The storyteller

I suspect the only way to really glean an understanding of a culture or society is to be born in to it and then spend enough time immersed in another culture to gain a perspective from which to view your own. For example Margaret Mead's (cultural anthropologist, 1901-1978) 'Coming of Age in Samoa' explains far more about about the U.S. of her era than it does Samoa.

On the other hand, for at least a superficial understanding of your own or a foreign culture, listen closely to the storytellers, the cautionary tales, the fairy tales, cartoons, manga, etc. that the children therein grow up with. For example it's been my experience that Eskimo tales generally emphasize patience as a major virtue while in many Athabaskan tales quickness is most important. If you think about the difference in how you'd hunt a seal and how you would hunt a moose, this is quite understandable.

A phrase that I've quoted before, though I still don't remember who originally said it, is that the poets and outlaws define and delimit the world the the rest of us live in.

However it is the simple storyteller, by the fireside, telling the bedtime story, reading aloud in the living room on a summer's evening, who shape our futures and provide us our compasses to navigate our cultures.

To end on a somber note, to view today's cautionary tales, etc., turn on your TV, and may the lord have mercy on your soul.


Faber-Castell brush pens on Bee's 'Bogus Rough Sketch' paper, 9 by 18 inches