Considered by scholars of religion as humanity’s most ancient god. “Trickster” is a truly
universal figure with many faces and roles. In North America, he is ubiquitous in Native
American lore, where he takes the form of Coyote, Rabbit, Raven, and others. He is
equally strong in African American traditions, where he is seen as Brer Rabbit, John, and
Shine, among others. He appears in the traditions of yet other minority groups, such as
the Latter-Day Saints and European immigrant groups. He lurks in European antiquity in
the form of Hermes, Loki, and Christ, but—provocatively—it is now difficult to identify
anything in the folklore of mainstream Euro-America that smacks of Trickster, unless the
tall tale is rooted in that tradition.
Trickster is more likely to be discovered through roles and functions than through
labels and appearances. As the scholarly name suggests, one of the characteristic
activities of Trickster is the playing of tricks. Inordinately clever, he frequently lures
others into humiliation, injury, or even death. He gives false hope of new skills and
powers, but others are harmed by the attempt to emulate him. He betrays anyone who
trusts him, and, in the venerable tradition of con artists everywhere, he reveals their
venality and stupidity. Even in the grimmest of situations, as when he murders babies, he
is likely to leave a propped-up smiling head as a final trick for the returning parent. As if
to redress the balance, he reveals his own astounding ignorance of even the most basic
realities, as in the story of his challenge of Rattlesnake to a biting contest, with fatal
results to himself. In truth, Trickster is as much tricked as tricker in the countless stories
about his dealings with others, often leaving the analyst to ponder who is the Trickster.
Especially notable in the Native American Trickster, but present in his alter egos in
other traditions, is the trait of heedless self-gratification. For the Trickster, to feel a desire
is to satisfy it. The impulse alone is adequate motivation, and there are no strictures of
morality or rationality to impede him. This characteristic has led to major Freudian
interpretations of some of theTrickster plots, for much of his behavior seems a clear
illustration of the meaning of the id, neatly separated as it is from the ego and superego.
In many texts, Trickster appears as a figure bent on self-gratification at any cost, and he is
as heedless of personal consequences as he is of the cost to others. For him there is no
past or future, only the present fulfillment. Paul Radin and others have pointed out his
preconscious state, as seen in peculiarities such as his penis kept rolled up in a pack on
his back, and his anus, which can be dealt with (and punished) as a separate person. As an
alternate psychological viewpoint, C.G.Jung, in an essay included in a publication of
Radin’s study, approached the figure as a cultural expression of the archetype of the
“Shadow,” which exists in all humans. While there is not likely to be any sort of
unanimity concerning psychological interpretations of folktale figures, both the Freudian
and the Jungian perspectives offer helpful approaches to the complexities of the
Trickster, which manages to confound all simple attempts at understanding.
In any case, his identification as the personification of the id makes Trickster the
perfect antihero by almost any definition. He is the individual who is isolated from
society and who has no concern for it. He is the one creature without goals for himself or
others. He is a menace to society without being its enemy, and he brings disaster to others
without any malevolence. He is the rule breaker par excellence: He mocks religious
rituals, scorns the “proper way to do anything from cooking to war, has sex with his
grandmother, and betrays all trusts.” Since the Native American worldview stresses the
ability of powerful people to do shape shifting, he even can transform himself into a
woman and marry (temporarily) the son of a chief, thus mocking even sex, marriage, and
family. Trickster is the breaker of taboos, and it does not take full Freudian analysis to
see in that fact the source of his humor. There is something simultaneously horrifying and
satisfying about his breaking the rules all humans in society chafe at. He does, it has been
observed, what everyone would like to do, but cannot, whether because of fear, reason, or
virtue. Trickster is the ultimate poor role model for living in community, and thus the
opposite of the hero.
Despite his antiheroic role, however, he also manages sometimes to be the benefactor
of society. In a fascinating set of Native American stories, he participates in the creation
of the present order. In some cases, he creates good things just by accident or as a byproduct of activities with other purposes. In other cases, as in the Iroquoian creation
stories, he alters the creator’s work to make it less perfect, as when he changes fruits to
pine cones and makes the rivers run only in one direction, so humans will have to work
hard to paddle upstream. In these myths, it is clear that Trickster is operating at some
level of “divinity” and is connected with the primal forces of the universe. The scholarly
label “Transformer” has thus been affixed to this fbrm ofTrickster as a way of warning
people that something far beyond the playing of tricks is involved here.
