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wa, which may have meant " owl." Parallels.The Proto-Algonquian term has been reconstructed as * wi Other transliterations include Wiindigoo, Weendigo, Windego, Wiindgoo, Windgo, Windago, Windiga, Wendego, Windagoo, Widjigo, Wiijigoo, Wijigo, Weejigo, Wìdjigò, Wintigo, Wentigo, Wehndigo, Wentiko, Windgoe, W?tik?, and Wintsigo.Ī plural form windigoag is also spelled windegoag, wiindigooag, or windikouk. In the Cree language it is w?htikow, also transliterated wetiko. The source of the English word is the Ojibwe word wiindigoo. The word appears in many Native American languages, and has many alternative translations. In some First Nations communities other symptoms such as insatiable greed and destruction of the environment are also thought to be symptoms of Wendigo psychosis.
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Wendigo psychosis is described as a culture-bound syndrome. In modern psychiatry the wendigo lends its name to a form of psychosis known as "Wendigo psychosis" which is characterized by symptoms such as: an intense craving for human flesh and an intense fear of becoming a cannibal.
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Possibly due to longtime identification by Europeans with their own superstitions about werewolves, for example as mentioned in The Jesuit Relations below, Hollywood film representations often label human/beast hybrids featuring antlers or horns with the "wendigo" name, but such animal features do not appear in the original indigenous stories. In some representations the wendigo is described as a giant humanoid with a heart of ice a foul stench or sudden, unseasonable chill might precede its approach. The wendigo is said to invoke feelings of insatiable greed/hunger, the desire to cannibalize other humans, as well as the propensity to commit murder in those that fall under its influence. The wendigo is often said to be a malevolent spirit, sometimes depicted as a creature with human-like characteristics, which possesses human beings. It is based in and around the East Coast forests of Canada, the Great Plains region of the United States, and the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, grouped in modern ethnology as speakers of Algonquian-family languages. Wendigo is a mythological creature or evil spirit which originates from the folklore of Plains and Great Lakes Natives as well as some First Nations.
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