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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Haiseb, the mythical trickster of the Damara, and his relatives, the tricksters of the /Xam and the Baka
Author:Schmidt, Sigrid
Year:2009
Periodical:Journal - Namibia Scientific Society (ISSN 1018-7677)
Volume:57
Pages:21-29
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Namibia
Southern Africa
Subjects:trickster tales
folk tales
Nama
Anthropology, Folklore, Culture
Mythology
Tales
Folk literature
Abstract:Haiseb is the central figure of the ancient mythological world of the Damara of Namibia. Haiseb is a 'mythical trickster', a trickster in human form, as are /Kaggen and Waito, the corresponding figures of the /Xam of South Africa and the Baka of the southern Cameroons. There is never a complete cycle of Haiseb tales, only a number of individual tales. Such tales usually start with the entertaining and often bizarre adventures of the hero and end with the creation of elements of the present world. The basic aspects of African mythical tricksters in general - the trickster tricking and being tricked, the trickster as a liberator of mankind, the trickster as creator, and the trickster as culture hero and transformer of the primeval into the present world - are nowhere revealed as clearly as in the Haiseb tales. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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