Stories Matter: They Perpetuate Culture.
By Jasmine C. John.
In many cultures, verbal expression in the form of stories is one of the most important, if not the most important way to pass on their traditions, beliefs and values. The cultural knowledge is taken from one generation who is conveying the stories to the next younger generation who is hopefully retaining what is being said to them. It is usually always the elders relaying this cultural knowledge down. Long ago, humans did not have pencils, pens, papers, or devices where they could simply write something down and it would be easily passed on in that exact form. They resorted to telling stories. Stories hold together a culture as strong as its own people do.
From personal experience, my cultural knowledge comes directly from oral expression. I believe the time spent with elders are taken for granted and are underappreciated, especially when they are speaking on something from their past or their own cultural stories. From time to time, my grandmother and parents would recount their own cultural experiences and relay them to me and my siblings. I find joy when listening to their stories because to me, it is captivating learning about my family’s past and cultural background. Stories contain life lessons, tell of our own background, and can help guide us to find our own identity.
Stories hold the history of our own people that can’t be conveyed in any other way but verbally. They are the glue that holds the cultural bridge together between generations. The content told in any story is preserved as it travels from generation to generation. However, the quality of preservation heavily depends on the stakeholders at hand. Stories can be interpreted in different ways by different people and then relayed completely differently compared to the original story. It does not matter the way a story is conveyed. What matters is that it is being told with passion and heart for the benefit of future generations to carry on the words of the past.