Dangerous Spirits: The Windigo in Myth and History
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About this ebook
In the traditional Algonquian world, the windigo is the spirit of selfishness, which can transform a person into a murderous cannibal. Native peoples over a vast stretch of North America—from Virginia in the south to Labrador in the north, from Nova Scotia in the east to Minnesota in the west—believed in the windigo, not only as a myth told in the darkness of winter, but also as a real danger.
Drawing on oral narratives, fur traders' journals, trial records, missionary accounts, and anthropologists’ field notes, this book is a revealing glimpse into indigenous beliefs, cross-cultural communication, and embryonic colonial relationships. It also ponders the recent resurgence of the windigo in popular culture and its changing meaning in a modern context.
Shawn Smallman
Shawn Smallmanis a professor of International Studies at Portland State University. He received his PhD in history from Yale University and is the author of three critically acclaimed academic books, Fear and Memory in the Brazilian Army and Society, The AIDS Pandemic in Latin America, and (with Kim Brown) An Introduction to International and Global Studies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Reviews for Dangerous Spirits
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An unflinching look at the role of the Windigo myth within Cree society. I really loved the deep detail shared regarding the relationship between Cree tribes and the Hudson Bay Company in the 16th Century in Canada. For modern-day people accustomed to envisioning indigenous peoples as somehow peaceful and enlightened, the extraordinary belief in the evil, cannibalistic, Windigo spirit will be a huge eye-opener.