Furry Academia

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Dedicated to explaining “were” and “furry” to “ordinary” people
Also dedicated to the were/furry communities

Note: This document has been modified from its original format.  The only thing that has been modified is that headers/footers do not appear on every page.  The information they contained has been moved to the front of this document.  Some extra information has also been added for the curious.

A Works Cited is provided at the end of this paper for people who wish to do further research.

Written by “BlindWolf8” aka Dan Fischbach
Originally titled “Animals in Society”
Written for: Rolanne Henry
Original course/section: HUM 211-104 – The Pre-Modern World
College written for: New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
College location: USA
Citation format: MLA
Originally finished/completed on: Wednesday, ‎March ‎29th, ‎2006

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Thanks for the furriness Ryu.

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	Animals have been an integral part of human life.  Today’s society keeps them as pets, or tries to save those species of animals which we are about to lose forever.  Other societies, such as those of Native Americans, respect animals and all other parts of nature in general.  They try to learn as much as they can from them, since they believe that they came before humans, and are superior because of this (Brown 94).  Still, other humans in today’s modern society prefer to live or act like animals.  Animals have been a part of movies and stories throughout time.  In some stories, they retain their feral nature, while other times, they have become human-like to portray important messages.
American Indians have lived off of the land for hundreds of years.  During this time period, there have been many pieces of folklore passed around from tribe to tribe, and from generation to generation.  Most of these pieces of folklore talk about animals, and are designed to teach us lessons, or to explain how the world as we know it today was created.  One of the most interesting things about these animals is that they have human-like qualities, such as their being able to talk with man.  These kinds of animals have been around since Egyptian times, with such figures as Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death.  Another example of this is the almighty Sphinx, who has the head of a man, and the body of a lion, which is still standing, albeit weathered, to this day (Benton 32-33).
Talking animals in the Native American culture might seem childish, or make the culture seem primitive compared to today’s modern society because of the many Disney movies that play on this theme, but to Native Americans, animals are superior to humans.  These talking animals were known as the First People, and were gods in disguise.  When humans and the world we know now were created by them, the First People lost their human qualities and became the animals that they are today (Ballinger 44-45).
	One of the most popular stories in American Indian folklore is the story of the creation of the world.  There are many variations of it.  One variation is that Silver Fox created the world by “the power of his thought,” but Coyote “is responsible for the evil in the world.”  This variation is popular among a tribe in northwest California (118).  Another variation sets Wolf, the Elder Brother of Coyote, as the creator of the world which is utopian.  Coyote then transforms the world into a “human” world, or the world as we see it today.  Comanche tribes believed in this story.  Apparently, the reason why Coyote decided to change the world from a utopian one (“…to make humanity’s life…easy and deathless”) to a normal one was that he wanted “to make people take life seriously” (142).
	There are many other characters in Native American mythology.  Coyote is the main creation character in the plains, whereas in the Northwest part of the United States, Raven is.  In Raven’s creation story, he drops a stone into water and it becomes the world we now live in.  Another important story involving Raven tells of how Raven steals the Sun, Moon, Stars, Fresh Water, and Fire, entitled “Raven Steals the Sun,” and brought them into the world for all to enjoy (“”).  There are other titles to this story such as “Raven Steals the Moon” (Ballinger 57-59) and “Raven Steals the Light” (Bastian 158).  In each story, Raven steals something, and in two of the three different variations of this story, the authors say that Raven’s feathers turn black (they were originally white) because they became charred while holding the Sun too long.  This explains why a Raven’s feathers are black, so say the Native Americans.  This part of the story is not mentioned in Ballinger’s version.  Instead, at the end Raven broke the moon in half, which explains why we only see parts of the moon at certain times (waxing and waning).  “He then broke the moon into halves…and threw [half of] it up hard into the air, the sun as well” (Ballinger 59).  By contrast, “Raven Steals the Sun” is the only story in which Raven steals more than the Moon, Sun and Stars.
	Lastly, another interesting story involving Coyote is “How Bluebird Got Its Color.”  The story tells of Bluebird bathing in a lake each morning for fives days while singing a magical song, and on the fifth day, he emerged from the lake with blue feathers.  Coyote, who was then green, also wanted to be blue.  Bluebird told Coyote what he did, and he did just that.  Coyote then emerged on the fifth day also blue.  He was so happy with his new color (even his shadow was blue), and was looking to see if anyone noticed it that he did not watch where he was going and ran into a tree stump, where he fell into a pile of dirt.  He was covered with dust.  This is why coyotes are the color of dust and bluebirds are blue (Bastian 113-114).
	Animals are present in other parts of Native American culture besides stories, such as in paintings.  Brown notes, “Among the Plains tribes, an animal painted on a shield or lodge cover is understood to be really present with the fullest of its particular spiritual powers” (Brown 62).  For example, if a wolf was painted on the shield, the bearer would have “fleet movement[s] and knowledge of vast terrain” (72).  Another example of this is if an animal is painted on a person’s tipi.  Animals were painted around a tipi in such a manner that if a person entered the tipi, he or she would feel as if entering the animal itself.  Only someone who had received a vision or someone carefully chosen was allowed to paint an image on a tipi, as it held a great connection to the spiritual world (73).
