Coyote: Mythological Teacher

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Coyote Mythological Teacher

• (Verbal passing of knowledge its differences
  from the passing of written knowledge).

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Coyote Understanding the Trickster

• Coyote is one of the most important characters in
  most California Indian Mythology.
• He is a multifaceted character, whose facets,
  when first considered, appear to contradict each
  other.

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• Coyote is best known to be both a creator and
  destroyer.
• Or a wise buffoon.
• Coyote, as a trickster, has many of the common
  traits for other Native American tricksters such
  as Raven in the Pacific Northwest, and Lakota of
  the Inktomi ( a spider).
• Tricksters are tricky, cleaver, amoral, lustful,
  taboo-breaking, deceitful, and most importantly
  undaunted by failure and through this amusing and
  educational.

4

• Coyote is symbolic in the sense that the
  character is not really a coyote.
• Like other characters in Native American
  mythology, he is suppose to be one of the First
  People, a mythic race which populated the earth
  before human beings did.
• This mythic race is responsible for the creation
  of the world we know today.
• The First People had immense power to call into
  existence basically anything and everything, but
  since they were people, they are also capable of
  failings, and had similar characteristics in
  personality to us.

5

• Coyote is accredited with many of the failings in
  the creation of our world. Failings in the sense
  that they are not perfect in nature.
• For example the Paiute say human beings (which
  are imperfect) are more along the lines of
  Coyote.
• Often in stories of Coyote, he is in the process
  of tricking someone or taking advantage of them,
  when suddenly he is tricked himself, or finds
  misfortune some way.

6

• Due to Coyotes resilience and foolishness he
  severs two purposes in his myths.
• One is the purpose of teacher.
• People are meant to learn through Coyotes
  mistakes. Coyote is resilient and capable of
  making many mistakes without being destroyed.
• For example, often Coyote will commit an act
  which is some form of heinous taboo, like having
  intercourse with his sister or mother-in-law, and
  then be castrated or hurt in some way. Yet, he
  always bounces back to make more mistakes and get
  castrated again.

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• Also due to Coyotes resilience he is quite
  entertaining. His stories are loved by many,
  because people like to see him fail and come to
  justice for his wrong doings.
• Similar to the ever entertaining Wile E. Coyote,
  and Road Runner cartoons, his resilience and
  nearly never-ending willingness to fail is
  hilarious.
• The paradox of Coyote does not seem so
  complicated. His goal is to make mischief and be
  tricky, and if in accomplishing his goals he
  accidentally creates something or other that may
  be beneficial to human beings, then so be it.

8

• Just dont expect Coyote to create for the sake
  of creating or out of good nature.

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Verbal vs. Written Knowledge

• Verbal knowledge is know to be inconsistent and
  varying based on who is relating the knowledge.
• To an extent this is true. For example the Myth
  I have prepared is one which when told by Sam
  Batwi and Ishi. (Characters of the book Ishi)
• The myth changes based on who is telling it.

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• For example in Ishis version of the story,
  Coyotes sister does not see Coyote return to
  their house after he deceives her into having
  intercourse with him, and thus she does not
  realize that Coyote has done this to her until
  her children are born coyotes.
• In Sams version she sees him and knows what he
  has done so instantly gets mad at him, and you
  can see where things go from there.
• The character of these two story tellers slightly
  modifies their content.

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• The question is, does this make the knowledge
  less reliable?
• Many historians and individuals studying
  mythology do not see this to be the case.
• In fact, many believe that since the stories tend
  to change with time, and with who is telling
  them, they become more relevant to the time
  period and situation in which they are told.
• Now I will perform Coyote and his Sister

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References

• http//www.dfanning.com/documents/coyote.html
• http//www.sacred-texts.com
• Kroeber, Theodora. Ishi in Two Worlds A
  Biography (c1961, 2002)
• Oral Report on Tricksters by Garrett (provided
  by Prof. Thorne)
• Assorted resources provide by Prof. Thorne