avoid them. Classical texts in the Zhou and Warring-States period distinguish between

8784-453: The feet of Anzû ". She was believed to feed on the blood of human infants and was widely blamed as the cause of miscarriages and cot deaths . Although Lamashtu has traditionally been identified as a demoness, the fact that she could cause evil on her own without the permission of other deities strongly indicates that she was seen as a goddess in her own right. Mesopotamian peoples protected against her using amulets and talismans . She

8906-518: The figure of the wendigo represents "consuming forms of exclusion and assimilation" through which groups dominate other groups." This application allows Native Americans to describe colonialism and its agents as wendigos since the process of colonialism ejected natives from their land and threw the natural world out of balance. DeSanti points to the 1999 horror film Ravenous as an illustration of this argument equating "the cannibal monster" to "American colonialism and manifest destiny". This movie features

9028-465: The flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption. In Ojibwe, Eastern Cree, Westmain Swampy Cree, Naskapi , and Innu lore, wendigos are often described as giants that are many times larger than human beings, a characteristic absent from myths in other Algonquian cultures. Whenever a wendigo ate another person, it would grow in proportion to

9150-512: The form of humans to conveniently insert themselves into communities and settlements. Tiger demons are described as being enslave the souls of humans they have killed, turning them into minions. In the superstitious climate of the previous centuries, people mistaken as tigers and wolves in human disguise were often put to death or starved in their cells by magistrates. Fish (鱼妖) and snake demons (蛇妖) are said to have attempted to assault Confucius. Even insects are capable of being demonic. In one tale,

9272-520: The gates to the netherworld. During the Ptolemaic and Roman period , the guardians shifted towards the role of genius loci and they were the focus of local and private cults. The "wanderers" are associated with possession, mental illness, death and plagues. Many of them serve as executioners for the major deities, such as Ra or Osiris , when ordered to punish humans on earth or in the netherworld. Wanderers can also be agents of chaos, arising from

9394-479: The gods and their power, and as something, they had to assume, lay behind it, by an easy traditional shift of opinion they turned these pagan daimones into malevolent 'demons', the troupe of Satan . Far into the Byzantine period , Christians eyed their cities' old pagan statuary as a seat of the demons' presence. It was no longer beautiful, it was infested." The term had first acquired its negative connotations in

9516-596: The government declared invalid, he appointed his nephew Isaac Yellowhead to succeed him as "Head Chief of the Chippewa tribe of Indians", but it was Joseph B. Naingishkung who succeeded him. The First Nation's leadership consists of a chief and six councillors, elected under the Indian Act Electoral System put into place in the 1930s by Canada in the attempt to depose hereditary chiefs and headman as leaders. The current elected leadership (2014-2016)

9638-437: The habits of civilized life". In 1830, Musquakie/Yellowhead and his people were induced by agents of Lieutenant Governor John Colborne to settle in two purpose-built villages, one at the Atherley Narrows between Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching, and the other at Coldwater, between which they cleared a road on his instructions. Colborne began paying the Chippewas an annuity and identified "three islands set apart for them", but it

9760-521: The imperial era, they also appear as antagonists, and sometimes protagonists, in multiple genres of Chinese literature. These include mythic literature ( Shen Mo Xiaoshuo (lit. "Gods and demons novels") ), in records about paranormal or occult activity ( Zhi Guai ("lit. Records of the Strange") ), and in tales about cultivators of supernatural power and immortality ( Xian Xia (lit. "Immortal Hero") ) fiction. These demons are often examples or close variants of

9882-739: The indigenous Yao (妖) and the Indian-influenced Mo (魔) feature prominently in Chinese legends and folktales about the supernatural and the uncanny, and these days are staples of popular culture and fantasy fiction in games, movies and books. There are differing opinions in Judaism about the existence or non-existence of demons ( shedim or se'irim ). Some Rabbinic scholars assert that demons have existed in Talmudic times, but do not exist regularly in present. When prophecy, divine presence , and divine inspiration gradually decreased,

