Art, Prehistoric; Folk literature -- History and criticism
However, much more fundamental are the differences which are based on
the general difference of cultural outlook. The same story told by
different tribes may bear an entirely different face. Not only is the
setting distinct, the motivation and the main points of the tales are
emphasized by different tribes in different ways and take on a local
coloring that can be understood only in relation to the whole culture.
An example selected from among the tales of the North American Indians
will illustrate this point. I chose the story of the star husband,
which is told on the prairies, in British Columbia, and on the North
Atlantic coast. The prairie tribes tell that two maidens go out to dig
roots and camp out. They see two stars and wish to be married to them.
The next morning they find themselves in the sky married to the stars.
They are forbidden to dig certain large roots, but the young women
disobey the orders of their husbands and, through a hole in the ground
they see the earth below. By means of a rope they climb down. From
here on, the story takes distinctive forms in different geographical
areas. In one form the adventures of the women after their return are
described, in the other the feats of the child born by one of them.
The central view-point of the same story as told by the Indians of
British Columbia is completely changed. The girls of a village build
a house in which they play and one day they talk about the stars,
how happy they must be because they are able to see the whole world.
The next morning they awake in the sky, in front of the house of a
great chief. The house is beautifully carved and painted. Suddenly a
number of men appear who pretend to embrace the girls but kill them by
sucking out their brains. Only the chief’s daughter and her younger
sister are saved. The elder sister becomes the wife of the chief of the
stars. Finally the chief sends them back with the promise to help them
whenever they are in need. They find the village deserted and the star
chief sends down his house and the masks and whistles belonging to a
ceremony which becomes the hereditary property of the woman’s family.
The tale ends with the acquisition of the house and the ceremony,
matters that are the chief interest in the life of the Indians. In
this way the story becomes one of the long series of tales of similar
import, although the contents belong to an entirely distinct group.
As a second example I mention the story of Amor and Psyche which has
been cast into a new mould by the Pueblo Indians. Here the antelope
appears in the form of a maiden. She marries a youth who is forbidden
to see the girl. He transgresses this order and, by the light of a
candle, looks upon her while she is asleep. Immediately the girl and
house disappear and the young man finds himself in the wallow of an
antelope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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