Storytelling: Textiles 

As the use of the phrase “spinning a yarn” suggests, an association has long been made between weaving and storytelling. The word spinning was often found regularly in ancient Hindu texts including the Vedas, as Puntambekar and Varadachari (1926) described in their book Hand-Spinning and Hand-Weaving.

When the poet sings his invocation to Agni, he asks of the gods “to spin out the ancient thread”. The continuity of life itself and of the human race is compared to the continuity of a well-spun thread. ‘As fathers they have set their heritage on earth, their offspring, as a thread continuously spun out.’

It has been argued that all forms of art tell stories. Included among those forms of art are weavings. Weavers in the Andes, Silverman writes, “are modern scribes who use thread as opposed to pen and ink, to produce motifs in a true pictoric dictionary” (1993, 14). In Oaxaca, Mexico woven cloth is said to be a language used to tell stories.

The earliest evidence of weaving dates back some 27,000 years. Thaat earliest evidence  was found in impressions of weaving made on clay. Further, clay was used to create small “Venus figurines”, or small clay statuettes, that are wearing a large number of woven objects: skirts and belts, as well as hats, headbands and necklaces.

A prehistoric society in which some of the world's finest weavers lived was on the coast of Peru. Between 800 BCE and 100 BCE the Paracas people traded locally grown cotton for wool from  llamas and alpacas that were being raised by people in the Andes. 

They carefully spun the cotton and wood into fine thread and yarn. First, a cloth was woven out of plain cotton.  Brightly colored wool threads were used to decorate the fabric with embroidery depictions of costumed dancers, plants, double headed birds, pampas cats, llamas, fish, serpents, llamas carrying loads of vegetables, serpents, plants, mystical creatures including shamans who are part human and part eagle and who can fly through the air.  In one claw they hold severed human heads and the other claw held the knife that was used to cut off the head. 

The weaving woven in Paracas weavers has been found in tombs. Mummified bodies of the dead were wrapped in finely woven and skillfully and brightly embroidered mantles or shrouds. Even today, thousands of years later, the colors remain bright and the skill is obvious. The complexity of the weaving and the beauty of the embroidery communicated the social status, wealth, and social affiliation of the deceased. Two thousand years later those weavings can tell us stories about the Paracas people. They are telling us stories about their lives and concerns. 

 

Storytelling: Performances, ceremonies, celebrations, and rituals

When we combine our storytelling with the other arts, we refer to that event using words like performance, ceremony, celebration or ritual. These words are used interchangable and their meanings can be confusing. Sometimes it is possible to distinguish the meaning of terms by looking at their etymology, or origin. 

Possibly the oldest of these terms is the word ceremony, which possibly was of Etruscan origin (8-3 century BCE). It came to English from the Medieval Latin word ceremonia, which referred to sacredness or holiness. 

The word ritual is a proto-European word that possibly came from Sanscrit (c. 1500-500 BCE), it came into usage around 1560 CE and made reference to a religious observance.

The next oldest word is celebration. Its root came from the Latin word celebrationem, which means numerous in attendance, possibly for a sacred event. 

As these three terms have the oldest origins and make reference to gatherings that are of a religious nature, it suggest that the earliest use of storytelling, when combined with the other arts, was a serious event, rather than merely a social or enjoyable event.  

Performance is the youngest of these words. It appeared in English during the late 15^th century to refer to public entertainment. While the meaning of words can and does change over time, the word performance continues to be used in the same sense today. Operas and plays are performances. These events are held at certain times and certain places. The audience, except in the case of slapstick, typically sits quietly and its only participation is to, perhaps, quietly laugh or sigh, and certainly to applaud.

Rituals, ceremonies and celebrations also are typically scheduled on certain dates, at certain times. These events all are patterned, meaning they have recurring features, including starting with some sort of greeting or introduction and typically people in the audience participate in some way. These three words were, as stated before, used at least at one time to refer to a religious event. Although we used the term celebration to refer to sacred occasions, such as the Celebration of Mass, the term also is often used to refer to an event like a birthday party. Celebrations like birthday parties are patterned. They typically start with a welcome and the placing of the gifts in a pile. People then move to view the birthday cake. They then play games, then sing a happy birthday song, light the candles, then blow thee out, and then cut the cake and open gifts. The audience may cheer, shout or boo. Jokes might be told. The story told is about the birthday boy or girl. The art consists of the song, the decorations, perhaps crepe paper streamers, the gaily wrapped gifts. and the "best cloths' that participants often wear. 

Rituals and ceremonies are more serious events than celebrations. They are held in a place said to be special, such as an auditorium, or sacred, such as a mosque. Confucius felt that rituals transformed man from an individualistic ego into one characterized by strong kinship ties, generosity, diligence, earnestness, filial piety, fraternal duty, loyalty and sincerity.A graduation is referred to as a ceremony. It follows a pattern of steps, beginning when Pomp and Circumstance is played and the university marshall enters the room carrying a mace. The mace, which is about three feet tall and golden, is a symbol of governing authority. Then faculty and students file in and take their seats at the front of the room, before the stage. there is a welcome, some presentations are given, and the school song might be sung. A story will be told about the graduates, their future, and what they can contribute to their academic and society. The ceremony ends when diplomas have been awarded and then there is a recessional. Perhaps graduates will toss their caps into the air..the audience cheers.  The art consists of the caps and grown, the gonfaons, or banners carried to represent each college. A graduation party is celebration.  