10004-524: The influence of Buddhism. In folk belief, these beings are responsible for misfortune, insanity, and illness, and any number of strange phenomena that could not easily be accounted for. Epilepsy and stroke, which led to either temporary or permanent contortions, were generally seen as the results of demonic possession and attacks (中邪). In the imperial era, anxiety over unexplained serial murders, missing persons, accidents or diseases sometimes led to instances of mass panic requiring imperial intervention. Exorcism

10126-658: The lands surrounding Lake Simcoe and the Holland River watershed, extending westwards to encompass roughly present-day Simcoe County. Over a 20-year-span beginning in 1798, their leaders ceded the country west of the lake to the government of Upper Canada via three separate purchase agreements—the Penetanguishene Bay Purchase (1798), the Lake Simcoe–Lake Huron Purchase (1815) and the South Simcoe Purchase (1818). In 1828

10248-410: The legend include the 1995 novel Solar Storms , by author and poet Linda K. Hogan ( Chickasaw ), which explores the stories of the wendigo and incorporates the creatures as a device to interrogate issues of independence, spirituality, politics, an individual's relationship to the family, and as a metaphor for corporate voracity, exploitation, and power - all viewed as a form of cannibalism. Wrist ,

10370-544: The meal it had just eaten, so it could never be full. Therefore, wendigos are portrayed as simultaneously gluttonous and extremely thin due to starvation. The wendigo is seen as the embodiment of gluttony, greed, and excess: never satisfied after killing and consuming one person, they are constantly searching for new victims. A wendigo need not lose the human's powers of cognition or speech and in some depictions may clearly communicate with its prospective victims or even threaten or taunt them. A specimen of folk story collected in

10492-461: The modern English "demon". Both deities and demons can act as intermediaries to deliver messages to humans. By that, they share some resemblance to the Greek daimon. However, magical writings indicate that ancient Egyptians acknowledged the existence of malevolent demons by highlighting the demon names with red ink. Demons in this culture appeared to be subordinative and related to a specific deity, yet they may have occasionally acted independently of

10614-503: The more greedily the more they eat. This ailment attacked our deputies; and, as death is the sole remedy among those simple people for checking such acts of murder, they were slain in order to stay the course of their madness. Although in many recorded cases of wendigo psychosis the individual has been killed to prevent cannibalism from resulting, some Cree folklore recommends treatment by ingestion of fatty animal meats or drinking animal grease; those treated may sometimes vomit ice as part of

10736-572: The most perfect example of the construction of an Aboriginal mental disorder by the scholarly professions, and its persistence dramatically underscores how constructions of the Aboriginal by these professions have, like Frankenstein's monster , taken on a life of their own. The 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) classifies "Windigo" as

10858-517: The original meaning of daimon . The Western Modern era conception of a demon , as in the Ars Goetia , derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late Antiquity . The exact definition of "demon" in Egyptology posed a major problem for modern scholarship, since the borders between a deity and a demon are sometimes blurred and the ancient Egyptian language lacks a term for

10980-465: The people we were seeking. They are afflicted with neither lunacy, hypochondria, nor frenzy; but have a combination of all these species of disease, which affects their imaginations and causes them a more than canine hunger. This makes them so ravenous for human flesh that they pounce upon women, children, and even upon men, like veritable werewolves, and devour them voraciously, without being able to appease or glut their appetite—ever seeking fresh prey, and

11102-620: The power to slay demons such as Asag , a legendary gallu or edimmu of hideous strength. In the Jerusalem Talmud , notions of shedim ("demons" or "spirits") are almost unknown or occur only very rarely, whereas in the Babylonian Talmud there are many references to shedim and magical incantations. The existence of shedim in general was not questioned by most of the Babylonian Talmudists . As

