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• 1 media/Nomadic_Tribes_of_Asia.jpg 2019-04-26T19:07:01-07:00 The Inferiorizing of Nomadic Culture in "The Shadow Beast" 31 Analyzing how Sofia Samatar uses the story of Cain and Abel as an allegory in "The Shadow Beast" for the rejection of nomadic culture. image_header 2021-01-13T05:26:16-08:00                In Monster Portraits there is a short story called "The Shadow Beast," which  is about a nomadic person who teaches the narrator of the story about his own shadow beast, an animal that is used for travel, shelter, clothing, sustenance, and more. As the rider talks, the narrator makes mental observations: "The nomads are excluded; they are outcasts…In their breasts beat the hearts of beasts…they have never been regarded as part of humanity."The rider says matter-of-factly to the narrator, "Look well into your past and you will know whom God loved." The narrator begins to think about what life was like for Cain, who was forced to live outside of his own people and among the beasts in the wilderness because he was not as good as his brother. After snapping back to reality, the narrator notes that she "felt sweaty, gritty. Longing for a hotel. The rider is right. Cain was the murderer but Abel was the monster." 

  Samatar's Connection to the story of Cain & Abel

                Sofia Samatar grew up in a unique household: her father was Muslim and her mother was Mennonite. In an in-class interview, she talks about how conservatively she grew up due to both of the religious backgrounds of her parents and she was always very aware of balancing the traditions of both religions and cultures growing up. In "The Shadow Beast," Samatar references the Biblical story of Cain and Abel because she said that she wanted to attend to Abrahamic traditions that appear in Christianity, Muslim, and Islam. For those who aren't familiar with the story in Genesis 4:1-16, Cain and Abel were sons of Adam and Eve. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd; when they were asked to give an offering to God, Cain gave roots from the ground and Abel sacrificed one of his lambs. God believed that Cain's offering was not the best that could have been offered, as Abel's was. Cain's jealousy over his brother led him to murder Abel; when God asked where Abel was, Cain lied and said he was not his brother's keeper and did not know. As punishment God permanently marked Cain, cursing him so that he would never be able to successfully live in society again and making him a nomad for eternity.  

  Nomadic Life vs. Settler Life

              The narrator's final realization points to the idea that because of Abel, nomadic culture became demonized. There is no arguing that Cain was guilty of killing his brother out of jealousy and he is in every way responsible for that action. However, Samatar hints that Abel is the true monster because his lifestyle was the preferred one of God; the product of Cain's labor that he sacrificed was not as good as his brother's, which ultimately made him the lesser brother. God's punishment was sentencing Cain to a nomadic lifestyle instead of a settler one, which inherently paints the former as evil or wrong. However, as the narrator in "The Shadow Beast" learns about the rider's lifestyle she realizes that it is just different from her own, not better or worse. The narrator reiterates that nomadic people are outcasts and seen as inferior by settled society, but as she spends more time with them (and craves the safety of being clean and confined in a hotel) she realizes that she is the inferior one in their culture. But her sudden consciousness of this dichotomy is only that; as the rider points out, there has always been a clear distinction between the two cultures. The idea that settling is not only better, but sanctioned by God, dates back to the story of Cain and Abel and set the precedent for the rest of existence.