A ritual typically is considered to be the most serious type of event, one that in some way - a song, a prayer, a blessing - invokes the supernatural. If a graduation mass is held, it is a ritual. If an invocation, or opening prayer, is recited at a graduation it becomes more like a ritual. A wedding, if no reference is made to religio u , or faith or the supernatural, is a celebration. If held in a church or other sacred place and the event is conducted by a minister or rabbi, it is a ritual. A wedding reception is a celebration.   

The type of art used with stories that are part of ceremonies differs from the art and stories used in rituals. Of the two, rituals are more patterned and special or sacred objects often are used and the story of their sacredness is described. Rituals also can involve reading from a sacred text and prayer, which is an appeal or attempt to call upon a supernatural entity. The stories told also can relate the importance of the event itself, the history of the sacred place and the sacred objects used, the miracles that have occurred and the deeds of the heroic or saintly individuals involved.  

Drums have played and in some cases continue to play an important role in ceremonies and rituals performed in many parts of the world. The sound of the drum, for some people, is said to be sacred. The Igbu of Nigeria use different types of drums play during the Eke Celebration. Participants arrive in decorated war canoes playing the egume drum. As they near the royal place the ufie, the king’s talking drum, calls to them, telling the stories of his great deeds. Each participant then stands, dances and recalls his own ancestors’ heroic deeds (Jackson 1968; see also Calame-Griaule 1986). “These drummers, Rattray (1916:134) writes, “are trained from childhood, and must not only be experts in drumming, but also have learned the traditions and genealogies of all the kings, and the folklore of the tribe as contained in the proverbs. “

A good description of a ritual comes from the istory of St. Thomas Becket, who was Archbishop of Canterbury during the Middle Ages. When his opinions clashed with those of King Henry II, he was killed by four of Henry’s knights while he knelt in prayer at the altar. In 1173 he was declared a saint after more than 700 miracles had been recorded as occurring at his tomb. For centuries, thousands of pilgrims traveled great distances to reach his Shrine. Today, pilgrims follow the Pilgrims Way for fifteen days (153) miles, from Winchester to the shrine at Canterbury. When they arrive they tour the cathedral singing hymns and stopping to pray at places connected with Becket’s life and death. His miracles are portrayed in beautiful stained glass windows. One shows the healing of Petronella of Polesworth, a nun who suffered from leprosy. She is shown bathing her feet in holy water while sitting on the tomb of St Thomas. At each window the relevant story of his life was recited

to be continued

 

Stories of heroes and villains.

Stories, for centuries, have described heroes, generally focusing on men who took risks and perhaps sacrificed their lives for the benefits of others. In the past, heroes were presented as models for correct social behavior, generally for males. Females were taught quite different things and rewarded for certain behaviors (but that story is for another day. During the initiation rituals performed by the Aboriginal people, the boys were told a series of short stories about the ancestral heroes who lived in the Dreamtime. These stories taught tribal history and, Elkin (1964:156) writes and “instilled into the minds of the younger men present, for most do today what the great heroes did in the dream time”. The Bemba of Zambia tell stories about heroes and villains as they can illustrate the consequences of behavior; the good are rewarded and the bad are punished. As each generation listened to the triumphs and tragedies of their heroic ancestors, their behavior changed. Courageous acts of sacrifice became goals for the young to emulate, while the derision heaped upon selfish characters would arise in their minds as powerful obstacles whenever circumstances tempted them to shrug off their obligations to others.

Detective stories are a unique type of hero story that, written in French and English, made their sudden appearance during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. By 1901, they had become so popular that the famous art critic, theologian and philosopher, G. K. Chesterton, published a paper to explain their popularity, explaining that these stories were “a perfectly legitimate form of art”, one that confirmed beliefs that there were absolutes in life – rules that universally held – and when one ignored or violated those absolutes there would be serious consequences in life. As such, detective stories could be agents for societal good. He also wrote his own mysteries, one of which, Father Brown, describes the father in a small town in England who uses his understanding of religion to solve local crimes. These books more recently have been described as preachy and moralistic, in contrast to the more popular stories of Sherlock Holmes, a flawed hero who was led at times by his passions, but capable of using calm reason to solve crimes. Since the early 20^th century the number of detective stories has proliferated; today, they are one of the most widespread narrative forms today. And while the detectives who become heroes tend to be moral people, working for justice, the books are not explicitly moral tales. However, their influence may certainly be in that direction. The moral message is more subtle now. 

The storytellers of today

Although some claim that no one tells stories anymore, that is not true. We have many storytellers among us today. Children continue to hear their parents tell them bedtime stories that teach them about perseverance (The Little Engine that Could) or honesty (Pinocchio). There are, however, storytellers for adults. Our doctors and nurses tell us stories so we can understand our problem and its treatment. Our prophets, priests, and  and rabbis tell stories to help us understand doctrine. Our professors and teachers, the ones whose lectures interest us the most, are storytellers. From them we can and do, painlessly, learn a great deal.  We hear stories in operas and radio broadcasts. We hear stories from salespeople trying to convince us that their products are best and those who build the most elaborate stories are trying to sell snake oil to naive buyers are selling snake. Perhaps surprisingly to some, our newscasters, lawyers, politicians and scientists all are or can be storytellers.