11224-511: The pre-modern period, spirits and demons were assigned to various natural phenomena, the rationalistic school of thought , increasingly rejected the attribution of demons to unknown causes. Many considered demons to be non-existent and alleged visions of demons and ghosts were explained as results of superstition. By that local religious customs were also oppressed in favor of nationwide (religious) ideas or deities. Wilkinson Duran states that people who believe in demons are often marginalized in

11346-422: The proceeds of the sale, and complaining that "we have not received any money from the sale of the said Land". Bond Head had hidden from the Chippewas his intention to sell the land, lot by lot, to white settlers and to forward the proceeds to them as they were generated. Their petition of 1842 received a sympathetic hearing: as they had asked, the proceeds of the piecemeal sales of their former land were banked, and

11468-401: The religious sense are known as Mo (魔) and are generally derived from Indian lore through Buddhism. These include the man-eating, night-flying luocha 罗刹 (raksasha) and the yecha 夜叉 (yaksha). These have also entered Chinese folk religion and Taoism. Another closely related term, highlighting their spiritual deviance and moral corruption, is Xie (邪). Aside from recurring in Chinese superstition of

11590-502: The remains of all those present, it was revealed that Swift Runner's was not a case of pure cannibalism as a last resort to avoid starvation, but rather of a man with wendigo psychosis. He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan . Another well-known case involving wendigo psychosis was that of Jack Fiddler , an Oji-Cree chief and medicine man known for his powers at defeating wendigos. In some cases, this entailed killing people with wendigo psychosis. As

11712-453: The reserve and about 900 living off the reserve. The First Nation is adjacent to a 4,500-year-old wooden stake fishing weir system which at one time sustained many Native peoples but it is not clear who actually built this structure. The First Nation's main reserve , the 908.4 hectares (2,245 acres) Mnjikaning First Nation 32 Indian Reserve , is located approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) northeast of Orillia, Ontario . Rama First Nation

11834-409: The service of God: "Stand not in the way of an ox when coming from the pasture, for Satan dances between his horns". Aggadic tales from the Persian tradition describe the shedim , the mazziḳim ("harmers"), and the ruḥin ("spirits"). There were also lilin ("night spirits"), ṭelane ("shade", or "evening spirits"), ṭiharire ("midday spirits"), and ẓafrire ("morning spirits"), as well as

11956-463: The seven evil deities were known as shedu , storm-demons, represented in ox-like form." They were represented as winged bulls , derived from the colossal bulls used as protective jinn of royal palaces. Magical rites, charms, and beliefs in spiritual entities were prominent in pre-Christian Europe. While the Church offically declared such beliefs as false , the persistance of such beliefs among

12078-587: The sighting of a Centipede Demon (蜈蚣妖) in the form of an old woman without eyes is said to have led to the sickness and death of an entire household. One notable demon not in the above categories includes the Heisheng or Heiqi 黑气 ("Black Calamity" or "Black Air"), a kind of roving vapour demon that inflicts damage to persons and property wherever it roams, sometimes killing where it goes. Another are undefined Poltergeists, sometimes afflicting monasteries, causing serious nuisances, and unable to be exorcised. Demons in

12200-553: The sinner and start to multiply as an act of self-preservation. Medieval Kabbalists characterize such demons as punishing angels of destruction . They are subject to the divine will, and do not act independently. Other demonic entities, such as the shedim , might be considered benevolent. The Zohar classifies them as those who are like humans and submit to the Torah, and those who have no fear of God and are like animals. The sources of demonic influence were thought to originate from

12322-461: The story connecting the Nephilim to the corruption of humans. According to the Book of Enoch , sin originates when angels descend from heaven and fornicate with women, birthing giants. The Book of Enoch shows that these fallen angels can lead humans to sin through direct interaction or through providing forbidden knowledge. Most scholars understand the text, that demons originate from the evil spirits of

12444-601: The symbol depends on the prevailing religion of the culture. Among Turks, the basmalah ("invocation of the name of Allah") is used to ward off demons, while among Armenians, the symbol of the cross is utilized. Common features of these Middle Eastern demons are their immortality and pernicious nature, they can turn invisible, and can be enslaved when pierced by a silver needle. Due to the Islamic belief-system prevailing in Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture at