The Trickster-Transformer is, somewhat confusingly, at least partly a heroic figure.
He embodies powers that are legitimate goals for humans, and he does, in fact,
accomplish good things for human society, which is worth emulating. He is thus to some
extent a hero, after all. This heroic trait is seen much more clearly in African American Tricksters, where the trait of cleverness seems to rise to prominence in a way not seen in
Native American traditions. The African antecedents were strongly embodied in
American slave traditions, and the resulting tales of Uncle Remus have become a part of
all Americans’ lore. Br’er Rabbit, clever nemesis of the more physically powerful
animals, does not stand alone, however, because the more human “John” is still
outwitting “Old Marster” and other representatives of the dominant White society. The
cleverness of theTrickster is probably the ancient characteristic that transformed the
figure into a protest element for African Americans, for Trickster is the appropriate hero
for the powerless—he is clever, glib, and extraordinarily intelligent; he understands his
opponents much better than they understand him, uses their weaknesses against them,
humiliates them repeatedly, and yet maintains his mask of submissiveness.
In Trickster traditions as in so many other aspects, North America became a melting
pot. As alien versions of the figure came together, new syntheses arose. One of the most
debated occurred in the Southeast, where European Tricksters vanished as African and
Native American Tricksters merged. The Hare of the Eastern Woodlands met the Rabbit
of Africa, and motifs were exchanged, leaving scholars to argue for the primacy of one
over the other for more than a century. Aurelio M.Espinosa, in studying one single tale,
argued that the complexities of the relationships of European and African folklore before
reaching the New World have to be taken into account, and he found that the Spanish
influence in the American Southeast was more powerful than is usually thought. It is
unfortunate that the folklore of both groups was collected late, for if earlier data were
available it might be possible to trace the changes in plot, form, and function of the
Tricksters in the emerging Soudi. It seems clear that the exchanges went in both
directions, but it would have been of great interest to be able to follow the steps in the
evolution of the new syntheses.
In view of the multiple roles and characteristics of the Tricksters in North America
alone, it probably is a mistake to lump all of them together under the one categorical
name “Trickster.” Yet, there are unifying diemes that make that act thought provoking, if
not reasonable. As noted above, the psychological interpreters have found universal
meaning in some aspects of the Trickster, and those discussions cannot be easily
dismissed. One scholar, Mary Douglas, has offered a philosophical argument from
another perspective. Focusing on African Tricksters, she suggests that the ultimate
function of the figure is to remind people embedded in culture that their culture is itself
an invention and is, therefore, limited. From that view, the Trickster is a god far beyond
cultural gods, one whose awesome power is diat he represents Reality beyond culture.
There is some support for that interpretation in the Native American tradition of sacred
clowns, which can be seen as a ritual-dieatrical version of theTrickster in several ways.
As commentators have pointed out, there is much to ponder in the fact of cultural
institutionalization of ritual figures whose main function is to mock the rituals in which
they appear.
It is clear that mainstream American culture does not permit mockery of the sacred,
much less insist upon it, and Douglas’ perspective at least gives some insight into why
the obnoxious behavior of the Trickster-clown might be considered so important. That
argument may help explain why the Trickster seems to have vanished from European
American folklore, for mainstream American religion and philosophy seem to have little
tolerance for prophetic critiques, tricksters, or sacred clowns. It may be that the contemporary Tricksters in mainstream American society will have to be sought not in
folklore, but in popular culture, in such phenomena as comic strips and rock bands.
George E.Lankford
References
Dorson, Richard M. 1958. American Negro Folktales. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Douglas, Mary. 1968. The Social Control of Cognition: Some Factors in Joke Perception. Man,
n.s., 3:361–376.
Dundes, Alan. 1965. African Tales among the North American Indians. Southern Folklore
Quarterly 29:207–219.
Espinosa, Aurelio M. 1930. Notes on the Origin and History of the Tar-Baby Story. Journal of
American Folklore 43:129–209.
Gerber, A. 1893. Uncle Remus Traced to the Old World. Journal of American Folklore 6:245–257.
Radin, Paul. 1956. The Trickster. New York: Schocken.
Thompson, Stith. 1946. TheTrickster Cycle. In The Folktale. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston, pp. 319–328.
Wilson, William A. 1983. Trickster Tales and the Location of Cultural Boundaries: A Mormon
Example. Journal of Folklore Research 20:55–66.