Lawyers, who are known to be articulate, do not refer to themselves as storytellers. All lawyers, however, realize that the lawyer who tells the most captivating story will win. Lawyers weave together lines of evidence with legal precedent and create interesting stories that will lead the jury to exonerate or convict.

Politicians, too, are storytellers and some are very good storytellers. Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln both recognized the power of Stories. Church, during the second world war used stories to remind the people of Great Britain of their heroic history, of the strength they had shown in time of crises, of the bravery of their soldiers and the moral value of the people. In doing so, he was successful in convincing them to persist in their battle with the Nazis. Lincoln, during America's Civil war energized his people and was able to preserve the Union by appealing to the best in each person. 

The ancestors of journalists were news carriers, or criers, who carried information from one geographic area to another and one people to another. They were trusted to provide, in a plainspoken manner, accurate information of use in decision making. Today, our journalists walk a fine line between two roles, news carrying and storytelling. They need to provide facts, but must do so in an intriguing way so that they can keep their jobs and can attract and keep an audience.At time,as Marchese (2020: 43) explains, they cross the line.

We used to have news and we had entertainment. Now these categories are totally intertwined – to the extent that it’s not far-fetched to say that we just have categories of entertainment.

Historically, few scientific discoveries were shared with the public; Darwin provided an interesting exception. He used a quasi-lyrical style to write the Origin of Species. His writing style was interesting and easy to understand and his theory came to convince many nonscientists. Today, science is advancing more rapidly than ever before and many of the discoveries scientists are making can have a serious impact on all our lives. To make sure that the public is aware of their discoveries, scientists have begun using a storytelling format, not only with the public, but with politicians and funding agencies. 

Most of the example we provided above are drawn from the "good" storytellers. However, as example of the the snake oil salesman makes clear, we can be duped, deluded, confused, or cheated by storytellers,not only snake oil salesmen, but even those who seem to be legitimate  journalists, scientists, politicians and teachers. Stories - those told not just to entertain - are mechanisms to convince us of some point - the little engine persevered and was successful, the ants taught the grasshopper an important lessons (though it isn't always clear why they were so altruistic), politicians can use stories to fill their own pockets and incite wars. Stories, when well told, draw and hold the attention of the listeners. We listen to stories differently than we listen to other forms of speech and it may be possible that hearing a story activates important sensory areas in the cortex of the brain, making it possible for listeners to actually visualize what they are hearing and the outcome of that visualization - the snake oil cures you! .

 

Art, stories and rituals

Traditional oral art genres can be distinguished from ordinary speech by a unique architecture that involves the use of such things as fictive details, arresting images, mnemonic devices, alliteration, and metaphor and simile. These features make the oral arts, and the messages they contain, more attractive, in the sense that they attract and hold attention, and thus more effective in influencing social behavior in the directions outlined in the narrative. Here, I discuss rituals and the connections they have with the oral arts and describe the key elements of rituals, including the incorporation of the arts -- dance, music, stories, costumes and masks -- and the acts of gifts, feasting, and sacrifice. These elements make the oral art and its message even more attractive, more memorable, and more influential. I will end this post with a discussion of simple and complex rituals and how they might be used to build and repair the social relationships that have been of fundamental importance to humans.

 

Discussions of rituals, for decades, have linked them to stories. Lord Raglan (1955:454), for example, claims that for many scholars, a myth was “simply a narrative associated with a rite.” Segal (2009:366), who writes that myth “does not stand by itself but is tied to ritual,” would agree. Early discussions of the connection between myth and ritual often centered on whether ritual was created first and myth followed, or vice versa (Davis, 1974). William Robertson Smith (1894) for example, argued that myths were derived from rituals and this was implied in an anonymous paper published in Science in 1888, which attributes the origin of myth to rituals associated with ancestor worship. As we will never answer the question of the primacy of ritual, we turn to a question that may be answerable – Why do myths and rituals so often occur together and why do they seem to be, as Malinowski (1926) argues, intricately interdependent?

 

While this entire series of posts will focus on the characteristics of myth and the intertwining of myth and ritual, to begin the discussion of the interrelationships, the claim is often made that the connection between stories, usually referred to as myths, and ritual occurs because, as Hocart (1933:223) explains, “Knowledge of the myth is essential, because it has to be recited at the ritual.” The story explains the ritual, as Raglan (1955:454) describes:

Consider the pilgrimage to Canterbury, which resulted from the murder of Becket. As the pilgrims performed the ritual of touring the cathedral and singing hymns or praying at spots connected with Becket’s life and death, the story of these was recited.

This connection between myths and rituals, Bennett, Wolin, & McAvity (1988) explain, makes them mutually reinforcing. Tomorrow - or one of these days - I will describe the characteristics of rituals.