Story
An Avatar.Global Resource
Story
A story is a sequence of related events told either to a) entertain, b) socialize, c) influence behaviour, and d) indoctrinate, not necessarily in a mutually exclusive manner
Syncretic Terms
Story >
Related LP Terms
Story >
Non-LP Related Terms
Notes
Humans are a species of story tellers. Storytelling is a human universal[1] Storytelling emerges spontaneously in childhood and continues throughout one’s entire life.[2]
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,[3] mechanisms to convey information and expectations on social behaviours, norms and values and taboos, mechanisms for healing rifts and understanding others,[4] and mechanisms to ensure human cooperation.
We can call stories used as mechanism to convey information, expectations, or to heal rifts and encourage understanding and cooperation Functional Narratives. Functional narratives are narratives that perform useful functions, like conveying information, reinforcing norms and values, healing social rifts, etc.
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Footnotes
- ↑ D.E. Brown, Human Universals (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991).
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 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.