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Heath chapter 5: Oral traditions
In Roadville
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People always tell stories, especially at fancy occasions andcelebrations
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With storytelling, there are “old-timers” and “newcomers”(p. 151)
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There is respect between these two social groups: newcomersare generally not allowed to ask old-timers to tell a story (p.152)
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Stories are told as morals, and usually put someone down – but in agood way. It tests people’s relationships
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Roadville stories need “to have a moral or summary messagewhich highlights the weakness admitted in the tale.” P. 153
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“Such stories test publicly the strength of relationships andopenly declare bonds of kinship and friendship.” P. 150
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The stories are very “similar to biblical parables” (p. 154) in thatthey have a moral, and are based on real life
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“Often parables end with a summary statement . . . itsrelevance to their own lives.” P. 154 (that whole quote)
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The bible is the main written literature that people read
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“Few written sources, other than the bible, seem to influenceeither the content or the structure of oral stories inRoadville.” P. 155
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People don’t like admitting that they don’t understand mostliterature
“Roadville men and women do not like to read in publicand do not wish to admit their lack of understanding of expository materials.” P. 156
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The people of Roadville “reject depersonalized written accountswhich come from unfamiliar sources” p. 156
o
They don’t like it when children make up fictive stories thataren’t true
“Fictive stories . . . are not accepted as stories, but as‘lies,’ without ‘a piece of truth.’” P. 158
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Stories told from before used as a type of warning to otherstudents, in case they make the same mistakes (p. 159)
“…and the child is expected to register remorse and toapologize for his or her misbehavior.” P. 159
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Lying, i.e. “telling stories”, is NOT tolerated.
o
“To do so would shock the adults and cause them to accuse herof “tellin’ a story”” p. 160
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“In general, only children and the worst scoundrels are everaccused of lying.” P. 160
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“Don’t you
ever 
tell me a story!” p. 160
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Children in Roadville “have had relatively little exposure to . . .fictive or fanciful stories, either told or read to them.” P. 161
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They make up fictive stories during play: “Let’s make-believe,”
 
p. 162
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“Roadville adults usually do not intervene in their play; thuseven at home, children get away with using fanciful stories intheir play.” P. 162. In other words, they aren’t usually told off for “telling stores,” until they tell it straight to an adult’sface.
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Because of this underexposure to creative elements, they have an“insistence on adherence to reality” p. 165
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They are used to a single tem having a single name, due to theway they were raised by their parents. “…carry their parents’requirements for using language . . . maintain a singleconsistent label for items and events,” p. 165
In Trackton
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Well told stories are those that can take a real-life concept, andexaggerate it so that they can capture the attention of the audience
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“Talkin’ junk includes laying on highly exaggeratedcompliments and making wildly exaggerated comparisons” p.166
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The purpose of these stories would be to “intensify socialinteractions” and also to spread “the humor of the wide-ranginglanguage play and imagination which embellish the narrative” p. 166
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“Stories exchanged among adults do not carry moralsummaries or admonitions about behavior” p. 167
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Children learn to tell these stories by slowly acquiring experience andlistening to “old-timers”
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If they tell it well, then they’ll get a positive response
“They must be clever if they are to hold the audience’sattention” p. 167
“If they do not succeed in relating the first few lines of their story to the on-going topic or otherwise excitingthe listeners’ interests, they are ignored.” P. 167
“The audience laughed, nodded, and provided ‘yeah,’you right,’ ‘you know it.’ P. 169
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“Children are not excluded from the audience, even if thecontent refers to adult affairs, sexual exploits…etc. etc.” p.168
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Children start out with story-poems, made out of “a series of verse-like utterances” p.171
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With age, “verbal play and witty lighthearted exchanges betweenchild and adult become more and more rare” p. 177
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Children then turn to peers and friends to interact with
“ School-age peers become the reinforcers for the useof these insults” p. 177
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Also with age, verbal challenges function less as an action to“establish and maintain status relations.”
“Instead they use sports, direct challenges to aparticular display of skill . . .” p. 178
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