This small-scale piece of research stemmed from a larger study on oral storytelling and the responses of children to stories told and read to them. In the larger study several children expressed preferences for stories from picture books, as "told" stories were not "real" stories. This concept of "real" stories and…

Storytelling has existed as a style of leadership in many cultures for countless generations. Storytelling organizes complex patterns of ideas into functional processing models. Stories often by analogy actively restructure the listener's approaches to the issues involved. In this context, a successful story contains all of the essential elements…

Folklore and folk arts encompass the body of traditional knowledge learned and artifacts produced outside of formal institutions as a result of participation in folk groups. A great portion of daily life and culture is folk. Folklore and folk arts acquire distinctly local characteristics through the influences of geography, history, or talented…

The Augusta Heritage Center of Davis and Elkins College (West Virginia) was established in 1973 as a community-sponsored workshop program and has continued since 1980 as a college affiliated, nonprofit organization. Rooted in local traditions, the center supports folk-related activities and sponsors in-state programs and research, primarily…

Intended to highlight the work which exists on women's folk humor and to encourage its further exploration, this annotated bibliography has been selected to provide access to the key works dealing with the oral tradition in women's folk humor. The bibliography's 33 annotations range from 1968 through 1992 and are gathered under the headings of…

Teaching school-aged children about the struggle for civil rights in the United States is a curricular objective. Schools have established traditions for teaching the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and for celebrating Black History Month through the month of February. Using literature written for children is one tool that can be used to increase…

This paper discusses the concept of Bulgarian national mythology, a secondary mythology that emerged around the late 18th century based on the fundamental opposition Chaos-Cosmos, near-far, up-down, good-evil, God-Satan, and human-non-human. The new mythology redefined self-images and images of the Other, the main figures, and narratives about…

Suggests that teachers of African American students have an obligation to familiarize themselves with some of the important differences in their students' language and culture that affect their learning in the classroom. Describes the rich oral tradition and group-centered ethos of African American culture. (RS)

Details how storytelling could function as a rich, multicultural pedagogy. Explores how storytelling can be grounded in the oral traditions of African and East Indian cultures. Locates a series of skills that emerge from storytelling activities. (RS)

Argues that the history of punctuation in the English-speaking world offers tangible evidence for the evolving interplay between speech and writing. (Author/VWL)

Examines the visual memories of women over 70 years old that take place during a long life and the roles of visual culture in memory and in mental images through interview and focus groups. Indicates that older women's stories anticipate feminist issues and do not conform to traditional male models of understanding. (CMK)

Argues that no real divide exists between oral and written transmission, but rather a dynamic relationship between the two, an approach described as the "ecological" model. The article selects examples from Talmudic tradition that reinforce this model. The article concludes that although historical exigency requires written storage of…

This article describes the history and events behind the development and progress of the San Francisco Digital Center--now known as the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS). First-hand accounts and reactions from local educators and the director of technology for the county that houses CDS are provided. The article also demonstrates how digital…

The effect of law on research and scholarship is amply illustrated by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and other statutes, which, when they impel reburial of archaeological discoveries, result in a very real sacrificing of our past. In this case, the Act seems driven by a misguided notion that anthropology is not the…

The folk songs and ballads of early America describe life as experienced by the common people. They were sung within the family, by neighbors and at gatherings of larger communities. The stories told were carried in the memories of those who heard them. Once a strictly aural and oral tradition, the words came to be written down, and the surviving…