As vital of the life it describes, folklore is in continues transformation. Folk customs, ritual and ceremonial in their essence, are a vestige of the past. Their origin, lost in the mists of past ages, lies in the continuous aspiration of man to understand life and all that is happening around him and to master surrounding nature, to make it actively his slave. Many such artistic creations, which are closely related to the ancient beliefs of men concerning the world, are considered among the first endeavors to conquer nature. Though originating in former epochs, the artistic ritual and ceremonial creations are still alive but have lost their Initial meaning and content. Their study illuminates the life and culture of people in the past, how they imagined the world. Furthermore, not infrequently such artistic creations rise to great heights, generally when their realistic character is evident. The knowledge of these creations is particularly useful to those who for the development of a national art at the service of the people.

The genres of folklore being historic categories with a social function and content and having their own means of artistic realization, continuously change their aspect in time and space according to the evolution of the people’s conception of life. Those, which do not correspond disappear within a day, the others undergo transformations according to the new social consciousness. Their function, their content and even their manner of performance change. Relieved, of their magical significance as well as their old train of superstitions, a series of ritual creations have been transformed or are in course of transformation into festive, ceremonial or independent artistic creations, in which the spectacular prevails. Called to answer new purposes, they are meant to enrich and beautify life. These facts, essential for the knowledge of the process of development of folklore, deal a powerful blow to the “traditional” conceptions according to which the genres of traditional folklore and especially of ritual folklore are considered to be petrified in immutable forms, their variants being nothing but the result of all kinds of combination’s of certain fixed of formulas.

Folklore includes a traditional trickster figure, the subject of many stories in a cycle. Trickster tales are in the animal tales genre, with the trickster himself — he seems always to be male — identified with a particular animal. These include the fox in Japan, mouse deer in Southeast Asia, the coyote and the spider among the Native Americans, the tortoise and spider in West Africa, and the mantis in Southern Africa.

Tricksters are usually small in size next to the large, strong animals that appear in the same folktales. Tricksters survive by their wits, but they do more than just survive. They constantly play tricks on the animals around them, outwitting and mistreating their powerful neighbours even when these larger animals haven’t done anything to deserve it. Occasionally he overreaches himself and finds that he’s been too clever for his own good. It’s the Trickster who points out the flaws in our carefully managed societies. He rebels against authority, pokes fun at the overly serious, creates complex schemes and generally plays with the Laws of the Universe. He constantly questions the rules, and causes us to question these same rules. The Trickster appears when a way of thinking becomes outmoded, when old ways need to be changed.

The Trickster is a creator, a joker, a truth teller, a story teller, a transformer. We are most accessible to the gifts of the Trickster when we ourselves are at, or near, boundaries – when we are experiencing transition states. As an archetype, the Trickster, the boundary dweller, finds expression through human imagination and experience. Trickster tales are great favourites in many cultures. They represent the underdog who uses skill and cunning to outwit a superior. West African trickster animals have a significant presence in the New World, when they travelled as part of the folklore of enslaved Africans. The rabbit is best known as Br’er Rabbit in the folktales documented by Joel Chandler Harris in the USA. We also find him in his modern avatar, Bugs Bunny !

The spider is best known as Anansi, and you find him throughout the former English and French colonies of the West Indies. The role of the slave trickster tales was an important one giving a sense of pride and hope for the future. They showed that the weak could conquer the strong. The tales were devices that taught helplessness can triumph over virtue and mischievousness is better than malice. For the slaves, trickster folklore was also a weapon by which they were able to take subtle revenge on their masters.