Editing Storytelling (section)

== Historical perspective ==
[[File:WLANL - MicheleLovesArt - Tropenmuseum - Pabuji-Verteldoek (4669-1).jpg|thumb|A very fine [[phad painting]] dated 1938 A.D. The epic of Pabuji is an oral epic in the [[Rajasthani language]] that tells of the deeds of the folk hero-deity [[Pabuji]], who lived in the 14th century.]]

Storytelling, intertwined with the development of [[mythology|mythologies]],<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Sherman
 | first1 = Josepha
 | author-link1 = Josepha Sherman
 | title = Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore
 | date = 26 March 2015
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dG2sBwAAQBAJ
 | publisher = Routledge
 | publication-date = 2015
 | page = 
 | isbn = 978-1-317-45937-8
 | access-date = 27 March 2021
 | quote = Myths address daunting themes such as creation, life, death, and the workings of the natural world [...]. [...] Myths are closely related to religious stories, since myths sometimes belong to living religions.
}}
</ref>
predates writing. The earliest forms of storytelling were usually [[oral literature|oral]], combined with gestures and expressions.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} Storytelling often has a prominent educational and performative role in [[religious]] [[rituals]] (for example, the [[Passover Seder]]<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Klein | first1 = Reuven Chaim | year = 2023 | title = The Passover Seder as an Exercise in Piagetian Education Theory
 | journal =  Religious Education | volume = 118 | issue = 4| pages = 312-324 | url= https://hcommons.org/deposits/view/hc:61280/CONTENT/the-passover-seder-as-an-exercise-in-piagetian-education-theory.pdf | doi=10.1080/00344087.2023.2228189 }}</ref>), and some archaeologists{{which|date=March 2021}} believe that [[rock art]] may have served as a form of storytelling for many{{quantify|date=March 2021}} ancient [[culture]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title= Why did Native Americans make rock art?|url= http://arkarcheology.uark.edu/rockart/index.html?pageName=Why%20did%20Native%20Americans%20make%20rock%20art?|website= Rock Art in Arkansas|access-date= 9 May 2016|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151002154650/http://arkarcheology.uark.edu/rockart/index.html?pageName=Why%20did%20Native%20Americans%20make%20rock%20art%3F|archive-date= 2 October 2015 | quote = [...] rock art might have played an important part in story-telling, with combined value for education, entertainment, and group solidarity. This narrative function of rock art imagery is one of the current trends in interpretation.}}</ref>

The [[Aboriginal Australian]] people painted symbols which also appear in stories on cave walls as a means of helping the storyteller remember the story. The story was then told using a combination of oral narrative, [[music]], rock art and dance, which bring understanding and meaning to human existence through the remembrance and enactment of stories.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=N4YAN7aGLQIC Cajete, Gregory, Donna Eder and Regina Holyan. Life Lessons through Storytelling: Children's Exploration of Ethics. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2010].</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2021}} People have used the [[dendroglyph|carved trunks of living trees]] and ephemeral media (such as sand and leaves) to record [[Folklore|folktale]]s in pictures or with writing.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} Complex forms of tattooing may also represent stories, with information about [[genealogy]], affiliation and social status.<ref>
Kaeppler, Adrienne. "Hawaiian tattoo: a conjunction of genealogy and aesthetics". ''Marks of Civilization: Artistic Transformations of the Human Body''. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, UCLA (1988), APA.
</ref>

Folktales often [[Aarne–Thompson classification systems|share common motifs and themes]], suggesting possible basic psychological similarities across various human cultures. Other stories, notably [[fairy tale]]s, appear to have spread from place to place, implying [[memetic]] appeal and popularity.

Groups of originally oral tales can coalesce over time into [[Literary cycle|story cycle]]s (like the ''[[Arabian Nights]]''), cluster around mythic heroes (like [[King Arthur]]), and develop into the narratives of the deeds of the [[gods]] and [[saint]]s of various [[religion]]s.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Pellowski
 | first1 = Anne
 | author-link1 = Anne Pellowski 
 | year = 1977
 | title = The World of Storytelling
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hDDaAAAAMAAJ
 | publisher = H.W. Wilson
 | publication-date = 1990
 | page = 44
 | isbn = 978-0-8242-0788-5
 | access-date = 27 March 2021
 | quote = Religious storytelling is that storytelling used by official or semi-official functionaries, leaders, and teachers of a religious group to explain or promulgate their religion through stories  [...].
}}
</ref>
The results can be episodic (like the stories about [[Anansi]]), [[epic poetry|epic]] (as with [[Homer]]ic tales), inspirational (note the tradition of [[hagiography|''vitae'']]) and/or instructive (as in many Buddhist or Christian [[scriptures]]).

With the advent of [[writing]] and the use of stable, portable [[media (communication)|media]], storytellers recorded, transcribed and continued to share stories over wide regions of the world. Stories have been carved, scratched, painted, printed or inked onto wood or bamboo, ivory and other bones, [[pottery]], clay tablets, stone, [[palm-leaf manuscript|palm-leaf books]], skins (parchment), [[Tapa cloth|bark cloth]], [[paper]], silk, [[canvas]] and other textiles, recorded on [[film]] and stored electronically in digital form. Oral stories continue to be created, improvisationally by impromptu and professional storytellers, as well as committed to memory and passed from generation to generation, despite the increasing popularity of written and televised media in much of the world.