Enslaved Africans brought with them to America various West African folk tales and stories featuring such tricksters as Tortoise Anansi the Spider Zomo the Hare and Eshu, the messenger of the gods in Yoruba myth. Often portrayed as an animal, the trickster character plays jokes on his unsuspecting victims and sometimes teaches a lesson in the process. The figure of the trickster is found in cultures all over the world. "Mythological characters who engage in pranks and mischief, generally remaining unpunished. In at least one African mythological system, that of Dahomey, the divine trickster, Legba, youngest son of the creator, represents the philosophical principle of accident-the way out-in a world where fate is predetermined." The trickster is frequently a character in the sacred mythology of a people, and is often regarded as the culture hero who has brought the arts of living to mankind.
Psychologically, the role of the trickster seems to be that of projecting the insufficiencies of man in his universe onto a smaller creature who, in besting his larger adversaries, permits the satisfactions of an obvious identification to those who recount or listen to these tales. Thus Coyote is a widespread trickster of North America, while Spider is the trickster of the Gold Coast and neighboring regions of West Africa. They vary with the fauna of the area in which they are found. C."Tricksters are found in the unwritten literature of peoples over all the world, and usually many tales or cycles are devoted to their exploits. His Difference from Hermes 188 PART FIVE: On the Psychology of the Trickster Figure by C. The Wakdjunkaga Cycle and its Relation to other North American Indian Trickster Cycles 155 PART FOUR: The Trickster in Relation to Greek Mythology by Karl Kerényi, Translated by R. The Wakdjunkaga Cycle as a Satire 151 VIII. The Attitude of the Winnebago toward Wakdjunkaga 147 VII. The Winnebago Hare Cycle and its Cognates 124 V. Winnebago Mythology and Literary Tradition 118 IV. Summary of the Tlingit Trickster Myth 104 PART THREE: The Nature and Meaning of the Myth by Paul Radin I. Summary of the Assiniboine Trickster Myth 97 IV. Notes to Pages 3-53 54 PART TWO: Supplementary Trickster Myths I.
Introductory Essay by Stanley Diamond xi Prefatory Note by Paul Radin xxiii PART ONE: The Trickster Myth of the Winnebago Indians I.
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