The Purposes of Storytelling

In her book, The World of Storytelling, author Anne Pellowski has suggested that storytelling had its origin in play activities, with gifted but ordinary folk entertaining their particular social group informally. Gradually these activities were included in religious rituals, historical recitations, and educational functions. She found evidence to support many theories on the origins of storytelling, including:

(1.)That it grew out of the playful, self-entertainment needs of humans;

(2.)That it satisfied the need to explain the surrounding physical world.

(3.)That it came about because of an intrinsic religious need in humans to honor or propitiate the supernature force(s) belived to be present in the world.

(4.) That it evolved from the human need to communicate experience to other humans.

(5.) That it fulfilled an aesthetic need for beauty, regularity, and form through expressive language and music.

(6.) That it stemmed from the desire to record the actions or qualities of one's ancestors, in the hope that this would give them a kind of immortality.

We all love stories. They allow us to wonder about avenues that we didn't take or are out of our realm of possibility, and free us to experience a different persepective. Those who tell these tales are called storytellers. Here are some of my experiments in becoming one.