Bobcat - in Mythology

In Mythology

In Native American mythology, the bobcat is often twinned with the figure of the coyote in a theme of duality. Lynx and coyote are associated with the fog and wind, respectively—two elements representing opposites in Amerindian folklore. This basic story, in many variations, is found in the native cultures of North America (with parallels in South America), but they diverge in the telling. One version, which appears in the Nez Perce folklore for instance, depicts lynx and coyote as opposed, antithetical beings. However, another version depicts them with equality and identicality. Claude Lévi-Strauss argues the former concept, that of twins representing opposites, is an inherent theme in New World mythologies, but they are not equally balanced figures, representing an open-ended dualism rather than the symmetric duality of Old World cultures. The latter notion then, Lévi-Strauss suggests, is the result of regular contact between Europeans and native cultures. Additionally, the version found in the Nez Perce story is of much greater complexity, while the version of equality seems to have lost the tale's original meaning.

In a Shawnee tale, the bobcat is outwitted by a rabbit, which gives rise to its spots. After trapping the rabbit in a tree, the bobcat is persuaded to build a fire, only to have the embers scattered on its fur, leaving it singed with dark brown spots. The Mohave believed dreaming habitually of beings or objects would afford them their characteristics as supernatural powers. Dreaming of two deities, cougar and lynx, they thought, would grant them the superior hunting skills of other tribes. European settlers to the Americas also admired the cat, both for its ferocity and its grace, and in the United States, it "rests prominently in the anthology of...national folklore."