Telling stories the Kiowa way / Gus Palmer, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Palmer, Gus, 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kiowa Indians--Folklore.

Kiowa Indians.

Storytelling.

Great Plains.

Storytelling--Great Plains.

Tales--Great Plains.

Tales.

Genre:

Folklore.

Physical Description:

xxx, 145 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Tucson : University of Arizona Press, [2003]

Summary:

Among the Kiowa, storytelling takes place under familiar circumstances. A small group of relatives and close friends gather. Tales are informative as well as entertaining. Joking and teasing are key components. Group participation is expected. And outsiders are seldom involved. This book explores the traditional art of storytelling still practiced by Kiowas today as Gus Palmer shares conversations held with storytellers. Combining narrative, personal experience, and ethnography in an original and artful way, Palmer -- an anthropologist raised in a traditional Kiowa family -- shows not only that storytelling remains an integral part of Kiowa culture but also that narratives embedded in everyday conversation are the means by which Kiowa cultural beliefs and values are maintained. Telling Stories the Kiowa Way helps us understand story within its larger cultural contexts. It combines the author's unique literary talent with his people's equally unique perspective on anthropological questions in a text that can be enjoyed on multiple levels by scholars and general readers alike.

Contents:

Kiowas and Kiowa texts

Conversations with John Tofpi

Active participation in oral narratives

Knowing how and when to tell a story

Telling stories within stories

Teasing, joking, telling the biggest fib

Contextualizing and recontextualizing old texts into new texts

A collaborative ethnography

Last words.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-140) and index.

ISBN:

0816522774

0816522782

OCLC:

50510750