Storytelling and the Sacred

By: Andrew Sakach

Outside Reading: 2

In a book I read Storytelling and the Sacred it talked a lot about how Native Americans would use stories to diciplen their children. Whenever a child in their society did wrong the parents would tell them a story to get them to change their ways. If that didn't work then they would throw water on their face and in a worst case senario they would blacken the childs face with ash and no one would speak to them or acknoledge their existance in the entire village.

In my opinion I think that this method of telling stories, founded in an oral society where the most important messages were transmitted through speech, is superb in teaching children. Think back to when you were a kid. You probably couldn't get enough knowledge to suit yourself for one minute, and heaven forbid if you ever got yourself caught up in a good story being told by a grandparent or family member. It would always be too good to pass up.

So why are stories so powerful? The book's author explains that they can control the hearts of the individuals listening, therefor a good story will create a harmonyous respons from the person where a bad story will create chaos.