The Trickster: a Transformation Archetype (American Indian, Winnebago, Myth, Paul Radin, Life Symbol).

Abstract

The Winnebago Trickster Myth Cycle, contained in Paul Radin's The Trickster, has significant notions about the nature of man that students trained in Western thought could profit from. According to recent studies in the field of higher education done by the Carnegie Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the most pressing needs of modern, Western man is not only to re-evaluate his nature but to re-shape definitions of human nature in order that he can transcend desires for power, money and pleasure. According to both studies, we are in a period of history where isolation and a preoccupation with self is fragmenting not only individual psyches but societies as well. The solution to this problem suggested by men such as Theodore Hesburgh, Arthur Levine, Ernest L. Boyer, Rollo May, Robert Bellah and Paul Ricoeur is a reshaping of the mythic mode of thought--a look at man's relationship to fundamental, cosmic principles. This reshaping can, according to these men, best be done in a university setting. This dissertation demonstrates how a team of teachers at Brigham Young University challenged the existing mindset by introducing students to non-Western texts such as the Winnebago Trickster Myth Cycle. The Trickster, as discussed among the Winnebago, is a sacred character, a sacred clown, whose exploits draw attention to the consequences of being a "human" primarily concerned with satisfying his appetites for food, sex and pleasure. He has no notion, for most of the Myth Cycle, of any responsibility towards himself, his family, his community or nature. As a result, he brings pain and suffering not only to himself, but to others. Trickster is constantly tricking and being tricked. The purpose of such tales is to bring about psychotherapeutic change in the individuals who hear the tales. As Trickster transforms from being an amoral, instinctual, amorphous, desocialized, sub-human being to a character who has the right to govern an earth of his own, the students of the tale are expected to see their own behavior in the Trickster and desire such a transformation in themselves. All this is accomplished with great humor; laughter, among the Winnebago, brings about the greatest healing.