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Story

An Avatar.Global Resource

Story

A story is a sequence of related events told either to a) entertain, b) socialize, c) indoctrinate,[1] not necessarily in a mutually exclusive manner

Concept Map

Syncretic Terms

Related LP Terms

Non-LP Related Terms

Notes

Humans are a species of story tellers. Storytelling is a human universal[2] Storytelling emerges spontaneously in childhood and continues throughout one’s entire life.[3]

Story telling is generally functional for humanity, evolving as a way to ensure facilitate human adaptation and survival by providing several key functions, including mechanisms for internal communication,[4] mechanisms to convey information and expectations on social behaviours, norms and values and taboos, mechanisms for healing rifts and understanding others,[5] and mechanisms to ensure human cooperation.

Stories are not neutral devices. Stories are regularly used to

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Footnotes

  1. Sosteric, Mike. 2021. “The Triumph of Spirit Archetype System.” https://www.academia.edu/126703126/The_Triumph_of_Spirit_Archetype_System_TOSAS_
  2. D.E. Brown, Human Universals (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991).
  3. Daniel Smith et al., “Cooperation and the Evolution of Hunter-Gatherer Storytelling,” Nature Communications 8, no. 1 (December 5, 2017): 1853, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02036-8.
  4. Megan Biesele, “How Hunter-Gatherers’ Stories ‘Make Sense’: Semantics and Adaptation,” Cultural Anthropology 1, no. 2 (May 1, 1986): 157–70, doi:10.1525/can.1986.1.2.02a00030
  5. Polly W. Wiessner, “Embers of Society: Firelight Talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 39 (September 30, 2014): 14027–35, doi:10.1073/pnas.1404212111.