Thinking on fantasy races
Aug. 2nd, 2014 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdA picture came over my tumblr of Elves of Color.
While the picture from Cleopatra's Weave is beautiful, my first response was "Do these areas even HAVE a fae tradition?"
I know the Native Americans do. They vary from tribe to tribe, but they are found from the Mannegishi and Nagumwusuck of New England to Menehune of Hawaii. Some tribes leave food offerings, much as Scottish housewives leave milk for the brownie.
So, I decided to check into the others.
So far, the only African fae tradition I'm finding is the Yumboes from the Jaloff tribe of Africa. And they're white with silver hair. Most magical things in Africa are white, because of albinism. Like most traditions, the locals call them Bakhna Rakhna, or Good People, and the Yumboes attach themselves to particular families, and are heard to lament any member's passing.
While Hebrews, Persians and Arabians all have something that could loosely be called a fae tradition, it doesn't seem to have spread more eastern that. Chinese fairy tales involves spirits (often cats and foxes) or ogres, but nothing resembling the elves of Europe.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/tfm/index.htm is one of the sites I used for this.
The question becomes not "why are there no elves of color?" but "Should we impose western mythology on people who do not have those myths?" I'd be more interested in seeing stories and art about the myths of those cultures rather than having the Tuatha de Danan transplanted and put in local drag.
While the picture from Cleopatra's Weave is beautiful, my first response was "Do these areas even HAVE a fae tradition?"
I know the Native Americans do. They vary from tribe to tribe, but they are found from the Mannegishi and Nagumwusuck of New England to Menehune of Hawaii. Some tribes leave food offerings, much as Scottish housewives leave milk for the brownie.
So, I decided to check into the others.
So far, the only African fae tradition I'm finding is the Yumboes from the Jaloff tribe of Africa. And they're white with silver hair. Most magical things in Africa are white, because of albinism. Like most traditions, the locals call them Bakhna Rakhna, or Good People, and the Yumboes attach themselves to particular families, and are heard to lament any member's passing.
While Hebrews, Persians and Arabians all have something that could loosely be called a fae tradition, it doesn't seem to have spread more eastern that. Chinese fairy tales involves spirits (often cats and foxes) or ogres, but nothing resembling the elves of Europe.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/tfm/index.htm is one of the sites I used for this.
The question becomes not "why are there no elves of color?" but "Should we impose western mythology on people who do not have those myths?" I'd be more interested in seeing stories and art about the myths of those cultures rather than having the Tuatha de Danan transplanted and put in local drag.
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no subject
Date: 2014-08-03 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-04 12:52 am (UTC)I mean, I can see a fantasy world where elves are spread through the world, and those in equatorial regions develop more melanin over the billennia than the ones in temperate or polar regions.
The idea of African-American elves in an urban fantasy setting shouldn't be controversial.
However, I see these drawings and ask "Why are we carrying European folklore to people who never interacted with/developed stories about these creatures?"