12566-442: The time between the parī and the angels, from the fires of the stars and smoke. Under influence of Islamic Philosophy , Medieval occult traditions and Renaissance magic , demons are often seen as beneficial and useful, lacking an inherent negative connotation. In the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Renaissance magic, the terms 'demon' and 'devil' have two different, although not exclusive, meanings. The term demons refers to

12688-519: The time, authors emphasized that demons only exist by God's will and not as an independent or even accidental part of the world. The origin of the demons is explained by Abu Ali Bal'ami 's interpretation of Tarikh al-Tabari as the possibly first creation of God ( Allah ). Similarly, the Süleymanname , written during the time of Suleiman the Magnificent , demons were created by God in

12810-523: The type and kind that exist in folk belief. They also appear in entertainment designed for children and young adults, especially in comics (manhua), cartoons (anime), and computer games. The terms Yao (妖) , Mo (魔), Gui (鬼), Guai (怪) and Xie (邪) are their various two-character combinations often used to refer to these creatures, but of these terms, only Mo (魔) denotes demons in the religious sense. China has two classes of beings that might be regarded as demons, and which are generally translated as such: Both

12932-412: The wendigo "can be understood as a marker indicating... a person... imbalanced both internally and toward the larger community of human and spiritual beings around them." Out of equilibrium and estranged by their communities, individuals thought to be afflicted by the wendigo spirit unravel and destroy the ecological balance around them. Chippewa author Louise Erdrich 's novel The Round House , winner of

13054-464: The wendigo symbolically represents three major concepts: it is the incarnation of winter, the embodiment of hunger, and the personification of selfishness. Although distinct from how it appears in the traditional lore, one of the first appearances of a character inspired by, or named after, a wendigo in non-Indigenous literature is Algernon Blackwood 's 1910 novella The Wendigo . Joe Nazare wrote that Blackwood's "subtly-demonizing rhetoric transforms

13176-415: The wider populations led Christian monks to assimilate Christian with non-Christian rites. In order to do so, non-Christian symbols and as pagan deities have been substituted by Jesus Christ . To sanction the invocation of non-Christian supernatural powers, Christian missionaries, such as John Cassian in the fifth century, declared the pagan gods to be demons, servants of Lucifer , who bring disorder to

13298-436: The world beyond creation to bring about misfortune and suffering without any divine instructions, led only by evil motivations. The influences of the wanderers can be warded off and kept at the borders of the human world by the use of magic, but they can never be destroyed. A sub-category of "wanderers" are nightmare demons, which were believed to cause nightmares by entering a human body. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that

13420-630: The world. Ideas of demons (often called Dīv/Dēw or mārid or šayāṭīn in Arabic ) in Armenia , Turkic countries , and Albania derive from Arabic and Persian imagery . Unlike the original Persian daeva , the at the Islamic period are more anthropomorphized and morally complex, through assimialtion with the Arabic jinn and devils. Like the jinn from Islamic traditions, they can enter sexual relationships with humans and sire offspring. Demons are believed to be mostly active at night and

13542-560: The writer Steve Englehart and artist Herb Trimpe , the monster is the result of a curse that afflicts those who commit acts of cannibalism. The Marvel Comics version does not resemble a traditional wendigo as portrayed by popular culture, but rather a silver-haired Bigfoot-like being. It first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #162 (April 1973), and again in the October 1974 issue. Contemporary Indigenous works that explore

13664-438: Was a court function during the Zhou dynasty, led by ritual specialists known as fangshi . In later dynasties, roving Taoist sorcerers, Buddhist monks, as well as eccentric folk magicians, plied their services in warding off, exorcising, countering or defeating these demons through the use of amulets, charms, spells, and chants. In mainland China, belief in demons is very rare. Today, these beings appear primarily as antagonists in

