suggestion: replace* appropriative references to the wendigo

[atomicthumbs]

Going to be honest here, I'm not seeing anything in the SS13 wendigo that's not also in wendigo legend, other than the obvious "is in space" thing.  The legend of the wendigo occurs in dozens of cultures across half a continent and varies considerably between them - the anthropophagy, the connection to winter, and the supernatural nature of the thing being the shared bit.  The insistence on defining mythological things, forcing them into boxes and saying "this is x" and "this is not x" is an outgrowth of the Enlightenment, and while it may be useful for academic purposes it's contrary to the way humans have interacted with mythology for pretty much all of recorded history, and can very easily lead into defining a culture's legends for them.

I'm kind of rambling here now and I don't want to turn this into an actual essay so uh.

If someone has complained, then by all means, change the name.  If no one has then be aware that, however well-meaning your attempts at combating appropriation are, you run the risk of whitewashing and cultural imperialism* if done without the support and/or consultation of the people whose culture is being appropriated.



*this isn't quite the right term but I can't for the life of me remember what the right term is

Howdy, I'm the person who originally raised the issue for Coolstation, and a (lapsed) Goonstation admin since 2013. The thing that impelled me was an online friend who is Ojibwe complaining about colonizers using the concept or term, however accurate or inaccurate for the legend.

Unfortunately I can't find their impassioned posts on the issue, not just because they've been through multiple Twitter accounts, but because the taboo is such that they really hate talking about the subject at all. Not only that, but I remember distinctly that they refused to use its name because you aren't even supposed to talk about it. 

The issue isn't one of "this is or isn't sticking to the canon of the legend," it's one of "we aren't from the cultures the legend belongs to, and really shouldn't be 'borrowing' parts of it." Discussing whether the depiction is or isn't accurate is secondary to the core issues, the primary one being that even if it were perfectly accurate to the legend, it's still very likely to bother anyone from the cultures it belongs to, detracting from their enjoyment of a game that should be welcoming.

The other issue is: nobody in Goonstation, as far as I know, are First Nations, and it's not our legend to use, as colonizers or as people in other nations. Indigenous peoples in the Americas today have had their land stolen and their cultures nearly annihilated. Cultural plundering even on a small scale isn't the way we should be doing things; appropriating the name for an "ice world" video game enemy is the literal definition of the whitewashing and cultural imperialism you're worried about.