ABSTRACT
Play connected with imagination, humor and the comic probably represents one of the essential attributes of humanity and a universal category of human culture. The phenomenon of the trickster and all attributes bound to it can be seen in various world cultures in historical time and geographical space. In Native North American mythology the typical representative of trickster is Raven who appears in many stories under a variety of different names, roles and forms. Raven is concurrently a hero, a demiurge, a destroyer, a self-indulgent jokester, a wicked tempter, a thoughtless adventurer, and also a noble and airy-fairy dreamer. The elemental attribute of his personality is thus the fact that he is above all a wily trickster who, on behalf of his own satisfaction, does not hesitate to cheat, lie, steal, seduce, blaspheme, defile or transform reality.
