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Tricksters appear in the mythology and folklore of many cultures around the world. Although the power and relative divinity of each Trickster varies from tradition to tradition, Tricksters have important roles in the creation, development, and sometimes destruction, of each culture. The Coyote of Native North American traditions is often depicted as assisting the “Great Mystery” or “Great Spirit” in the creating and populating of the world (Leeming). In the Greek myths Hermes is initially a sly infant who captures a tortoise with his untruths and fashions the first lyre from its shell, but eventually transitions to a place amongst the Olympic pantheon as the messenger of the gods. In the Norse myths of the Scandinavian countries, Loki is a mischievous nuisance, nonetheless responsible for the creation of many of the other gods' most identifiable possessions, but also the driving force behind the prophesied apocalypse, Ragnarok. Tricksters are more than thieves and mischief makers. As Lewis Hyde says in his introduction to the book Trickster Makes This World, “When he lies and steals, it isn't so much to get away with something or get rich as to disturb the established categories of truth and property and, by so doing, open the road to possible new worlds” (13).
While the Greek and Roman myths are some of the most widely taught, it is perhaps the Tricksters of Native North American tradition that are most recognizable in the modern age. Leeming and Page, in their book The Mythology of Native North America, suggest that no other region is “so trickster-oriented as Native North America” (47), and thus many native cultures have a Trickster along with the oft-present shaman, whether it be Coyote, Raven, Hare, or Spider. Perhaps the mo...
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...ology: Images and Insights. Sixth ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 209-23. Print.
"Homeric Hymn to Hermes." Classical Mythology: Images and Insights. Trans. Thelma Sargent. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 209-23. Print.
Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art. New York: North Point, 1999. Print.
Leeming, David, and Jake Page. The Mythology of Native North America. Norman: U of Oklahoma, 1998. Print.
O'Donoghue, Heather. "Gods and Giants." From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths. London,: I. B. Tauris, 2008. Print.
Scheub, Harold. Trickster And Hero: Two Characters In The Oral And Written Traditions Of The World. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 28 Apr, 2014.
Sturluson, Snorri. Edda. Trans. Anthony Faulkes. London: Dent, 1995. Print.
Sioux as told through John G. Neihardt, an Indian boy then a warrior, and Holy Man
“The Wildman in many manifestations, forms part of the culture and mythology of almost every society since records begin.” (Shakley, 1983). The first documented record of Bigfoot was in the Epic of Gilgam...
Harris, Stephen L., and Gloria Platzner. Classical Mythology: Images and Insights. 2nd ed. Mountain View: Mayfield, 1995
One of Magliocco's main arguments is that these Neo-Pagan cults all have roots in both anthropology and folklore in their early development. Magliocco offers a detailed historical analysis and examines influences found all the way back to classical traditions. She concludes this analysis by bringing her reader back to the contemporary and offers us insight into how both the fields of anthropology and folklore have helped shape Neo-Paganism into what it has become today.
2. Ruby, Robert, and Brown John. A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. Norman, Oklahoma: 1992. 96, 120, 272-274. Print.
Debo, Angie. A History of the Indians of the United States. 6th ed. Norman: aaaaaUniversity of Oklahoma Press, 1979.
Grant, Michael, and John Hazel. "Athena." Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam, 1973. Print.
Any discussion of the American culture and its development has to include mythology, because that is where most of the information about early America is found. Mythology is a unique source in that it gives a shared understanding that people have with regard to some aspect of their world. The most important experience for American frontiersmen is the challenge to the “myth of the frontier” that they believed in – “the conception of America as a wide-open land of unlimited opportunity for the strong, ambitious, self-reliant individual to thrust his way to the top.” (Slotkin, 5) In particular, the challenge came from Indians and from the wilderness that they inhabited.
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Lindow, John. "Loki (Norse mythology).” World Mythology: Handbook of Norse Mythology. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Credo Reference. Web. 26 November 2013.
Homer. ?The Odyssey,? World Masterpieces: Expanded Edition. Maynard Mack ed. Ed. Coptic St.: Prentice, 1995.
Throughout the 150 year history of Bigfoot many concerns have raised, the most in number have been from Native Americans. The Karok Indians tell of an “upslope person” who lurks far up in the mountains (Gaffron, 22-24). Some medicine men have told stories of “snow-walkers” that haunt the Forrest depths (Short). The creatures North American habitat covers over 125,000 square miles of forest, contained in the states of Oregon, Washington, and California, constituting a large number of Native American tribes to encounter and frighten (Gaffron, 22). This phenomenon is not just a Native American one told by medicine men, and tribe leaders, Bigfoot plays an enormous role in the ancient folklore of such civilizations as, the Russians, Greeks, and Anglo-Saxons (Brunvand). These civilizations have been around for hundreds of years, and have been telling stories of Bigfoot long before any one; they hold the true key to Bigfoot’s history.
Schneider, Gary. “The Public, the Private, and the Shaming of the Shrew.” SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 42.2 (2002): 235-258. Project Muse. Westfield State College Library, MA. 15 April 2005.
Liberty, M. P. (1970). Priest and Shaman on the Plains: A False Dichotomy? The Plains Anthropologist, 73-79.
Shakespeare, William, and Roma Gill. The Taming of the Shrew. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990. Print.