Tag Archives: Sedna

Week 4: Reverie, Not Repulsion. Sedna, a piece of Mother Nature.

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One of the kinds of stories that never fails to move and deeply impact me are those revering a woman’s ability to give life.

 In not only many works of literature, but also in disgusting, widely held beliefs, a woman’s fertility is seen as something to be dominated, used against her; that the ability to give birth makes her weak, the lesser sex, and inherently characterizes her existence as one meant to be lived in service to a man—bearing his children. This degradation of a woman’s existence and objectification of her body is prevalent in the historical summaries of the western/Christianized works of mermaids we’ve examined in this course so far. We’ve learned about the various tales told of sea women being ripped from their homes and forced to marry their assailants, having children they didn’t want and couldn’t comprehend loving—as they were not only born of suffering, but estranged from her nature as a sea creature, or maybe even used as a means of chaining her to land by leveraging a mother’s need to be with/protect her children (if the mermaid is even capable of feeling any love for the life they were brutally forced to create). The Inuit story of Sedna circumvents this pattern in a refreshing, glorious way.

 Firstly, in this tale, the “mermaid” (though Sedna was a human before she was cheated first out of her freedom, then out of her life) is the victim of abuse, not the men she interacts with. The suffering imposed on her was not justified by the story, but scorned—unlike the tales that regard mermaids as inherently sinful creatures that deserve their cruel treatment. The story is about a man’s deception and not a woman’s; deviating from the western belief perpetuated by the church that women are inherently untrustworthy and predatory. This makes sense, as the Inuit were not touched by Christianity, and therefore, did not absorb their beliefs. Not only was Sedna betrayed by the man who married her, but she was betrayed by her father as well. One of the most disgusting and stomach-turning events to watch or hear is a parent turning on their own child; It is a corruption of the title “parent”, an adulteration of nature. This brutality incites a feeling of heartbreak and disgust, serving to scorn the maltreatment of women—to empathize with a woman’s pure love being used against her. 

But although Sedna’s love was leveraged as a means of harming her, or betrayed by the one man whose love she was promised she could rely on (her father), she does not turn to cruelty, nor morph into a creature symbolic of her anguish. Instead, beautiful, innocent life is born from her blood and pain; she fills the sea with creatures that exist as the lifeblood of her people, that they rely on to nourish them. In this way, Sedna becomes a form of Mother Nature, both revered and depended on for her fertility. She has the power to control what she allows others to take, and she is worshiped for it. When she becomes angry and refuses to send life to her people, Shamans turn themselves into willing sacrifices to go provide the care she desires so that she may be satisfied and return such care. It is almost an act of appreciation for her work. 

Sedna’s ability to give life is not regarded as something to be taken from, but to be blessed with. In a divergence of cultures, some worship Mother Nature, and some see her as something to be dominated; a fact made very apparent by the difference of the Inuit story of Seda and the predatory illustrations of Christianity’s mermaids. The very cultures that abuse mermaids moved on to abuse and take from Mother Nature, whereas those that celebrate the creatures live in reverie of the environment. I’m excited to read more stories such as this one, that fill me with joy and not heartbreak; that share in the appreciation of women and their blessed connection to Mother Nature.

Reading Response week 4

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Whilst doing this week’s reading, my attention was mostly concentrated on the stories of “Sedna” and “The Tuna of Lake Vaihiria”. This was particularly because of our class discussions of the christian misogyny that transformed the role of the mermaid. It is immediately noticeable, in both of these stories that women were held in a different regard across non Christian cultures. For example in “The Tuna of Lake Vaihiria” The authors of the text explain that in these stories the character of Hina is often represented as a woman of “High rank, and sometimes semidivine”. This is in stark contrast with schribner’s text which mentions in chapter 1 “churchmen adopted these pagan creatures in an effort to depreciate the feminine.”

I noticed that both of these narratives have to do with women and marriage. Hina runs away in order to avoid being forced to marry a monster and Sedna can only be made made to wed under conditions that she finds suitable. Already we see that women in Inuit and Pacific islander cultures are able to exert their autonomy without being condemned to be sinful monsters. Both Hina and Sedna contribute to the prosperity of their people, one by bringing about the coconut and the latter by providing Inuit people with their main food sources. Sedna becomes a deity and the Inuit people strive to honor and maintain a good relationship with her so that they can continue to enjoy the bounty of the sea.

