The Oral Tradition

Typical oral storytelling has three parts to it:

1. Continuity and context setting

Before the story is told, it gets connected to an ongoing topic. That ongoing topic also acts as the context for the story.

Eg: “Since we are discussing travelling alone in the hills, it reminds me of the story of a neighbour in my hometown!”

2. The story itself

This is where the storytelling actually happens.

Eg: “My neighbour went climbing a nearby hill and never returned. A big rescue party was also organized to look for him, but nothing!”

3. The legend setting

This is where a legend is set or reiterated. This is an important aftertaste that the narrator leaves the audience with. When done masterfully, it adds to or complements the mood of the gathering.

Eg:  “That is why in my hometown they say never go into hills alone. There are aliens there who abduct people!”

Choosing a License

Protecting the rights of the creator is important. That is why we thought of sharing the content under an appropriate license.

Since it is natural for a story heard to be retold, we wanted to choose an open license. We chose Creative Commons’ Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. And that is not just for the video, standalone audio but also for the story itself.

Cover Pic: Courtesy of West Bengal Tourism, https://wbtourism.gov.in/gallery/photo_gallery Accessed Jul 2, 2022