Tag Archives: Mythology

Jinns

Text:
“Jinns are in the Quran and they are creatures made by Allah and they can’t be seen by the human eye. They were created before mankind was created. Unlike ghosts or spirits they are a separate entity, just like cats and dogs and birds and other species, and human beings can’t really see them and they were created from a smokeless flame or something like that, like how God created humans from dust and dirt. When God made Adam, jinns were made before Adam, God asked all the jinns to bow down to Adam and one jinn did not. This jinn refused to bow down to Adam which earned him the wrath of Adam. This jinn became Shaitan, or Satan. There are good and bad jinns though.Growing up in Pakistan it was a very inherent factor of our culture to believe in jinns, my mom was a big believer and my dad was very pragmatic. My mom used to hide it from my dad and go to this shaman or preacher who would read from the Quran to get the bad jinns away from my mom. My mom had a very troubled life and her mother believed it was the jinns causing this trouble so they went to this person. Fast forward many years and my sister was unwell so the religious person came to my house, and my dad had a garden he loved. The garden had this wooden statue, and the woman came over and said that a jinn was in this statue. I was a bit naive, and I went to that statue and threw it out so my sister would be better. It didn’t work though, I just got in a lot of trouble with my dad. They say some people could see them and they could take the shape of different things, like they could be this chair. There was actually a second hand belt I had got somewhere and in my mind I was so convinced it was a jinn. So eventually I drove it outside and I pulled out my zippo lighter and I burned the belt. And I was kind of susceptible at the time, a lot was going on in my life at the time. I’ve become more pragmatic now but there’s a part of me I can’t shake off. I was convinced i got rid of the jinn after burning it. Even if I didn’t really get rid of it, I got rid of one element, one thing that was bothering me, now I can move on. 

Context

J is a 47-year-old woman who grew up in Pakistan until she was in her mid-twenties. Her family is Muslim, though she’s currently no longer actively practices the religion. 

Analysis

Jinns seem to be a part of the Muslim religion’s sacred creation story, part of the myth of how the earth was created. They were created before man and there is myth surrounding their own creation, they are believed to have existed way before humans and continue to exist in the world. The speaker mentioned how Disney has turned these religious figures into a mythical, magical version of a blue “genie” in a lamp. This is another example of how Disney has taken folklore through tales and myths and turned them into caricature versions of themselves. Because of Disney’s prominence, this is the idea we first get when we think of jinns, even though it’s very far removed from the actual beliefs surrounding jinns. Through her information I can see the connection between the jinn and the genie lamp, because jinns are able to transform into objects. jinns aren’t actually a magical blue creature as Disney has sold us though, they seem akin to angels to me. Islam is an Abrahamic religion, so it has similar roots and stories to Christianity. The story of Shaitan is extremely similar to Satan and the story of Lucifer being cast from heaven and turned into the devil for not bowing to Adam. The speaker then shares her personal experiences with jinns. Her last story highlights the importance of ritual. She says even if there wasn’t really a jinn in the belt, that ritualistic burning helped her move forward and release trouble that was going on in her life. This exemplifies how even when folklore isn’t supported by science, it doesn’t mean that it is false. These rituals and creatures can provide real experiences for people that are very meaningful and impactful. 

Aztec Creation Story of the Sun

Background: The informant is a 19 year old girl who is currently a college student in Chicago, Illinois. She was also born and raised in the city. Her father is Mexican-American and she also grew up with aunts and uncles to pass on traditions.

Context: The informant mentioned hearing about it when she was younger, but she relearned the myth in detail when she took a Latin American Studies class  at her college last year.

Text:

“So, from what I remember, this is the Aztec creation story of the Fifth Sun. So, with the Aztec, there’s a bunch of different gods and, like, their story involves different suns – like in the sky, not a boy. Their suns are the five different births of the world, so to speak. There’s birth, death, and that’s all I can remember as of right now but anyways, –all the gods were kinda standing around the fire that created the light of Earth, and they were trying to keep going. And this fire was dying out. These gods were like ‘what can we do?’

