TRICKSTER
The trickster is the embodiment of lawlessnessand paradox. He is a divine buffoon, a herowho breaks taboos, a rebel, a coward, and acreator. Trickster helps establish social rules,and he deliberately flouts them. He is commonlydepicted as deceitful and humorous.He is amoral, rather than immoral, and he hasa voracious appetite for food and sex. In histraditional and mythic incarnations, he is almostalways male. As the supreme boundarycrosser,trickster is always between classifications–between what is human and what isanimal, between what is cultural and what isnatural.
Native American tricksters tend to be associatedwith animal spirits (such as Coyote,Rabbit, or Raven). Their tales are both sacredmyths and simple folk tales. Among the Indigenouspeoples of the Great Plains, the trickster'sname is Old Man (Crow and Blackfoot),Iktomi (Lakota), and Veeho (Cheyenne). Themost common incarnation of the Plains trickster,however, is Coyote.
In his various (and strikingly similar) culturalguises, trickster is the self-indulgentclown who dupes women into having sex withhim; he steals food from his industrious neighbors;he cross-dresses and becomes temporarilya woman; he dies and is reborn. As expected,his tomfoolery frequently backfires.He juggles his eyes and loses them in a tree;he accidentally sleeps with his wife; he drownsin his own feces; he uses his enormous penisto attack a chipmunk (who in turns bites hispenis off to "human" size). Further, trickster isa cultural hero. In some narratives, he createsthe Earth; he creates animals or substantiallyalters their bodies; he steals tobacco fromthe gods; and, more recently, he tricks thewhite man.
Symbolically, the trickster is always locatedat the periphery of the community (though,importantly, never totally separated fromit). From this "outer" vantage point, tricksterreveals "inner" communal structures. Hisvery presence determines the limits of socialboundaries. Trickster thus serves as a politicaltool with which to subvert (or endorse) socialpractices. Indeed, trickster continually offersus the possibility of transcending (or renewing)social codes. As such, trickster is arguablyan incarnation of creativity itself. At the veryleast, trickster allows us to poke fun at thepowers that restrain us. He reveals the structureof social structures and offers us glimpsesof new (and terrifying) world orders. Not surprisingly,many contemporary authors usetricksterlike characters as creative forces thatboth define and critique dominant culturalpractices.
Ultimately, the trickster is disturbing, notbecause of his difference but because of his lackof difference. As purely a cultural construct,the trickster's body is a cultural body–ourbody. He is always a part of us, and he existsonly to be interpreted. And when we interprettrickster, we interpret ourselves. Even thoughwe often attempt to alienate ourselves from thetrickster–by making his body grotesque,indistinguishable–wherever we are, there istrickster, laughing at what we've become.
Anthony FarringtonUniversity of Arkansas at Monticello
Babco*ck, Barbara. "'A Tolerated Margin of Mess': TheTrickster and His Tales Reconsidered." In Critical Essays on Native American Literature, edited by Andrew Wiget.Boston: G. K. Hall, 1985: 153–84.
Ballinger, Franchot. "LivingSideways: Social Themes and Social Relationships inNative American Trickster Tales." American Indian Quarterly13 (1989): 15–30.
Radin, Paul. The Trickster: a Study in American Indian Mythology. New York: Philosophical Library,1956.
FAQs
The software was originally developed by Great Plains Software Inc. of Fargo, North Dakota, and was known as Great Plains or GP. In 2000, Microsoft acquired it and renamed it Microsoft GP, later changing it to its current name Dynamics GP.
How much of the Great Plains is left? ›
Currently, just over half the Great Plains — about 366 million acres in total — remain intact, the report claims. “Those areas can really provide vital services to our nation's people and wildlife,” said Tyler Lark, a Ph.
What were the Great Plains originally called? ›
Half a century later, the "Great American Desert" received a new name, the Great Plains.
Is Great Plains being phased out? ›
When the time comes, many businesses are ready to move to the next chapter. For others, the transition can feel like a surprise eviction. Recently, Microsoft announced that they would be discontinuing support for Dynamics Great Plains by 2025.
Why is the Great Plains so famous? ›
Additionally, the region has become a favoured place for cattle feedlots, where range-fed cattle are fattened for market on range-grown corn. Thus, the Great Plains have remained basically an agricultural area producing wheat, cotton, corn (maize), sorghum, and hay and raising cattle and sheep.
What tribe was in the Great Plains? ›
These include the Arapaho, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Lakota, Lipan, Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwe, Sarsi, Nakoda (Stoney), and Tonkawa.
Were the Great Plains ever forested? ›
When the last continental glacier stood near its maximum extent, some 12,000-14,000 years ago, spruce forest reached southward as far as Kansas, and the Great Plains farther south was covered by deciduous forest.
How long before the Great Plains runs out of water? ›
As a result, the aquifer is slowly getting depleted, with the water table dropping by as much as two feet per year in some counties. And once they drain, it could take hundreds or thousands of years for those ancient aquifers, which were first formed millions of years ago, to fully recharge with rainfall.
What is the largest city in the Great Plains region? ›
If you look at a map of the Great Plains region, Oklahoma City (OKC) is by far the largest city and metropolitan area (the only in the Top 50) at 650,000/1,450,000 people.
Is the Great Plains tribe still around today? ›
LIFE TODAY
These were often located far from their traditional homelands in present-day Oklahoma, North Dakota, and South Dakota believed to be unsuitable for farming or settlement. Today the Plains tribes are keeping their culture alive.
By the middle of the 19th century, as settlers migrated across the plains to Oregon and California, the wasteland connotation of "desert" was seen to be false, but the sense of the region as uninhabitable remained until irrigation and railroad transportation made up for the lack of surface water and wood.
What was the nickname for the Great Plains? ›
The Great Plains is nicknamed 'Breadbasket of the World' due to its extensive wheat farming, which contributes significantly to global food supplies.
What did the Great Plains look like before settlers? ›
Before it was broken by the plow, most of the Great Plains from the Texas panhandle northward was treeless grassland. Trees grew only along the floodplains of streams and on the few mountain masses of the northern Great Plains.
What is another name for Great Plains? ›
Also called the Great American Desert, the Great Plains lie between the Rio Grande in the south and the delta of the Mackenzie River at the Arctic Ocean in the north and between the Interior Lowlands and the Canadian Shield on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west.
Does the Great Plains have a nickname? ›
The Great Plains is nicknamed 'Breadbasket of the World' due to its extensive wheat farming, which contributes significantly to global food supplies.
What are the Great Plains known as? ›
The Great Plains are known as America's Breadbasket because so much wheat is grown here. The Great Plains have very flat land. The South Dakota Badlands are called this because they are dry and barren.
What replaces Great Plains? ›
Table of Contents
- Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP (Best Microsoft Dynamics GP alternative overall)
- ERPNext (Best free Microsoft Dynamics GP alternative)
- Quickbooks Desktop Enterprise (Most similar to Microsoft Dynamics GP)
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Good MS Great Plains alternative for financial planning)
