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THEORIES ON THE NORTH AMERICAN
TRICKSTER
The Trickster is a well-known and beloved figure in many myths over much of the world, but he is best known from two continents, North America and Africa. In North America he is characteristically portrayed as a being from the early mythological times when the animals appeared as human beings - human in mentality and thinking, animals in form — and the trickster himself was often zoomorphic and behaved as an impostor and cheater. No wonder therefore that the trickster is a central person in North American mythology. Indeed, in most tribal myth collections most narratives circle around this remarkable joker. At the same time he is often a serious figure, a transformer of the world, or a culture hero. It should be noted that the denomination "trickster" has been invented, as Sam Gill reminds us, by scholars in America in order to characterize a certain type of aboriginal mythical and folkloristic being (Gill & Sullivan 1992:308). Indians have in their own languages no particular term for the same figure, although Daniel Brinton's calling the Algonkin representative "cheat and liar" (Brinton 1890:130 ff) is taken from the Catholic missionary Father Albert Lacombe's translation of the Cree buffoon (Wisakejak) as "trickster" and "deceiver" (Lacombe 1874). It should however be pointed out that the Cree name probably "was unanalyzeable even three thousand years ago" (Brown & Brightman 1988:125). It is thus obvious that the trickster is a most enigmatic character. So many questions confront the listener of these tales. Why is he referred to mythology — outside of America myths in general are dignified and have a serious intent. Is he some kind of semi-divinity? What is his true function in ethnic folklore? Is he an object of entertainment, or a bewildered spirit? What are the relations between the trickster and culture hero traits?
Interested scholars, anthropologists, mythologists, folklorists, literary critics and students of religion such as Allan Chinen, above, have from time to time tried to tackle this problem. A survey of some representatives of the scholarly world and their opinions will give us a fascinating study of two notable facts: the division of promulgated theories according to the scholars' academic background, and the role of the scientific traditions for the interpretations of the trickster. The first notes on the trickster emanate from the early white
intruders. We find them for instance among the Jesuit Fathers. One of
them, the famous Paul le Jeune, tells us in his Relation of What
Occurred in New France in the Year 1634, how after the great deluge
in the beginning of the world, according to the Montagnais Indians of
Labrador, there was a certain Messou who restored the world. However, le
Jeune says, "they have burdened this truth [about the flood] with a
great many irrelevant fables." Thus, we find here the story of
Pandora's box as a package given to "a certain Savage" by
Messou. The man's inquisitive wife opened it so that its immortal
essence flew away, and since then mankind has been subject to death
(Kenton 1954:52f). Obviously then the first white man who listened to the stories of the marvellous being from early mythic days had to try to combine the two difficult facets. No wonder that some of the missionaries made a direct connection between the trickster and the Christian devil (Hultkrantz 1977:412f, 443 note 11, 428f). Not unexpectedly, the later scholarly discussion was most confused. The Early North American Scholarly Interpretations In America where, to some extent, most sources on Indian folklore and
religion were available early on there were some general notices on the
trickster at the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, there was
little or no discussion of how this contradictory character should be
understood. A good example is Schoolcraft's notes on the concept in his
pioneering work on American Indian tribes (1851-1857). Thus, Schoolcraft mentions that there are two gods in Indian theology
which strongly remind us of the old Persian dualism between Ormuzd and
Ahriman, representatives of the good and evil powers in the existence
(vol. I:636, vol. V:407). Schoolcraft arranged all the lesser spirits
under these two main gods, imitating the Persian pattern. We shall
return to this matter. Schoolcraft had a great influence on the American intellectual public
through his publications on the Ojibway culture hero, Manabozho
(Schoolcraft 1851-1857, vol. I:317-319, 1839:135-171). Certainly the
information was rather confusing, but, as Schoolcraft himself admitted,
no informant agreed with another on the chain of events (cf. Vecsey
1983:88). Schoolcraft may be accused of having played around with the identity
of his tricksters and culture heroes. When Henry W. Longfellow wrote his
famous poem The Song of Hiawatha he adorned this historical hero
of the Iroquois with the legends and myths surrounding the Ojibway
Manabozho. This was certainly a licentia poetica that Longfellow
was able to utilize. Immediately after Longfellow's publication
Schoolcraft issued a new edition of his Algic researches which he
called — The Myth of Hiawatha (School-craft 1856)! In this work
he light-heartedly transferred the Ojibway myths to the Iroquois (cf.
Williams 1956:xviii, xix, xxi, 300 note). Another older author who was interested in the trickster theme was
the learned Philadelphia scholar, Daniel G. Brinton. In his Myths of
the New World (1868), the first comprehensive treatise on American
Indian mythology, he particularly dwells on the Algonkin and Iroquois
Indians (ibid:173-190). Like Schoolcraft before him he saw in the
trickster a mainly religious figure: |