“And, I believe the different gods offered little things they were associated with. Like, one was associated with nature and would offer flowers. It didn’t really work in terms of the fire. They were like ‘hm, okay, this is a bit of a problem.’ Eventually, there were two gods. I forgot their names, but what’s important is what they represented. One was associated with frail and sickness. And the other was associated with richness and wealth. He was abundance and gold and luxury. 

“And, so these two very different gods were like… ‘I’m gonna go and sacrifice myself into the fire.’ For about a week of time, they prepared themselves for the fire. But, what happened was, when preparing themselves, they were thinking, well only one of them can do it.

“Then, When it came down to it to throw themselves in the fire, the god associated with luxury was like “Yeah! I’ll go” and then when he ran towards the fire, he went “Psyche!” and didn’t go into the fire. So, the other one, who was running right after him to go second, went into the fire, but there was no change in the fire. But, his courage and bravery was applauded by all the other gods who were watching. So, then, all the other gods sacrifice themselves into the fire. Which is how the sun was able to keep going.”

Analysis:

Informant: She finds the information particularly interesting because the Aztecs hail from Latin America, and are commonly disregarded as a great civilization. She has retained the myth in her head since taking the class, and has shared it with others, revealing how she thinks the information is worth sharing and knowing.

Mine: It’s always exciting when creation stories are retold through modern lenses because it gives a new perspective on it. Hearing the gods talk in casual terms, or the one deity yells “psych!” would never be something heard in the past, but perfectly conveys the same meaning – that the god was trying to trick the other one into sacrificing first. Finding other examples of the story online, another variation of the myth is how it created the sun and moon from the two gods who jumped in. They both deal very similarly, until the last message of how something was created, and they both have slightly indifferent tones to them. In the one performed by the informant, it holds a tragic, yet content, element in how all the Gods sacrificed themselves to keep the sun and life alive. In the second one, it seems like more a lighthearted story, where God wasn’t trying to trick the other but simply hesitated in fright. As Chicago is very far away from the Mexican border, it may reflect how the myth has changed over time to reflect a new telling.

Tiyanak

Context:

K is a 21 year-old woman with a mixed heritage. Her mother is Hispanic and her father is Filipino. She grew up for most of her life in California but spent lots of time with her Lolo (grandfather), who told her stories from the Philippines.

Context of this piece was in a Filipino restaurant where K started talking about her Filipino heritage. We asked her more questions about her Lolo and what he would tell her as a child.

Text:

K: “Well my Lolo would tell me about Tiyanaks all the time as a kid. He said they were somewhat of an evil spirit. The way they would trick people into coming close to them was to hide their true form and look like a baby. So they would transform into a baby, my Lolo said it was usually a newborn baby not really like a toddler or anything, and that they would cry. They used their cries as a trap to get people to hold and comfort them.

Me: “What would they do once they were held?”

K: “It would go back to looking like it did before and then they would attack the person holding them. That’s why my Lolo always reminded me about them whenever I’d go back to the Philippines to see family. He was always so scared I’d be too nice and pick up a baby like that, even though I always told him I wouldn’t. I was too much of a scaredy cat to ever pick up something like that after all my Lolo had warned me about.”

Analysis:

There are various stories and tales about the origins of tiyanaks. The Mandaya people of Mindanao claim that the tiyanak is the spirit of a child whose mother died before giving birth. It is said that this is why it was “born in the ground”, and now takes the form of a helpless baby seeking comfort. Due to the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in the 16th century, the tiyanak myth was integrated into Catholicism. The tiyanak from the Catholic version were made up supposedly of the souls of infants that died before being baptized. In the modern-day Philippines, the way a tiyanak is thought to be created from aborted fetuses that returned from death to seek revenge on those who deprived them from living a long lasting life. It is also told by people in the Philippines that the reason a Tiyanak becomes an evil spirit is because it cannot go to the afterlife because of not having a name. This is why it is assumed that it takes the form of others as it never had a true sense of identity. This supposedly causes them to be Earth-bound creatures which wander around searching for someone to give them names before attacking them.

Aswangs

Context:

K is a 21 year-old woman with a mixed heritage. Her mother is Hispanic and her father is Filipino. She grew up for most of her life in California but spent lots of time with her Lolo (grandfather), who told her stories from the Philippines.

