A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group ( cultural , ethnic , religious , etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery . Although many culture heroes help with the creation of the world, most culture heroes are important because of their effect on the world after creation. A typical culture hero might be credited as the discoverer of fire , agriculture , songs , tradition , law , or religion , and is usually the most important legendary figure of a people, sometimes as the founder of its ruling dynasty .
26-507: [REDACTED] Look up lawgiver in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Lawgiver may refer to: A person who draws up, introduces, or enacts a code of laws for a nation or people, such as: Culture hero , a type of mythological figure Legislator , a person who writes and passes laws The Lawgiver , a 2012 novel relating to Moses, by Herman Wouk . Lawgiver ( Judge Dredd ) ,
52-548: A fictional gun from the Judge Dredd comics and films The Lawgiver, a Planet of the Apes character See also [ edit ] Great man theory Draco (lawgiver) Lycurgus of Sparta Numa Pompilius Moses Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Lawgiver . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
78-485: A king who wants to find the best groom for his daughter by ordering several trials. No brave and valiant prince or knight manages to win them, until a poor and simple peasant comes. With the help of his wits and cleverness, instead of fighting, they evade or fool monsters, villains and dangers in unorthodox ways. Against expectations, the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the reward. {{Citation needed|date=November 2024]] More modern and obvious examples of
104-594: A result of having more access to ethnological data, creating the present version of the culture hero. Culture heroes can perform unbelievable tasks in life because they are different from normal people. Typically, a culture hero's power originates from birth, an event that rarely occurs regularly. When their mothers conceive, it is generally not by her husband but by the wind, or a drop of water. Newborn culture heroes are either very powerful babies or full-grown men, an attribute highlighting their exceptional nature. A culture hero generally goes on an adventure (often called
130-592: A similar role. The Western African trickster spider Anansi is also common. In Norse mythology, Odin steals the mead of poetry from Jötunheim and is credited as the discoverer of the runes . Trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion , a trickster is a character in a story ( god , goddess , spirit, human or anthropomorphisation ) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior. Tricksters, as archetypal characters, appear in
156-490: The coyote spirit stole fire from the gods (or stars or sun) and is more of a trickster than a culture hero. Natives from the Southeastern United States typically saw a rabbit trickster/culture hero, and Pacific Northwest native stories often feature a raven in this role: in some stories, Raven steals fire from his uncle Beaver and eventually gives it to humans. In Greek mythology Prometheus has
182-539: The hero's journey ) that does one of the following: Because culture heroes often possess shapeshifting abilities, they often can transform from man to animal and back. The typical culture hero possesses both admirable and deplorable personal qualities, a combination that is often responsible for sending him on his great journey. Some culture heroes are tricksters , acting selfishly and ultimately benefiting mankind only unintentionally. Once culture heroes have finished their task, they usually disappear. In many stories,
208-480: The Caribbean via the slave trade), the spider (see Anansi ) is often the trickster. In southern African a ǀKaggen is often the trickster, usually taking the form of a praying mantis . The trickster is a term used for a non-performing "trick maker"; they may have many motives behind their intention but those motives are not largely in public view. They are internal to the character or person. The clown on
234-566: The Chinese internet character Grass Mud Horse ( cǎonímǎ 草泥马) a trickster candidate because of its duplicity in meaning. Cuffe argues the Grass Mud Horse serves to highlight the creative potential of the trickster archetype in communicating experiential understanding through symbolic narrative. The Grass Mud Horse relies on the interpretative capacity of storytelling in order to skirt internet censorship while simultaneously commenting on
260-699: The German word heilbringer, which translates to savior . Over the years, "culture hero" has been interpreted in many ways. Older interpretations by Breysig, Paul Ehrenreich , and Wilhelm Schmidt thought that the journeys of culture heroes were ways in which humans could attempt to understand things in nature, such as the rising and setting of the sun, or the movement of the stars and constellations. Eventually, their interpretations were rejected and replaced with newer interpretations by scholars such as Hermann Baumann , Adolf E. Jensen , Mircea Eliade , Otto Zerries, Raffaele Pettazzoni , and Harry Tegnaeus, which evolved as
286-588: The Great Basin . According to Crow (and other Plains) tradition, Old Man Coyote impersonates the Creator: "Old Man Coyote took up a handful of mud and out of it made people". He also bestowed names on buffalo, deer, elk, antelopes, and bear. According to A. Hultkranz, the impersonation of Coyote as Creator is a result of a taboo, a mythic substitute to the religious notion of the Great Spirit whose name
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#1732771856126312-472: The cause of other characters' discomfiture, but they are left untouched. Shakespeare 's Puck is an example of this. Another once-famous example was the character Froggy the Gremlin on the early USA children's television show "Andy's Gang". A cigar-puffing puppet, Froggy induced the adult humans around him to engage in ridiculous and self-destructive hi-jinks. For example, many European fairy tales have
