THE TRICKSTER AS AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL FIGURE      1500w

Select one anthropological based concept discussed in the course that you think is important for social theory

The figure of the trickster is most commonly connected to mythology or folklore in many cultural traditions. In many different cultures and across many different times in history, the trickster has become a reoccurring character in many of the tales and stories within mythology and folklore. The trickster, however, is not one single figure, there are numerous tricksters with similar characteristics (Szakolczai, and Thomassen, 2019). Some common characteristics of the trickster include scheming and devious who takes advantage of sharpness in order to survive. Although the trickster figure has many different attributes, the character is somewhat a contradiction of itself, they use deception and dishonesty to progress their activities, tricksters are rarely the victims of their individual schemes, and are presented as absurdly stupide. They are keen to benefit from the innocence or naivety of others, and they sometimes put themselves in a position that they will be confronted about their mischiefs. Tricksters are inherently tough and so they can prevail over any situations they put themselves in or find themselves in. Thus…’the trickster who is both shrewd and silly, both the prankster and the laughing stock is a consummately ambiguous character who embodies all manner of contradiction’ (Stookey, 2004:179). Trickster tales are mentioned in numerous mythological tales spanning from north to south and west to east cultures and civilizations, for example, the spider in Africa, in Native America the Coyote and the raven are among the most famous and in South America Breb Rabbit or Loki the Norse Gods in Iceland (Lemming and Page, 1999, Bassil-Morozow, 2017).