Animal skins are also a part of their culture.  Some tribes believe that to puncture an animal skin or hide is not appropriate.  A hunter would need to run after the animal on foot and suffocate it to keep the animal’s “sacred life breath.”  If the animal’s hide was to be used as clothing, the skinner would not try to cut the skin in any way.  It was believed that doing this would dishonor said animal.  If a person was to put on the skin of an animal as clothing, they then would “partake of the spiritual quality or power latent” in said skin.  “…[A]ll beings and resources of creation were understood to manifest…powers, which could be assimilated by humans” (66).  Even the bones which are leftover are treated with care, as hunters associate them with both death and life, for there cannot be death without life.  “…[B]one is…the very source and essence of life” (70).
	Reincarnation is another big part of Native American culture.  Most reincarnation is human-to-human, meaning that a human soul will be reincarnated into another human.  A warrior’s life that is cut short will be reincarnated.  The Native Americans could tell when a person was reincarnated via birthmarks, or if past life was recalled in a person’s memory.  This mostly happened to tribes living on the plains and the Eastern United States (Mills 24).  One interesting thing that Mills points out is that the Karankawa tribe, which lives on what is now modern-day Texas, are said to have “mourned the birth and celebrated the death of children, ‘because…death [is] …a journey from whence he will return, but…birth [is] …an entrance into a life of perils and misfortunes’” (25).  Tribes in California have reported transmigration (reincarnations into animals) (25).  This is often rare, as Mills notes that human-to-human reincarnation happens four times as much as human-to-animal reincarnation or being an animal before birth.  She also says that there have been eleven cases where a human was transformed into an animal at death, but then reborn again as a human.  Even though human-to-animal reincarnation seems rare, there have been a lot of unrecorded cases, of course, since these recordings have only started in recent human memory.  Land hunters are said to return as wolves, sea hunters return as killer whales, and common people return as owls or ghosts.  A tribe by the name of the Kwakiutl also believes that twins will be reincarnated as salmon (32-33).  Mills also notes that people can have dreams or visions of people that are soon to be reincarnated (161-162).
	The last subject that is to be discussed about Native American mythology is that of vision quests.  A vision quest usually encompasses a person going out into the wild and finding his or her animal helper.  This animal must choose the person.  The animal helper then gives that person a certain power, or a cure for an illness.  When said person returns with his or her animal helper’s gift, the elders say that the animal helper’s gift is only a “feeble reflection” of the animal’s true power.  The visit with a person’s animal helper must remain private, or the power he or she received will disappear.  If a person were to discuss what their animal helper was in the open, the animal helper may not help that person, or worse, turn against them (159-160).  “People may think that they know about animals, but…a human’s powers are insignificant.  Animals have special abilities which they depend upon to live, giving us only the powers which they no longer need” (159).  All of the above is from a Dene Tha tribe’s point of view.  The Lakota tribes viewed finding out a person’s animal helper much differently.  The Lakota Brave Buffalo said, “Let a man decide upon his favorite animal and make a study of it….  The animals want communicate with man, but…man must do the greater part in securing an understanding” (Brown 95).  In the Lakota sense, animals will help a person in need only if he or she takes the time to understand their ways.  Animal helpers can also be known as totems, spirit guides, or guardian spirits (Mills 31).
	Guardian spirits are nothing new in today’s modern world.  Many people have heard of a guardian angel protecting them.  edium (spirituality)”“”“”
Wikipedia describes this best as:“””
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Dene Tha tribe’s point of view
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	This subculture has more information about it than that is mentioned here.  Amazingly, not much, if any, has been written about this subculture in books.  Since furs and weres feel they can express themselves online more freely than if they were in the public eye where they would be ridiculed and shunned due to stereotyping, a majority of information about them is found online.
In 2006, it seems that some Native American cultures have wormed their way into modern society and have become something totally new with the advent of the Internet and other forms of communication.  Unfortunately, our society as a whole is very stubborn, and doesn’t accept new things very well.  We must remember that we are all different, and that we should not shun other people because of their race, religion, personal beliefs, and so forth.  We must respect Native Americans (and any other race or group of people) as much as we respect ourselves, because Native Americans seem to be the last source of honor there is in this world, as they respect and use animals to their fullest potential, unlike the slaughterhouses of today.  Unfortunately, we do not live in the world that elder brother Wolf had created.

Works Cited
Ballinger, Franchot. Living Sideways: Tricksters in American Indian Oral Traditions. Oklahoma: U of Oklahoma P, 2004.

Bastian, Dawn E., and Judy K. Mitchell. Handbook of Native American Mythology. California: ABC-CLIO, 2004.

Benton, Janetta Rebold, and Robert DiYanni. Arts and Culture: Special Edition for New Jersey Institute of Technology. New Jersey: Pearson, 2005.

Brown, Joseph Epes, and Emily Cousins. Teaching Spirits: Understanding Native American Religious Traditions. New York: Oxford, 2001.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_lycanthropy>.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_fandom>.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_lifestyler>.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemono>.

“Medium (spirituality).” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_%28spirituality%29>.

Mills, Antonia, and Richard Slobodin, eds. Amerindian Rebirth: Reincarnation Belief among North American Indians and Inuit. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1994.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_%28mythology%29>.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Brown>.

“.” 23 Mar. 2006 <http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/1927/greenspiral/resource.html>.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therianthropy>.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totem>.

“.” Wikipedia. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiff>.