The History of Storytelling

Telling a story is a very definitive art of makingman's use of creativity and imagination as a form
people interested and convinced about your pointof communication comes from the primitive era
of view. We see a very good example of thisof around 35,000 years ago. The astonishing
capability of storytelling in Biblical accounts as welldiscovery of Aboriginal cave paintings revealed an
as other religious scriptures. Generally, stories areinteresting narrative of a hunt in the form of
very appealing to the younger audience. This isvisual slideshow. This was perhaps man's first
the reason that many children books such asendeavor to show off his power and glory.
'Jesus for children' and 'Jesus in me' are a part ofNumerous accounts of such factual events in the
church resources. These books are narrativeform of paintings and carvings are found dating
compilations of Biblical accounts written in theback to the primitive world.
form of children's stories.Later on, as civilizations began to develop we see
Storytelling can be regarded as a very creativea very strong connection between religions and
way of communication. The basic concept behindstories. The stories became so influential that
a story is to convey an idea, a thought,people actually started to regard the myths as
knowledge or a message in a more engaging way.Gods. In Egyptian civilization, while the hieroglyphs
The stories usually carry certain powerfulnarrate the stories of bravery, greatness and
aesthetics that may allure an audience to imagineimmortality of the Pharaohs, they also give a
themselves as a part or character of the story.very detailed account of Gods and the life after
Although, people regard storytelling as human'sdeath. In ancient Rome, Greek, China and India
innate capability or instinct, some people considerthe stories took a very fictional and magical
it a result of human's natural desire of beingforms and these myths eventually became the
appreciated or complimented on theirgods.
achievements. The latter definition of storytellingDespite being fictional, these stories were so
as a desire secondary to human nature is proveninfluential because they were based on strong
quite true because the earliest accounts ofvalues and moralities and were more like a guide
storytelling were based on fact rather than fiction.for human behaviors and ethics. It was during the
However, this statement still does not completelysame period when performing art became a
define storytelling, as we have seen it evolvemajor story telling medium. This tradition lived on
immensely throughout the history, and so did theand took a major global exposure in the times of
motives and desires behind it.Shakespeare, whose stories were also a criticism
Strangely enough, the very first example ofon the evils of society.