ADSactly Folklore: Campfire Stories
Hello again dear @adsactly readers!
Over the past few months I have dedicated much of my folklore series to the study of various myths and stories, searching for common motifs and the cultural links between apparently different people. However, to better understand this complex topic we need to look back, far far away into the past, to the moment our cultural heritage of myths and legends was just starting to emerge.
We’ve talked about many stories, but when did stories actually appear?
According to scientists, the apparition of the first stories can be traced back to the moment primitive people mastered fire. A momentous event in the evolution of mankind, which happened some 400.000 years ago.
When the primitives started to use fire, this changed not only their diet, but also their habits. The days became longer as people huddled around the open fire and, since they were all there, they were more inclined to share experiences. Just as you and I talk to our partners over dinner. 'How was your day? A most extraordinary thing happened today on the way to work.''
A close encounter with a lion or the discovery of some fruit tree just over the hill were all experiences worth sharing. Naturally, over time, the stories were embellished, the guy who fought off the lion became a hero and the apples became golden, and there was this ogre guarding them.
The theory that men learned to tell stories as they spent their evenings by the fire was put forth by American anthropologist Polly Wiesner, who has studied the Bushmen of Namibia and Botswana for the past four decades. When she first met the Bushmen, in the 1970s, they lived much like Neanderthals, as hunter-gatherers, wandering from place to place in search of food. And they spent the evenings around campfires.
As every other community, they had problems and complaints about everyday life, but they dealt with those during daytime conversations.
Most of the quiet time in the evening, some 80% in fact, was devoted to telling stories, legends of their tribe or personal anecdotes, interesting enough to be worth retelling.
“Stories told by firelight put listeners on the same emotional wavelength, elicited understanding, trust, and sympathy.”
In her study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Wiesner says that “the power of the flame is reproduced in our homes through fireplaces and candles.”
Today the Bushmen in this study no longer live as hunter-gatherers. Now they’ve become farmers and live in villages. Who knows if they still spend their evenings by the fire?
Another important factor to consider when considering the origins of the art of story-telling is, of course, the apparition of spoken language. So, primitive men discovered fire some 400.000 years ago, but how did they communicate with each other back then. So far, scientists have been unable to come up with a definitive answer. There are those who maintain spoken language appeared 200,000 years ago, while others believe men learned to talk only 50,000 years ago, when Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens coexisted.
Apparently, this leaves us with a 200,000 years gap, when primitives huddled around the fire in total silence, since they had no spoken language!
However, most anthropologists believe that before spoken language, primitives developed an elaborate sign language. Presumably, not for the purpose of telling stories, but out of sheer necessity, to warn one another about dangers or to coordinate their hunt. 'Watch out, there’s a snake right behind you!''
One theory was that Neanderthals mastered a very complex sign language, which allowed them to communicate as well as we do today. A language they used to establish each tribe’s member tasks for the day, perform rituals or express feelings.
The first stories told around the fire were probably told in this sign language, punctuated by various sounds. The notion might seem a bit funny, but, if you think about it, we also do it when telling stories to our children. Tapping your fingers on the bed-stand to indicate a knock on the door or smacking your lips with comical emphasis to show just how happy was the wolf when he ate Red Riding Hood’s granny.
As I’ve been saying in previous posts we’re not that different from our primitive ancestors as we might like to believe!
Speaking of stories, the classical ones many generations before us grew up with, a new study indicates that the oldest tales we know today are some 6000 years old.
Sure, most of the classics were gathered by the Grimm Brothers or other folklorists, but they are far older than a mere couple of centuries.
The study, published by the Royal Society Open Science, analyses a massive online repository of more than 2000 distinct tales from various Indo-European cultures.
The experts believe that all modern Indo-European cultures (encompassing all of Europe and much of Asia) descended from the Proto-Indo-European people who lived during the Neolithic Period (10,200 B.C.E.–2000 B.C.E.) in Eastern Europe. Much of the world’s modern language is thought to have evolved from them.
Using the same technique biologists employ to trace DNA sequences, linguists tried to work their way back in time to determine the common ancestor of a story that appears across many cultures. Only, instead of DNA, they used language, specifically the various languages that evolved from the ancient Proto-Indo-European.
This approach allowed the researchers to trace certain tales, such as ‘The Smith and the Devil’, which tells the story of a blacksmith who makes a deal with the devil in exchange for unmatched smithing prowess, back thousands of years—all the way to the Proto-Indo-European people. If the analysis is correct,it would mean the oldest fairy tales still in circulation today are between 2500 and 6000 years old.
