omg Metis people also do lying contests! I’ll have to go look at that Hurston quote. I’ve heard them described as “people sitting around trying to see who can tell the biggest whopper of a story.” Also it’s interesting how many Indigenous people I know go into academia because of this idea that if we just reveal all the distortions as you call them, then surely that will fix things. Makes me think about Eve Tuck’s essay on damage-centered research being based on a theory of change that’s like “if I show the powers that be how bad things are for this group, then surely someone will do something to change it.” Which has just over and over again failed to materialize change. But it’s especially interesting to me because almost every person I know who grew up in a community that has been “anthropologized” knows a story about how when the anthros came to record our culture, Indigenous people told them a lot of wacky lies to pull their legs and get them off our backs. Idk, a lot to consider but I appreciate this offering :)
I love this! Lying as a trans-border/cross-international method! I love the idea of convening liars to lie.
Had I the time, the resources, and the discipline, oh, what we could do!
Do you know if there's a specific term for lying?
The quote is from Mules and Men, worth reading all of it, if you're at all interested in folklore—AND I THINK YOU ARE! Though I also know your reading pile is the size of many mountains!
I have just heard it called kahkiyaashkihk which is like “lying (in general)” or more specifically like moneewitowak aweena nawach chi-kahkiyaashkit “they challenge each other to see who could tell the biggest lie.” There is a great recording about this in Michif with Michif and English subtitles on youtube (https://youtu.be/TxPnxRnAtIU?si=dD9mQugcmpM_jHy4) which I love as an example of Métis storytelling. The mentioned Verna and Grace are my first two Michif teachers and you can see how the whole story is set up first with these relationships between their relatives and the speaker Norman…and how Norman is basically telling the younger recorder (Dale) how NORMAN’s elders used to tell HIM about these stories when Norman was the young generation. So it’s also a story about multigenerational transfer of knowledge (about lying. lol) anyway I know you like to see the language stuff so thought I’d drop the link :)
omg Metis people also do lying contests! I’ll have to go look at that Hurston quote. I’ve heard them described as “people sitting around trying to see who can tell the biggest whopper of a story.” Also it’s interesting how many Indigenous people I know go into academia because of this idea that if we just reveal all the distortions as you call them, then surely that will fix things. Makes me think about Eve Tuck’s essay on damage-centered research being based on a theory of change that’s like “if I show the powers that be how bad things are for this group, then surely someone will do something to change it.” Which has just over and over again failed to materialize change. But it’s especially interesting to me because almost every person I know who grew up in a community that has been “anthropologized” knows a story about how when the anthros came to record our culture, Indigenous people told them a lot of wacky lies to pull their legs and get them off our backs. Idk, a lot to consider but I appreciate this offering :)
I love this! Lying as a trans-border/cross-international method! I love the idea of convening liars to lie.
Had I the time, the resources, and the discipline, oh, what we could do!
Do you know if there's a specific term for lying?
The quote is from Mules and Men, worth reading all of it, if you're at all interested in folklore—AND I THINK YOU ARE! Though I also know your reading pile is the size of many mountains!
Also yes I actually have a copy of that book!!! Haven’t read much of it, I got it at a used bookstore years ago. But I shall bump it up the list haha
I have just heard it called kahkiyaashkihk which is like “lying (in general)” or more specifically like moneewitowak aweena nawach chi-kahkiyaashkit “they challenge each other to see who could tell the biggest lie.” There is a great recording about this in Michif with Michif and English subtitles on youtube (https://youtu.be/TxPnxRnAtIU?si=dD9mQugcmpM_jHy4) which I love as an example of Métis storytelling. The mentioned Verna and Grace are my first two Michif teachers and you can see how the whole story is set up first with these relationships between their relatives and the speaker Norman…and how Norman is basically telling the younger recorder (Dale) how NORMAN’s elders used to tell HIM about these stories when Norman was the young generation. So it’s also a story about multigenerational transfer of knowledge (about lying. lol) anyway I know you like to see the language stuff so thought I’d drop the link :)
I adore this story of the drunk, frog-trading snake!
Oh this is brilliant!! Your words on method have unlocked something in my brain. I can’t put it into words yet but thank you.