Context of this piece was in a Filipino restaurant where K started talking about her Filipino heritage. We asked her more questions about her Lolo and Lola, and what stories  she had heard from them.

Text:

K: “This one creature scared me the most as a kid, I think. It’s just because it was so easy for it to change into anything and well my Lola would always tell the scariest stories to me. Aswangs are shapeshifters, they basically transform into another creature. They aren’t a universal monster type thing you know, but it’s used to name shape-shifting monsters.”

Me: “What kind of monster is a shapeshifting one?

K: “I’m sure there’s more but I can only remember my Lola telling me about two. I remember the vampire and the manananggal”

Me: “What’s the second one? I have no idea how to pronounce it or what it could be”

K: “Its somewhat like a vampire but it eats organs and takes a different shape than a vampire would. My Lola said in its human form it looked like a pale woman with beautiful hair that was so long it almost reached her knees! But it was something way different at night, it would separate itself from the waist up, hide its body, and then grow wings to look for prey……yeah, this one really left me scared”

Analysis:

Aswangs seem to be a part of Filipino folklore and the name itself is used as an umbrella-term for creatures that have the ability to morph into other beings. The aswangs can be labelled into different categories; vampires, weredogs, witches (Kulams), viscera suckers (aka manananggals), and ghouls. Vampires are a common part of western folklore but in contrast to the vampires from western cultures, the vampire aswang consumes blood through their tongues and not through fangs. In addition to sharing similar concepts of folklore with other cultures, the notion of a werewolf exists in Europe but as the Philippines has no indigenous wolf species, the term weredog was created in place. Weredogs are said to be aswangs as they shed their human form in the daytime for an animalistic one at night. In the Filipino folklore, not all witches can be considered aswangs. Only witches that have the capabilities of certain aswangs already can become one. Ghoul aswangs are typically considered humanoids that feast on freshly buried corpses. The viscera suckers, as said in the text, transform into winged creatures that are made up of half of their original body and hunt at night.

You can see more about Aswangs here at,  Ratcliff LK. Filipino Folklore. The Journal of American folklore. 1949;62(245):259-289. doi:10.2307/537202

https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/273cgt/cdi_crossref_primary_10_2307_537202

Duendes

Context:

J is a 23-year-old first generation Salvadorian-American  and resides in Southern California. Her dad would travel throughout Latin America when he was young, and she recalls the stories he would tell her as a child. Many of these stories were ones that her father had heard from others during his travels, so she enjoys spreading the stories to others.

The context of this piece was during a shift at a community center where the employees were asked about stories they had heard from their cultures or other for an upcoming cultural heritage event.

Text:

J: “So from what I know they’re like small little creatures. Kinda like gnome look-alikes.”

Me: “Are they bad creatures or are they a good omen?”

J: “Okay this is from like stories what my dad would tell us, like stories that they’re actually like bad creatures and like they live in Latin America because I haven’t heard of them here in the U.S. Like for example they would try to steal babies or a little kid’s soul. They’ll like snatch it and they’ll take it to like some river”

Me: “What happens after that?”

J: “You’d have to go to the river to claim it back. That’s what I know about them. They’re small and like a lot of little kids have said that ‘oh I’m playing with so and so’ and then the parents will be like ‘well who’s so and so?’ and the kid will be like ‘oh my little friend.’ Like little kids are the ones that can see them. For example, when a baby is crying like a lot a lot its because like the soul got snatched by the duende and the parents has to go to the like, to a river and like reclaim it. I don’t know how they reclaim it or what they have to say but that’s pretty much how they get it back.”

Analysis:

Duendes are cryptids that are said to inhabit places such as Spain, Portugal, the Philippines, Iberia, and Latin America. These mythical creatures are characterized differently with each culture that talks about them. Some describe Duendes as kind, helpful creatures that guide lost children while stories such as the one J gave depict them as mischievous and evil creatures that harm children. Although the characteristics of the Duendes change, their general description is consistent through ought as they are described as small, swift creatures with exaggerated facial features. I also found it interesting how J heard about the lore of the Duendes. Although she nor her father had “first-hand experiences” with the Duendes, they heard it through other people. The spread of lore in this case was through storytelling, this is so important because it continues to spread lore from one or multiple regions and distributes them across the globe