Ritva Kurittu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Joanne,
>
> You wrote to Stephanie:
> You seem to be saying they are either human or
> supernatural. What about a third or even a fourth
> possibility?
>
> I agree! And as it happens, I find the third
> possibility most probable. In other words, I'd say
> skinwalkers are humans with supernatural
> abilities. With supernatural abilities I mean
> powers, that are not reached by everybody. Just
> like the powers of a whitchdoctor, a medicine man
> or a magician. In this context it does not really
> matter how we call them, but the bottom line is,
> these people have the ability to reach to the
> essence of the Coyote (as being part of the
> universe, naturally).
> Stephanie seems to put a lot of weight to the
> fact, that the skinwalkers are trained since their
> childhood, and possibly sees that as a sign of
> them being just "mere humans". Well, the medicine
> men and witchdoctors have the same sort of
> training also. They need to learn the herbs, the
> drugs, the rituals and the workings of the
> energies used.
> Add to this, that the skinwalkers actually need to
> learn how to move on all four, which IMO, probably
> is the hardest part of all. A good pointer to that
> direction is the picture of the skinwalker in this
> thread: the turquoise jewelry seems to cover the
> knuckles, as if being protective.
> Another pointer towards this is, as Joanne tried
> to bring up here, is the reaction of the animals.
> Animals are very sensitive to powers of this sort.
> If the overall feeling flowing from the
> skinwalkers is fear (as it probably is) then they
> control the animals by it. And can very probably
> get the dogs and cats to link the feeling of fear
> to the mere sound of the flute.
>
> The wear of the animal skins is symbolic. In it's
> simplicity it means having the power of the animal
> which skin is involved. I honestly don't think any
> native would do it lightly and therefore see it as
> probable, that these people have the power of the
> Coyote. Why Coyote? Because it involves fear, and
> fear is the most powerful weapon in the world.
> Just my two cents, and European at that.
>
I can't get my head around your third option. Humans having powers that aren't reached by everyone have unusual powers, rare powers, etc. But those powers still are surely inherent in homo sapiens sapiens, even if only as potential in most humans (or maybe not, maybe some might be genetically selected).

But that doesn't make them supernatural, any more than any animal abilities or senses could be described as supernatural -- such abilities, sense, etc. are part of nature.

Doug


Doug Weller

Director The Hall of Ma'at
Doug's Skeptical Archaeology site::
[www.ramtops.co.uk]