The myth of the Trickster—ambiguous creator and destroyer, cheater and cheated, subhuman and superhuman—is one of the earliest and most universal expressions of mankind.
Nowhere does it survive in more starkly archaic form than in the voraciously uninhibited episodes of the Winnebago Trickster Cycle, recorded here is full. Anthropological and psychological analyses by Radin, Kerényi, and Jung reveal with Trickster as filling a twofold role: on the one hand he is “an archetypal psychic structure” that harks back to “an absolutely undifferentiated human consciousness, corresponding to a psyche that has hardly left the animal level” (Jung); on the other hand, his myth is a present-day outlet for the most unashamed and liberating satire of the onerous obligation of social order, religion, and ritual.
240 Pages
About The Author:
PAUL RADIN (1883-1959), was an American cultural anthropologist and folklorist of the early twentieth century specializing in Native American languages and cultures, with a focus on the Winnebago Tribe. He was head of the Department of Anthropology at Brandeis University. His books include The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology and African Folktales.
“A fascinating excursion into one of the more curious byways of the mind . . . The Trickster should interest many besides professional anthropologists and psychologists.”
—Times [London] Literary Supplement
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introductory Essay by Stanley Diamond xi
Prefatory Note by Paul Radin xxiii
PART ONE: The Trickster Myth of the Winnebago Indians
I. The Winnebago Trickster Cycle 3
II. Notes to Pages 3-53 54
PART TWO: Supplementary Trickster Myths
I. The Winnebago Hare Cycle 63
II. Notes to Pages 63-91 92
III. Summary of the Assiniboine Trickster Myth 97
IV. Summary of the Tlingit Trickster Myth 104
PART THREE: The Nature and Meaning of the Myth by Paul Radin
I. The Text 111
II. Winnebago History and Culture 112
III. Winnebago Mythology and Literary Tradition 118
IV. The Winnebago Hare Cycle and its Cognates 124
V. The Winnebago Trickster Figure 132
VI. The Attitude of the Winnebago toward Wakdjunkaga 147
VII. The Wakdjunkaga Cycle as a Satire 151
VIII. 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. F. C. Hull
I. First Impressions 173
II. Style 177
III. Parallels 180
IV. Nature of the Trickster 184
V. His Difference from Hermes 188
PART FIVE: On the Psychology of the Trickster Figure by C. G. Jung, Translated by R. F. C. Hull 195
Introduction by Stanley Diamond