Not all the old stories have survived the test of time. According to Jamshid Tehrani, an anthropologist at Durham University in the United Kingdom, who conducted this study, the key to the persistence of a story over thousands of years is the right combination of strange elements (magic, for instance) and not-to-strange elements (romance, family).
’The Beauty and the Beast’ is a perfect example, says Tehrani. There’s magic, the prince changed into a monster, but there’s also love, the girl’s anguish over her father’s fate and, also, an easily-relatable moral to the story - do not judge people by their looks.
If you’re interested, according to this study, at the core of our folkloric heritage there’s a group of 76 fairy tales that go back thousands of years.
Campfire stories are my favorite kind of stories. All my childhood memories are sprinkled with ghost stories, myths and legends from my region and from far away places.
Wakes were favorite places and occasions for star storytellers to display all their talents and enchant children and adults with their exagerations.
Language plays a vital role in these exchanges and I guess we'll be forever puzzled about how it all started
I'd love to have the answer to that question one day. Also the question of languages. How did the original forms of communication become the different languages we have today?
I believe in the sign language. "The Clan of the Cave Bear" has a beautiful description of it.
Posted using Partiko Android
There is no doubt that the discovery of fire, or the invention to produce it, was one of the fundamental steps in the humanization of man. That's why I remember referring to you in a previous post, @ladyrebecca, the film (in my opinion, of great quality) The fire saga or The war of fire, by Jean-Jacques Annaud.
Surely, as you say, around the fire, came the narrations and songs, even if they were not in articulated language, but by mimics and guttural sounds, which would be giving rise to what would later be the theater (thought so by Antonin Artaud).
I like that you claim the ancient meaning of the so-called "fairy tales" ("marvellous tales", they are also called).
Thanks for your good post, @ladyrebecca.
I will look that film up, I promise.😃
Posted using Partiko Android
@ladyrebecca, Fire is life too and Humans also holds the elements of fire. When first humans got introduced with fire 🔥 then it changed their destiny and the way of life.
Whenever we discover something new then it affects our life and mould our further path and ways of doing things. Stay blessed.
Posted using Partiko Android
The fire was a major discovery, no doubt.
Posted using Partiko Android
Yes.
Posted using Partiko Android
@ladyrebecca, your posts draw me right in. I was just talking about language and myths regarding Judeo-Christian and Islamic religious texts last night with my son. Following one of the links you provided, then another within that link, answered a few questions he and I had! You are talking about a time well before ours, but still quite relevant, just as the stories are still relevant today.
I tried to find a list of those 76 stories and failed. Beauty and the Beast and The Smith and the Devil are in there, but Hansel and Gretel is not.
It's interesting that modern science is trying to elaborate on magic.
Wish I could help you with finding that list, but I'm out of town right now, but I don't think I had more than the references provided.
Posted using Partiko Android
From this series, this posdt is my favorite, @ladyrebecca. I have been able to find myself in the story you tell. My family always used the night to get together to tell stories, we also did it around the table and when we went to sleep. Although I don't have children, I usually read stories to my nieces and nephews who get excited and enjoy the stories as I did as a child. The stories we tell not only serve to create memories, but also bonds with others. I have a niece who always tells me: Tell me the story you used to tell me when I was sad. That memory, my voice and the story, will always be in it even if I die. You found this post very beautiful, @ladyrebecca. Congratulations.
Indeed, we never lost the passion for stories. My kids used to do the same when their cousins came over... always stories till well past midnight. I don't why we still associate night with story-telling time... we don't gather to tell stories in the afternoon... it has to be dark.
Posted using Partiko Android
The discovery of fire by humans is able to change the course of history. More advanced civilizations are created from the use of fire. Prehistoric societies can make various cultures in the presence of fire. Starting from their habit of eating food without being processed, then changed by burning and then cooking it. This is gradually changing their diet pole. They believe that fire is a force beyond humans that can protect their lives better. So it's no wonder that trust and worship appear to fire.
in the initial stages they must share the tasks between men and women. When men hunt, women are tasked with guarding dwellings and campfires so that they don't go out. But after they could produce fire by rubbing stone or wood, they developed fire as energy to produce various tools, both pottery and metal.
Fire also changes their night habits. humans are no longer afraid of dark nights. They will gather in a room with a campfire before going to sleep. They can exchange stories and share with each other.
Then born the stories told verbally. Until now we know a variety of interesting stories
Thank you @ladyrebecca
thank you @adsactly
Thank you Steemit
Warm regard fro Indonesia
No wonder the Greeks thought Prometheus stole the fire from the gods, since it was something so wonderful.
Posted using Partiko Android
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.