The Evolution of Storytelling
For most of our human history, storytelling was oral. Myths were spoken or sung by diverse storytellers who could select and modulate their narrative to best suit a given audience, emphasizing some aspects and ignoring others.
The Oral Tale
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Paleolithic people had stories to tell. From about 40,000 years ago, and for approximately the next 25,000 years — a period 12 times longer than the Common Era — they conveyed these through images painted on cave walls, carved on ivory tusks, engraved and etched on stones and shells, and did so, as far as we can tell, all over Europe, Asia and Sibe... See more
Sally Mallam • The First Stories
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Storytelling is a primal instinct (people have been telling stories much, much longer than they’ve been reading or writing about them)
Brian Norgard • The Pomp Podcast on Apple Podcasts
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a story as “a narrative-emotional technology that helped our ancestors cope with the psychological challenges posed by human biology.”
Sally Mallam • The Science of Storytelling
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Instead of building a network from human-to-human chains alone—as the Neanderthals, for example, did—stories provided Homo sapiens with a new type of chain: human-to-story chains. In order to cooperate, Sapiens no longer had to know each other personally; they just had to know the same story.
Yuval Noah Harari • Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Instead of building a network from human-to-human chains alone—as the Neanderthals, for example, did—stories provided Homo sapiens with a new type of chain: human-to-story chains. In order to cooperate, Sapiens no longer had to know each other personally; they just had to know the same story.
Yuval Noah Harari • Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Humans are a story-telling species. The stories we tell ourselves and each other guide how we live in and relate to the world. They are the social technology through which we make sense of the world and give meaning to our lived experiences. Like the mycelium that runs below our feet, stories are everywhere, threading and reshaping our reality, eve... See more
Niels Devisscher • Belonging and Butterflies in Times of Breakdown
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“ Stories are actually a form of technology. They are tools that were designed by our ancestors to alleviate depression, reduce anxiety, kindle creativity, spark courage and meet a variety of other psychological challenges of being human. ”― Angus Fletcher, Wonderworks
The Science of Storytelling
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