Trickster

Hey Guys,

I apologize for how long it took me to make this blog. I hope that I can make up for the post I missed with some interesting and hopefully sometimes humorous information I come across in this course. I have never blogged before, so I am excited to give this a shot.

Last week, we talked about the trickster tales. I found these to be rather enjoyable and definitely far from what I expected. Before reading any of the tales, I figured they were some sort of morality plays used to instill children with a culture’s sense of morality. More specifically, I expected them to be rather light-hearted and child friendly. Though for the most part they did deal with morals and warnings, the trickster tales also included creation myths and several strange fecal adventures. My first reaction was easily, “Why tell your children tales through the use of loose-stooled coyote?” Out of interest, I researched what was meant in this context by trickster to maybe see if that could help me out.

After meandering around the web for some time, I actually settled onto the trickster page of Wikipedia, everyone’s favorite and entirely reliable source of information. The quick introduction on the page says this:

In, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. It is suggested by Hansen (2001) that the term "Trickster" was probably first used in this context by Daniel G. Brinton 

This actually raised some thoughts. In a few tales, the coyote is a main character.  He plays many roles including the creator and trouble maker. In a way perhaps it seems that these trickster tales could be considered some type of religion, especially with the creation myths included. I mean, without attempting to offend anyone, is the Bible not some sort of story used to teach people the correct way to live? However, in going this far with this idea I have to wonder about one thing, and that is the treatment of the creator elsewhere in the trickster tales.  It almost like, show a god creating the earth…now show him trying to poop over a fallen buffalo. Though this may take research for another day, I actually believe this is due to the Native American view of nature, and possibly a natural religion they somewhat follow.

Well, thanks for reading.  I will attempt to look further into this to make up for last week’s post. Also, if you want to see more about the trickster you can look here. 


So it seems I am having difficulty posting the quote from Wikipedia, just follow the link right above this, the quote is just the intro paragraph.