Through these stories I noticed the connection that exists between women and the environment. Both of these characters are life-givers of sorts, to their people. It is interesting that even now a days we consider nature to be female in nature hence the term “Mother Earth”. In these stories both women exert disobedience of some sort. Hina runs away and refuses to marry the Eel and Sedna refuses to marry unless it is in her own terms. The Christian church, I imagine would focus on these acts of disobedience and punish them by turning them into sea monsters but both women in these stories are rewarded with respect by their people.

Week 4: Oannes and Sedna

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I found both the stories of Oannes and Sedna fascinating this week. They both alter what we normally believe mermaids to be and their abilities. Oannes completely changes the modern concept of a mermaid from the start because he is a man rather than a woman and he is not a typical half-human half-fish hybrid. He is more fish than man and is more of what we would consider a “monster” to physically be. However, instead of fearing him and dreading the sight of him, the people in the myth are appreciative of him. Oannes gave the people order and a way to structure their society when they were lost. The myth clearly states that Oannes “instructed them in everything which could … humanise mankind” (p.4). This is so interesting to me because the myth hints that an animal being helped humans to become “civilized”. These actions are not what is normally portrayed of mermaids. They are normally seen as hybrid beings who lack humanity and can be animal-like, they are not seen as representations of civilization and the development of the world as we know it. Oannes completely challenges the perception of modern mermaids because he is an intelligent and giving creature.

Sedna, on the other hand, is close to what we think of as a modern mermaid. She is half-human on the upper part of her body with a tail like a fish on the lower half. Sedna differs from the expectation of a mermaid by taking on a more active role in the ocean. She is called the “mother of all sea creatures” (Lindeman) and is the one who allows sea creatures to be used by humans. She controls how fruitful hunts can be and what animals are available to humans which has historically not been an ability mermaids have. The role she takes in the sea is a much more protective and maternal role than I have seen of mermaids before. In nature, it is known that you do not mess with an animal cub because the mother could attack and to me, this is almost the role I understand Sedna is playing. She protects the sea creatures from being hunted like a mother would protect her cub from predators. 

Week 4: Ancient Origin Myths

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For this week’s reading I found it fairly interesting and quite fascinating because I really like the specific reading of “Sedna.” When starting the reading it already caught my attention because of the fact that the story was talking about a woman / mermaid having power and control over something, whereas in past readings mermaids were not given this much power and was seen as less than; “A young woman becomes the mother of all sea creatures. As the sea goddess, Sedna has dominion over her creatures and controls the availability of seal, walrus, fish, whale, and other sea animals to Inuit hunters” (Lenore Lindeman). This story particularly got my attention because it was talking about a woman being more self assured and strong as opposed to oppressing women / mermaids in previous readings. As well, in the reading I found some correlations between this story and some Disney princesses, and loving Disney so much I found it quite amusing seeing parallels in the story. For example Sedna reminds me of Pocahontas when the story says, “Many Inuit men desired Sedna for a wife and asked her parents for permission to marry her. But Sedna refused them all. Even when her parents insisted it was time for her to marry she refused to follow tradition and obey them” (Lenore Lindeman). Similar to Pocahontas, Sedna refused the hand of men and was not afraid to refuse tradition, which I thought was exciting to see women / mermaids having power over something and not needing to conform to others. Also when I continued to read, I saw a similar correlation to another Disney movie, specifically Moana and the Goddess Te Fiti because it says, “Sedna now controls all of the animals of the sea. The Inuit who rely on these animals want to maintain a good relationship with Sedna, so that she will continue to allow her animals to make themselves available to the hunters” (Lenore Lindeman). I particularly saw this connection because in the movie the island people are always talking about how they need to have a good relationship with Te Fiti so that their island can prosper, and seeing the parallel in this story about needing to have a good connection with Sedna to be able to have food reminded me of the movie Moana. My favorite part of the story is when it talks about men needing to do tasks to be able to please Sedna, “He or she will swim down to the bottom of the ocean to appease Sedna the Sea Goddess. The Shaman will comb the tangles out of Sedna’s hair and put it into braids. This makes her happy and soothes her anger” (Lenore Lindeman). I thought this part quite intriguing because it displays man praising Sedna, a women and mermaid, which we have not seen in past readings where all they talk about is warning others about mermaids and displaying such a negative connotation and trying to control them; where here in this story it conveys the opposite and talks about man trying to appease a mermaid and praising her, which I particularly liked because I’m always happy to see women thriving and in control.