The trickster appears in the myths and folktales of nearly every traditional society. Robert Pelton examines Ashanti, Fon, Yoruba, and Dogon trickster-figures in their social and mythical contexts and in light of contemporary thought, exploring the way the trickster links animality and ritual transformation; culture, sex, and laughter; cosmic process and personal history; divination and social change.

Robert D. Pelton is a Roman Catholic priest, a member of Madonna House Apostolate.

"The problem revealed in the trickster, by the trickster, is one of language, of words and images with which our perception of reality is shaped. With grateful nods to M. Eliade, C. Lévi-Strauss, W. Lynch, M. Douglas, and others, Pelton clarifies the problem and does so with an elegance and wit worthy of his subject. This is a book which will be read with ease and reward, as well as with sacred delight, I hope, by both layman and scholar in African studies, and by the anthropologist, folklorist, and student of religion of other cultures."—John Pemberton III, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"Pelton leaves us . . . with a fuller sense of the significance of trickster in West Africa than we had been given in previous scholarship but also with a richer understanding of how irony defines our humanity."—Richard K. Priebe, Research in African Literatures

"Pelton has given us a fine piece of scholarly work written in a style that is rich and impeccable."—S. Modupe Broderick, African Studies Review