The Role Of The Trickster In Native American Culture

1) What kind of character is the Trickster?

Both in the oral traditions of the Native Americans, and in its literature, the trickster is known as a mythological, anthropomorphic being that uses its knowledge to trick and confuse both humans and animals. The trickster is a liar, a story teller, a hero, a glutton, an oversexualized being. One of the main characteristics of the trickster is how ambiguous it is. These supernatural creatures played jokes, laughed, made fun of people, and scandalized society by their erratic and sometimes even aberrant behavior. Nonetheless, tricksters can also be silly and foolish, their plans failing due to their own naïveté. Sometimes tricksters are portrayed and acclaimed as heroes, especially when accomplishing feats or fighting monsters or other creatures. However, this behavior is not intentional, and it may be the result of the trickster’s failure to accomplish something disreputable

or illegal.

2) What functions does the Trickster serve for some Native American cultures?

In addition to being a story teller, creator of myths, and troublemaker, the trickster plays various significant roles in the Native American culture.

Not only it’s the source of many gifts to mankind, such as fire, tobacco, food, plants, animals, tools and the like, but is also said to control the weather, the seasons, and mortality. The trickster figure serves as a cultural expression of ethnic identity, representing an idolized figure in the struggle against foreign intervention and influence. The trickster helps the Native American in maintaining its individuality while breaking the boundaries that exist. This rebellion against the new social norms imposed by the white man, traces its source to the freedom of expression of the trickster, and its love for liberty and self-determination. Survival and resistance to the oppressor are traits inherited from the hero trickster, its figure and actions being an example to follow with regard to traditions, the importance of morality, and the necessity to assert the individuality of the

self.

3) How is an “oral tradition” presented differently from a typical written text?

One is able to find different genres and styles in oral storytelling traditions, just as one finds this in literary written traditions. Similar to other cultures, the Native Americans made sense of the world they found themselves in by way of storytelling. Life and death, joy and grief, success and defeat: they were all explained in their stories. Every American Indian nation, no matter how different it was from the other, in terms of language, traditions, or culture, shared with other Native Americans having a great and rich oral tradition. The stories passed down from one generation to another served to record and protect their language, history, culture, and beliefs. One of the most common subjects found in Native American stories is the relationship between the land and the people that inhabit it. Tribal and individual identity was associated with the land, and with the fact that human beings came from the land and went back to it.
While many people may believe that oral traditions are not as secured as written traditions and literature, the reality is that due to its own frailty, oral traditions were more faithfully passed from one generation to another, than the written word. While written literature can be open to different interpretations, transformations, distortions, and changes, oral traditions remain true no matter the socio economic situation of the people they belong to. There are no changes to it due to political or religious leaders or ideas, nor are they altered to please the times or the economic circumstances of society. Oral traditions are passed on in a rigorous and accurate way, which is vital for their survival, without the addition or any details or comments. While written tradition can be easily destroyed or changed, oral traditions exist deep in the souls and minds of those who are bearers of this literary form.