338-410: The culture hero, Coyote appears in various mythic traditions, but generally with the same magical powers of transformation, resurrection, and "medicine". He is engaged in changing the ways of rivers, creating new landscapes and getting sacred things for people. Of mention is the tradition of Coyote fighting against monsters. According to Wasco tradition, Coyote was the hero to fight and kill Thunderbird ,
364-651: The first fish weir out of logs and branches. Wakdjunga in Winnebago mythology is an example of the trickster archetype. Wisakedjak (Wìsakedjàk in Algonquin , Wīsahkēcāhk(w) in Cree and Wiisagejaak in Oji-Cree ) is a trickster figure in Algonquin and Chipewyan Storytelling. The Coyote mythos is one of the most popular among western Native American cultures, especially among indigenous peoples of California and
390-436: The hero is transformed back to his origin, and his death place is marked with a stone, tree, or body of water. The end of a culture hero's life will generally lead to the creation of something else, such as a river, constellation, food, animals, and the moon and sun. Culture heroes are the etiological explanation for many humans about the things occurring in their daily lives. In many Native American mythologies and beliefs,
416-531: The killer of people, but he could do that not because of his personal power, but due to the help of the Spirit Chief. In some stories, Multnomah Falls came to be by Coyote's efforts; in others, it is done by Raven. More often than not Coyote is a trickster, but always different. In some stories, he is a noble trickster: "Coyote takes water from the Frog people... because it is not right that one people have all
442-439: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lawgiver&oldid=1116598658 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Culture hero The term "culture hero" was originated by historian Kurt Breysig , who used
468-481: The mischief-maker is Loki , who is also a shapeshifter . Loki also exhibits sex variability, in one case even becoming pregnant. According to "The Song of Hyndla" in The Poetic Edda , Loki becomes a mare who later gives birth to Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir . In African-American folklore, a personified rabbit, known as Brer Rabbit , is the main trickster figure. In West Africa (and thence into
494-646: The modern Euro-American moral tradition". In some stories the Native American trickster is foolish and other times wise. He can be a hero in one tale and a villain in the next. In many Native American and First Nations mythologies, the Coyote spirit ( Southwestern United States ) or Raven spirit ( Pacific Northwest ) stole fire from the gods ( stars , moon , and/or sun ). Both are usually seen as jokesters and pranksters. In Native American creation stories, when Coyote teaches humans how to catch salmon, he makes
520-489: The most sacred ceremonies for fear that they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth. Native American tricksters should not be confused with the European fictional picaro . One of the most important distinctions is that "we can see in the Native American trickster an openness to life's multiplicity and paradoxes largely missing in
546-537: The myths of many different cultures. Lewis Hyde describes the trickster as a "boundary-crosser". The trickster crosses and often breaks both physical and societal rules: Tricksters "violate principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis." Often, this bending and breaking of rules takes the form of tricks and thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both. The trickster openly questions, disrupts and mocks authority. Many cultures have tales of
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#1732771856126572-504: The other hand is a persona of a performer who intentionally displays their actions in public for an audience. While the trickster crosses various cultural traditions, there are significant differences between tricksters from different parts of the world: Many native traditions held clowns and tricksters as essential to any contact with the sacred . People could not pray until they had laughed, because laughter opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within
598-591: The trickster archetype include Bugs Bunny , the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Caroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , Jerry from Tom and Jerry , Joker from the Batman series and Pippi Longstocking . In online environments, there has been a link between the trickster and Internet trolling . Some have said that a trickster is a type of online community character. Anthropologist James Cuffe has called
624-468: The trickster, a crafty being who uses tricks to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. In some Greek myths Hermes plays the trickster. He is the patron of thieves and the inventor of lying, a gift he passed on to Autolycus , who in turn passed it on to Odysseus . In Slavic folktales, the trickster and the culture hero are often combined. Frequently the trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability. In Norse mythology
650-399: The water." In others, he is malicious: "Coyote determined to bring harm to Duck. He took Duck's wife and children, whom he treated badly." In modern literature, the trickster survives as a character archetype, not necessarily supernatural or divine, sometimes no more than a stock character . Often, the trickster is distinct in a story by their acting as a sort of catalyst; their antics are
676-529: Was too dangerous and/or sacred to use apart from at special ceremonies. In Chelan myths, Coyote belongs to the animal people but he is at the same time "a power just like the Creator, the head of all the creatures." while still being a subject of the Creator who can punish him or remove his powers. In the Pacific Northwest tradition, Coyote is mostly mentioned as a messenger, or minor power. As
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