storytelling
Tahitian Storytelling
Charles Ariitetoa Rochette, a 54-year old Tahitian man, became an orero, a public speaker, so he could help preserve and transmit the culture of his society. La Dépêche de Tahiti, a prominent daily newspaper in French Polynesia, published a story about him last Wednesday. Mr. Rochette gained his knowledge and aptitude for transmitting Tahitian legends […]
Campfire Stories of the Ju/’hoansi [journal article review]
Halloween is almost a month past but memories of ghost stories told around the open fire—along with the s’mores—will live in children’s memories for a lifetime. Polly Wiessner, an anthropologist who has studied the Ju/’hoansi since the early 1970s, decided to focus a research project on that subject: the importance of campfire stories for the […]
Storytelling Preserves Traditions of the Lepchas
According to Gorer’s book Himalayan Village, effective speech is highly prized by the Lepcha people, and storytelling is among their most valued skills. Gorer explains that “story-telling is the major Lepcha art and distraction (p.265).” Stories told around the fire in the evenings are sometimes of such length that they may take numerous days to […]
Prominent Inuit Storyteller to Perform on Saturday
Elisha Kilabuk, a master Inuit throat singer and storyteller, will be performing this coming Saturday, September 26, at the Unikkarvik Visitor’s Centre in Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut Territory. Kilabuk, who was born in Iqaluit, learned stories from his mother, Mukpaloo Kilabuk, who learned them from her father, Inuksiaq. “I’ve been hearing stories and […]
Talking: Persuasion and Story Telling among the San [journal article review]
San storytellers seem to have inexhaustible sources for their stories and to have endless variations of their tales. But oral persuasion is also an essential part of their culture. Mathias Guenther, in a recent journal article, bases his examination of San rhetoric primarily on the Naro people, but he includes in his analysis many references […]
Elderly Ju/’hoansi and Their Grandchildren
A charming Ju/’hoansi folktale describes the way grandmother cared for a few droplets of blood that came on the wind to her after the death of her granddaughter, Elephant Girl. The droplets grew steadily, first in a bottle, then in a skin bag, until Elephant Girl was nearly ready to reappear. One day, while the […]