13786-488: Was believed to be the son of the god Hanbi . He was usually regarded as evil, but he could also sometimes be a beneficent entity who protected against winds bearing pestilence and he was thought to be able to force Lamashtu back to the underworld. Amulets bearing his image were positioned in dwellings to protect infants from Lamashtu and pregnant women frequently wore amulets with his head on them as protection from her. Šul-pa-e 's name means "youthful brilliance", but he

13908-476: Was believed to ride in her boat on the river of the underworld and she was associated with donkeys. She was believed to be the daughter of An . Pazuzu is a demonic god who was well known to the Babylonians and Assyrians throughout the first millennium BCE. He is shown with "a rather canine face with abnormally bulging eyes, a scaly body, a snake-headed penis, the talons of a bird and usually wings". He

14030-556: Was fat enough to eat. They heard the Windigo calling the boy. He said to the boy "Hurry up. Don't tell lies to those Indians." All of these Indians went to where the Windigo was and cut off his legs. They went back again to see if he was dead. He wasn't dead. He was eating the juice ( marrow ) from the inside of the bones of his legs that were cut off. The Indians asked the Windigo if there was any fat on them. He said, "You bet there is, I have eaten lots of Indians, no wonder they are fat." The Indians then killed him and cut him to pieces. This

14152-472: Was his hope that they would soon take to farming, the village of Orillia having been established by white settlers brought there to teach them European farming techniques. In a surviving letter to Colborne dated September 1830, Yellowhead and four other leaders spoke of their gladness at receiving "the money you sent us" for clearing the road, asking however "when you can pay us the remainder". Just six years later, Lieutenant Governor Francis Bond Head persuaded

14274-442: Was more respected than legitimate authority, resulting in amorality and excessive personal independence. The declaration of demons as mere superstition was also welcomed as a "removal" of pagan beliefs. According to Wouter Hanegraaff , what the demons the Age of Enlightenment attempted to remove are pagan beliefs. Aboriginal Australian cultures have various beings translated into English as "demons" or "devils". The most notable

14396-582: Was not being taken up, and that the residents "are dragging through a life disgraceful to humanity". Indebtedness to white traders accounts for some of the settlement's early economic woes. In 1839, Musquakie/Yellowhead and two of his chiefs wrote to the Indian Department, that, as soon as Rama was up and running, they intended "to go and hunt in order to pay our debts to those we have been so long owing". Musquakie/Yellowhead, also known as William Yellowhead, died on 11 January 1864. In his will, which

14518-442: Was not envisioned as youthful god. According to one tradition, he was the consort of Ninhursag, a tradition which contradicts the usual portrayal of Enki as Ninhursag's consort. In one Sumerian poem, offerings made to Šhul-pa-e in the underworld and, in later mythology, he was one of the demons of the underworld. According to The Jewish Encyclopedia , originally published in 12 volumes from 1901 to 1906, "In Chaldean mythology

14640-497: Was seen as potential for humans to overcome their social and natural environment. Hermetic and Kabbalist philosophy allowed humans to exercise control over nature. As such, occult practises may have paved the way for the development of modern sciences. Individualism was met with certain ambiguity. Although the Renaissance "freed" humans from superstition and allowed them to control nature, it created an environment in which power

14762-471: Was the end of this Giant Windigo. In some traditions, humans overpowered by greed could turn into wendigos; the myth thus served as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation. Other sources say wendigos were created when a human resorted to cannibalism to survive. Humans could also turn into wendigos by being in contact with them for too long. Among the Assiniboine , the Cree , and the Ojibwe ,

14884-572: Was the news that met us upon entering the Lake, namely, that the men deputed by our Conductor for the purpose of summoning the Nations to the North Sea, and assigning them a rendezvous, where they were to await our coming, had met their death the previous Winter in a very strange manner. Those poor men (according to the report given us) were seized with an ailment unknown to us, but not very unusual among

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