In Claude Lévi-Strauss's structuralist anthropology, mythological tricksters (such as the coyote and the raven) function as mediators that resolve deep conceptual contradictions in human thought.

In modern theological analysis (such as the work of Rev. Rachel K. Taber-Hamilton and various contemporary theologians), Jesus is compared to the indigenous Trickster Archetype-a figure who disrupts rigid social hierarchies, exposes the hypocrisy and pride of religious and political elites, and turns conventional expectations upside down.