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Explaining
the mythic animal Coyote is not an easy
task. There are so many variations from
culture toculture, in his role and how he
is portrayed, that he can play many roles
in the stories of ancient man.To better
understand this, I'll try to give you some
background on how this mythic cycle may
havecome into being.
Prehistoric man was very dependent on
hunting and his early religions ideas may
well have included the worship of the game
animals as a high priority, as can be seen
in prehistoric cave art, such as
thepaintings of Lascaux in France . When
game became more difficult to hunt, it
soon became evident that eating ones gods
was not such a good idea. It was at that
time that an intermediary hunt god was
born. This being, known as the Game
keeper, could be bargained with and could
create ( through stories) rules for the
hunter to follow. The hunter now knew if
he followed the rules and observed
thetaboos his life would be better and the
herd would be maintained and replenished
each year by theGame keeper/Hunt god. In
addition to teaching the correct ways to
hunt, the Game keeper eventually evolved
into the Teacher of man, and assumed the
more general role of Creator-Teacher and
is oftenreferred to in literature as a
trickster.
When early man arrived in the New World
from Siberia some 12,000 years ago he
brought with him not only his family, pack
of dogs, tools, and household goods, but
this game keeper religious tradition,
including a rich oral tradition full of
stories and epics of trickster tales. The
trickster god is a teacher which uses
mnemonic devise. This mnemonic devise
usually takes the form of a good story,
which has greatly entertaining qualities
and is appropriate to the culture in which
it is told. These trickster/creators have
long series of stories called epics. Fox
in Europe, a spider in Africa, a coyote in
most of western North America, a Rabbit in
Eastern North America, and, again, Fox in
many parts of South America are all
tricksters with epic tales. Coyote is one
of the favorite tricksters of folklore and
myth. Generally, he is the Teacher of man,
the assistant creator of the world and an
unforgettable model of bad behavior.
Coyote's character, however, depends upon
how pure the stories are retained in the
culture. The closer Coyote is to the
original Hunting god model, the more
heroic and godlike he appears. If the
society has changed due to the
introduction of influences like
agriculture, new religious ideas, contacts
with other ethnic groups and other
external values ( like the Bureau of
Indian Affairs), the Coyote tales become
less and less important to the original
and undiluted culture. Coyote's character
changes from god to hero to good trickster
to trickster to evil trickster to
imitator/gambler to fool/sucker and corpse
and worse (Luckert, 1984, pages: 4
-7).
I personally like the hero Coyote and the
good trickster Coyote kind of myths; the
Coyote who is unaware of cultural
deviation and trying his best to avoid
change. This is the Coyote who's tales
assisted the society which told the
stories around the fire on long winter
nights. I have written-up numerous Coyote
tales and use them as inspiration for my
art work. I tell the stories in my own
words and try very hard to use enough of
the correct implications to give them a
more culturally authentic quality.
Sometimes I provide their references and
sometimes I don't, because when I studied
Folk Lore, my Professor did not believe in
cultural affiliation. However, I will
always be happy to answer any e-mail
inquiries as to the original sources if
anyone wishes original source references.
. For anyone interested in reading more,
check out the bibliography. Like my work,
the bibliography is not static, but is
updated as I continue to discover
interesting and informative books.
See the
Bibliography for
good books to read on this general
subject.
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