Raven
Nuxalk (Bella Coola) · numen · Nuxalk (Bella Coola) traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Raven, Qwaxw, is the trickster-transformer of Nuxalk narrative, the double-natured culture hero common across the Northwest Coast. In his benevolent aspect he helps humankind, ordering and reshaping the world and securing goods for the people; in his trickster aspect his gluttony and thoughtless scheming carry him from one misadventure to the next, so that many of his stories turn on the trouble his own appetite makes for him. He operates apart from the ordered household of the upper world, a free and appetitive shaper whose deeds account for many features of the living world.
Domains
- trickery
- transformation
Powers
- transforms and orders the world
Sources
- Raven (Nuxalk Qwaxw) is the trickster-transformer culture hero of Bella Coola mythology, benevolently shaping the world for the people while his frivolous behaviour brings him trouble.: Boas, Franz. 1898. The Mythology of the Bella Coola Indians. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 2(2). New York: G.E. Stechert. (primary); Nuxalk/Bella Coola Legends, native-languages.org. (secondary)