Seen on Second Life

[jarandhel]

"OtherKin is a religion that is rooted from Native American folklore.

Every member of this religion is called a Kin. Every group of Kin has a leader, who is called the Alfa Kin. Kin Pups are new members of the group. Your title will be changed once you find your spirit animal."

No. No no no no no. No. No. Noooo. No. Nonononononononono. No. Just no.

Comments

[arethinn]

O.o

You sure they didn't maybe just misappropriate a word? Or coin it independently with no idea that it already had a meaning? What's the wider context here?

[jarandhel]

100% sure? No. But I'd be really surprised if that was the case, particularly since they're trying to use terms from the therian community like Alpha (just misspelled).

As for context, there's not much. It's the description for a group: http://world.secondlife.com/group/9e94ea80-a620-99e8-3507-9469735d1cd6?lang=en-US

The owner seems to be involved in the furry community, so I'd find it a little odd if they were oblivious about the otherkin community and just happened to use the same term.

[arethinn]

It's just such a weird definition to attach to it. I'm going to hope they decided to take the word and make half the stuff up, a fantasy, rather than trying to imply that this is really what it means out in the real world.

[jarandhel]

I don't think so... that's not normally how Second Life groups work. Generally if they're role-playing or otherwise intending their groups to be fictional, they'll say so. And there are other Otherkin groups on Second Life. All of which, thankfully, use the standard definition rather than this one.

[solarbird]

LOL NO

[electricmoonshine]

LOL that is great!

[waywind.livejournal.com]

Here's my guess: this bizarre mess could be derived from those supernatural romance novels that use the word "OtherKin" to mean "shapeshifters whose human form is quite buff." The weird capitalization started with Anya Bast, if I remember correctly. I don't know if the romance novelists use the word "Alfa," since I've never been able to read any without getting nauseous after the first three paragraphs. The excerpts that I've read do indicate that the supernatural romance novels impose a lot of complex warlike or secret-society-like hierarchies upon their fictional "OtherKin."

*sigh* Someday I'm going to try to explain otherkin to an outsider, and they'll say, "Oh, you mean like in those romance novels? You can physically shift and you have glorious abs?"

And I will say YES THAT IS EXACTLY RIGHT. Er, no, no, I mean, I will be disgusted at the prospect of having to explain that some words can mean two completely different things, and it's not like that at all, and that I didn't appropriate a concept from pulp to describe myself. Or at least not from that pulp.

[jarandhel]

I lean strongly towards "Alfa" being a misspelling of alpha, as in a pack alpha. Not sure about the Anya Bast connection... it's possible, but I'm pretty sure I've seen some folks using camelcase independently of her books. Leinir for example: http://leinir.dk/leinir/content/en/OtherKin+FAQ

Also, the therianthropy community on LJ (http://therianthropy.livejournal.com/profile) was created in 2002, prior to the Anya Bast novels, and they appear to have used the same spelling: "Therianthropists and OtherKin Community Journal".

On the subject of the fiction, though, I'm disgusted that people have actually used the term for anything in fiction in the first place. One of the reasons otherkin was used rather than simply elf or dragon or fae, etc, was to help distinguish between resources talking about real people identifying as these beings and fictional sources/rpgs or mythological material.

I'm also extremely disgusted by the rising tide of people using "otherkin" to refer to nonhuman spirits whether they are incarnate or not. Devas, fae, etc.

[jarandhel]

Ugh, sadly it looks like there are LOTS of people misspelling alpha out there: http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22otherkin%22alfa%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=%22otherkin%22%2B%22alfa%22&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&tbo=1&rls=en&output=search&source=lnt&tbs=li:1&sa=X&ei=bNLhTtPBBcfZ0QGyrOH1BQ&ved=0CBMQpwUoCA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=13a68e2e1418cfb&biw=973&bih=559

[enotsola]

So, a class of trainees learning to be leaders would be alfa bits?

Don't judge me, I'm tired.

[jarandhel]

We're just lucky they're not another group of n00bs trying to found their own alfabit agency. And no judgement, I'm tired too. Damn insomnia..

[dogemperor]

This makes me headdesk on TWO separate and distinct levels (and you know both of 'em). :P

(Not to mention that pretty much most First Nations mythologies AT BEST considered shapeshifting something that shamans did, and usually shamans that would definitely be considered "left hand path" at best in neopagan terminology; if it wasn't something the result of shamanic activity, it was the result of PERMANENT rituals (I'm thinking how the Ani Yona became bears) or because you basically spent too long in the spirit world and ate food offered you by the spirit people. All in all it was considered something Very Dangerous, not the least to one's sense of self.)

And I expect there would be at least some folks who would raise all manner of hell once the whole bastardisation-of-totemism is brought in... (Yes, I have known weres who were "totemic weres", in that they had a close relationship with an Animal Master and were occasionally "ridden" by said Animal Master; no, they didn't try to set up some organised religion based on a bastardisation of pack structure.)

(And as an aside, this is one of many, many, many reasons I avoid Second Life like I would avoid the lovechild of Ebola Zaire and Vietnamese Duck Flu. :P

[maellenkleth]

aaargh oh yuck. :(

amazing what people can come up with, isn't it?

[jarandhel]

Yeah. :(

[maellenkleth]

hee! well, 'hidden in plain sight' is more than a mere literary reference; we actually do exist, here and there in our households, families and other aggregations.

good to meet you here. ^_^

oh, user-icon is of an old piece of my silverwork: triple-strand spiral of cast-silver wire, wrought into a star mostly as an experiment of fabrication, not really wearable, nor was it meant to be.

the leaf in the background is a bigleaf-maple (Quercus macrophyllum) from the Olympic rainforest of Washington State.