THE DESIRABILITY OF STORY TELLERS

“Among Flipino hunter gatherers, storytelling is valued more than any other skill, and the best story tellers have the most children”

By: Ed Yong

Published: The Atlantic, Dec 5 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/the-origins-of-storytelling/547502/

Level of Difficulty: *

BEFORE YOU READ

·         Oral Tradition of Storytelling: Definition, History & Examples

https://study.com/academy/lesson/oral-tradition-of-storytelling-definition-history-examples.html#transcriptHeader

·         Written & Oral Traditions in Africa (500-1800 CE)

·         https://study.com/academy/lesson/written-oral-traditions-in-africa-500-1800-ce.html#transcriptHeader

QUESTIONS

1.       The story of the Sun and Moon is an example of a story which…

2.       Storytelling is so widespread and has been around for so long that it can be considered …

3.       The social function of storytelling is emphasized by the fact that…

4.       Migliano included storytelling among her criteria because she thought it would be…

5.       What was surprising about the result of the experiment?

6.       Read the examples of the Agda’s stories. What do they have in common? They emphasize…

7.       The Agda depend on stories rather than religion to guarantee pro social behavior because…

8.       What does “That” refer to in the phrase “That’s just a correlation…”? The fact that…

9.       We can accept that storytelling is an important human adaptation not because it serves a social purpose but because….

10.   How did Migliano know that the subjects were being honest during the survey?

11.   The fact that storytelling…………….is the social benefit of this custom

12.   The examples provided in the paragraph beginning “For example…” all prove that…

13.   The example of the Maya speaking people proves that…

WRITING TASK

Write an essay in which you discuss the role of storytelling in society.

THE DESIRABILITY OF STORY TELLERS, KEY AND TEACHERS’ NOTES

This straight forward text provides a good introduction to deep reading and inferential questions. The questions are varied and an attempt has been made to cover various cognitive skills.

1.       Is influenced with a theme of cooperation and equality (There is a grammar mistake in this text: the preposition should be by not with)

2.       An important human adaptation

3.       Stories arose partly as a way of cementing social bonds, and instilling an ethic of cooperation.

4.       An interesting contrast against the other esteemed skills

5.       Storytelling acumen mattered far more than all other skills (The following sentence would do so long as it were replaced with storytelling)

6.       Cooperation, egalitarianism and gender equality

7.       They are a small community

8.       Sharing was more likely in camps with a higher proportion of good story tellers

9.       It benefits people who are good at it

10.   They didn’t nominate the same people as exceptional hunter gatherers, child minders and so on

11.   Reinforces norms and ethics

12.   Hunter gatherers use their tales to pass down information about food, weather and more

13.   Our wonderfully human universal of loving stories can also become an all too human vulnerability, fostering enmity as readily as amicable relations