![]() ![]() Paradoxically, however, by violating these norms and taboos, they help to define the accepted boundaries, rules, and societal guidelines for ethical and moral behavior. Unbound by societal constraints, heyókȟa are able to violate cultural taboos freely and thus critique established customs. ![]() In addition, sacred clowns serve an important role in shaping tribal codes. They provoke laughter in distressing situations of despair, and provoke fear and chaos when people feel complacent and overly secure, to keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are. Heyókȟa have the power to heal emotional pain such power comes from the experience of shame-they sing of shameful events in their lives, beg for food, and live as clowns. Principally, the heyókȟa functions both as a mirror and teacher at the same time, using extreme behaviors to mirror others, and forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses. By reading between the lines, the audience is able to think about things not usually thought about, or to look at things differently. Their behavior poses questions, as do Zen koans. They ask difficult questions, and say things others are too afraid to say. His satire presents important questions by fooling around. The heyókȟa symbolizes and portrays many aspects of the sacred beings, the Wakíŋyaŋ. He was always running around with a hammer trying to flatten round and curvy things (soup bowls, eggs, wagon wheels, etc.), thus making them straight. A unique example is the famous heyókȟa sacred clown called "the Straighten-Outer": Similarly, when it is freezing he might wander around naked, complaining that it is too hot. For example, if food is scarce, a heyókȟa may sit around and complain about how full he is during a baking hot heat wave, a heyókȟa might shiver with cold and put on gloves and cover himself with a thick blanket. This manifests by their doing not always everything like the others. The Heyókȟa is thought of as being in charge of above and below, or are more in charge of the dead, instead of the living. The Lakota medicine man, Black Elk, described himself as a heyoka, saying he had been visited as a child by the thunder beings. Only those having visions of the thunder beings of the west, the Wakíŋyaŋ, and who are recognized as such by the community, can take on the ceremonial role of the heyoka. The heyoka is a contrarian, jester, and satirist, who speaks, moves and reacts in an opposite fashion to the people around them. The heyoka ( heyókȟa, also spelled "haokah," "heyokha") is a kind of sacred clown in the culture of the Sioux ( Lakota and Dakota people) of the Great Plains of North America. Ledger artwork by Lakota artist Black Hawk representing a dream of a thunder being. ![]()
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