STORY TELLING

Storytelling describes the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes  with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are  shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values.[1] Crucial  elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view.

The term "storytelling" can refer in a narrow sense specifically to oral storytelling and also in a looser  sense to techniques used in other media to unfold or disclose the narrative of a story.  HISTORICAL TELLING

Storytelling predates writing. The earliest forms of storytelling were usually oral combined with gestures  and expressions. In addition to being part of religious rituals, some archaeologists believe rock art may  have served as a form of storytelling for many ancient cultures.[2] The Australian aboriginal people painted  symbols from stories on cave walls as a means of helping the storyteller remember the story. The story  was then told using a combination of oral narrative, music, rock art and dance, which bring  understanding and meaning of human existence through remembrance and enactment of  stories.[3] People have used the carved trunks of living trees and ephemeral media (such as sand and  leaves) to record stories in pictures or with writing. Complex forms of tattooing may also represent  stories, with information about genealogy, affiliation and social status.[4]

With the advent of writing and the use of stable, portable media, stories were recorded, transcribed and  shared over wide regions of the world. Stories have been carved, scratched, painted, printed or inked  onto wood or bamboo, ivory and other bones, pottery, clay tablets, stone, palm-leaf books, skins  (parchment), bark cloth, paper, silk, canvas and other textiles, recorded on film and stored electronically  in digital form. Oral stories continue to be created, improvisation ally by impromptu storytellers, as well  as committed to memory and passed from generation to generation, despite the increasing popularity of  written and televised media in much of the world.

Storytelling is a means for sharing and interpreting experiences. Peter L. Berger says human life is  narratively rooted, humans construct their lives and shape their world into homes in terms of these  groundings and memories. Stories are universal in that they can bridge cultural, linguistic and age-related  divides. Storytelling can be adaptive for all ages, leaving out the notion of age segregation.[18] Storytelling  can be used as a method to teach ethics, values and cultural norms and differences.[19] Learning is most  effective when it takes place in social environments that provide authentic social cues about how  knowledge is to be applied.[20] Stories function as a tool to pass on knowledge in a social context. So,  every story has 3 parts. First, The setup (The Hero's world before the adventure starts). Second, The  Confrontation (The hero's world turned upside down). Third, The Resolution (Hero conquers villain, but  it's not enough for Hero to survive. The Hero or World must be transformed). Any story can be framed in  such format.

Types of storytelling in indigenous peoples

There are various types of stories among many indigenous communities. Communication in Indigenous  American communities is rich with stories, myths, philosophies and narratives that serve as a means to  exchange information.[39] These stories may be used for coming of age themes, core values, morality,  literacy and history. Very often, the stories are used to instruct and teach children about cultural values  and lessons.[37] The meaning within the stories is not always explicit, and children are expected to make  their own meaning of the stories. In the Lakota Tribe of North America, for example, young girls are often  told the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, who is a spiritual figure that protects young girls from  the whims of men. In the Odawa Tribe, young boys are often told the story of a young man who never  took care of his body, and as a result, his feet fail to run when he tries to escape predators. This story  serves as an indirect means of encouraging the young boys to take care of their bodies.[40]

are considered part of the close-knit community. Narratives can be shared to express the values or  morals among family, relatives, or people who Many stories in indigenous American communities all have  a "surface" story, that entails knowing certain information and clues to unlocking the metaphors in the  story. The underlying message of the story being told, can be understood and interpreted with clues that  hint to a certain interpretation.[41] In order to make meaning from these stories, elders in  the Sto:lo community for example, emphasize the importance in learning how to listen, since it requires  the senses to bring one's heart and mind together.[41] For instance, a way in which children learn about  the metaphors significant for the society they live in, is by listening to their elders and participating in  rituals where they respect one another.[42]

Some people also make a case for different narrative forms being classified as storytelling in the  contemporary world. For example, digital storytelling, online and dice-and-paper-based role-playing  games. In traditional role-playing games, storytelling is done by the person who controls the environment  and the non-playing fictional characters, and moves the story elements along for the players as they  interact with the storyteller. The game is advanced by mainly verbal interactions, with dice roll  determining random events in the fictional universe, where the players interact with each other and the  storyteller. This type of game has many genres, such as sci-fi and fantasy, as well as alternate-reality  worlds based on the current reality, but with different setting and beings such as werewolves, aliens,  daemons, or hidden societies. These oral-based role-playing games were very popular in the 1990s  among circles of youth in many countries before computer and console-based online MMORPG's took  their place. Despite the prevalence of computer-based MMORPGs, the dice-and-paper RPG still has a  dedicated following.

