Reading Notes, Week 11: Alaskan Legends
A raven man, created by Tyler Davis (2009), Pinterest.
Origin of man
Of all of Raven's creations, man was not one of them. Woman and child Raven sculpted as companions later, but man himself was not in Raven's design. This is rather unique as creation stories go, without the egocentric tendencies seen in so many popular religions today. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this unit so much was because Raven is not all-powerful: so many current religions feature totality in their deity's power. Raven is undeniably powerful, but the surprise he showed when man appeared in the lands he created was a bit of a shock to me. Everything that came after, from their journeys to Raven's population of the world's animals, was taken with the knowledge that Raven was a finite god. I now strongly suspect that Neil Stephenson's Aleutian choice of antagonist Dmitri "Raven" Ravinoff in the novel Snow Crash was influenced by the Pacific Northwest Indian legends.
The clothes make the man
Raven, and other animals in several of these stories, possess the power to change between human and animal forms. This power apparently resides within the mask and cloak they carry with them, and Raven can push up his beak to reveal his true face, or pull it back down again and resume his raven form. I wonder if a story exists where Raven's trappings are stolen by a plain human? Could a human even be capable of the transformation?
The passage of time
The first child, sculpted under Raven's wings, grew to manhood in only three days. The first man, while traveling with Raven to the frozen arctic wastes, sleeps as four years pass by and only registers "turning over in his sleep" with the passage of each year. At the end of their journeys, he returns to find his wife and children thoroughly aged. Can Raven shelter people from time's passage? Does Raven exist partially outside of our linear perception of time?
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