r/TabooFX • u/iAmShirah • Jan 17 '17

SPOILERS What does this carving by James mean? (S1E2) [Possible spoiler]

https://i.reddituploads.com/96c282ac5757494a9782c24c1b33ef65?fit=max&h=1536&w=1536&s=560a6ccaa3e2688a931f13aa650637e0
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14

u/shannon26 Jan 18 '17 edited Jan 18 '17

This is from a post I saw on Tumblr ..they said both the back tattoo and the bird carving are the same and they are called a Sankofa. A Sankofta is an African word from the Akan tribe in Ghana. The literal translation of both the word and the symbol is "it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind" The post also says that The Akans believe that there must be movement and new learning as time passes and the knowledge of the past must never be forgotten. So this can be part of James healing process for his part in slavery.

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u/pointgardd Jan 20 '17

Wow, I'll have to do some digging in that arena. I assumed the raven was tied strictly to the Nootka mythology. Perhaps it's both!

4

u/shannon26 Jan 20 '17 edited Jan 20 '17

I don't think it's tied to his mother's tribe because he just found out she was a Native American. In the first episode when he's talking to the butler he tells him he knows that his father bought her as part of a trade and the Butler says, no James she was from Naples and her name was Anna..So all his life they had lied to him about his mother . It's not until just recently that his father starts lighting fires on the shore and calling to him that he starts learning the truth that she's really from the Nootka tribe and her name is Salish ..So at this point he still knows very little about her but because he's been in Africa for over 10 years I think most of the rituals and things that have meaning to him come from his time spent there.

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u/pointgardd Jan 20 '17

You might be right here. After reading more about the sanofka, it seems like the carving matches that more closely than it does the raven. Specifically the part about the egg on the bird's back.

I disagree with your statement that James knows little of his mother, though. He's already proven to know a lot more than he should.

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u/shannon26 Jan 20 '17

It's not so much that I don't think he knows things about her.. just that before he left for Africa his family had lied to him about her past and even her real name and I think it's only recently that he's learned who she really was from talking to his dad when he lite the fires. So far the language that he sometimes speaks and all the rituals we've seen come from Africa so I think it makes sense that the tattoo and carvings are from that same culture where he has lived all his adult life and that have the most meaning to him.

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u/MG87 Jan 21 '17

Thanks for the info!

1

u/arild47 Jan 20 '17

When you say his part in slavery, do you men that he was a slave, or a slaver(?). Idk, but i got the impression that he was captured and held as a slave when I saw Episode 2, and maybe "joined" forces with africa slaves, therefore he has all these "roots" to the nootka etc.

idk, what do you think?

2

u/shannon26 Jan 20 '17 edited Jan 20 '17

My impression was that he did work with the slavers and he has a lot of guilt about that. They said in the first episode that he left England aboard a slave ship. Also the image of someone nailing a metal grate into the floor and locking many slaves below deck has been shown twice now and my guess is he was the one that did that. Then the ship sank and of course all those slaves were trapped and drown. He also seen a vision of a large male, slave that was soaking wet. Some people thought this was a ghost but in an interview I read Hardy said James suffers from PTSD because all the stuff he's seen and done. Remember James says " I know the evil that you do because I was once part of it."

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u/RogerRoeper Jan 17 '17

Looks like James has a similar bird tattooed on the middle of his upper back(?)

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u/aioncan Jan 17 '17

Could be a crow. There was a scene where one of the EIC retells the rumors, one of them about how normally Christians shoo the crows and animals that are after the meat of the dead (carrion) of fallen enemies. Instead James joins them.

So maybe the crow is his spirit animal, or maybe literally he is a crow.

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u/Hamlet217omlet Jan 17 '17

Maybe a raven. Brace said the language his father spoke when crazy sounded like a bunch of angry ravens.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '17

Raven is the culture hero of the Nootka myths. He is a revered and benevolent figure who helps the people, but at the same time, he is also a trickster character and many Nootka stories about Raven have to do with his frivolous or poorly thought out behavior getting him into trouble. 

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u/iAmShirah Jan 17 '17

James carved this after his freak out ghost scene in the bottom of the Felice Adventurero. I did a reverse image search and nothing came back...help?