If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground“We need to understand our stories because our lives depend upon it.” —Ted Chamberlin The stories we tell each other reflect and shape our deepest feelings. Stories help us live our lives—and are at the heart of our current conflicts. We love and hate because of them; we make homes for ourselves and drive others out on the basis of ancient tales. As Ted Chamberlin vividly reveals, we are both connected by them and separated by their different truths. Whether Jew or Arab, black or white, Muslim or Christian, Catholic or Protestant, man or woman, our stories hold us in thrall and hold others at bay. Like the work of Joseph Campbell and Bruce Chatwin, this vital, engrossing book offers a new way to understand the hold that stories and songs have on us, and a new sense of the urgency of doing so. Drawing on his own experience in many fields—as scholar and storyteller, witness among native peoples and across cultures—Ted Chamberlin takes us on a journey through the tales of different peoples, from North America to Africa and Jamaica. Beautifully written, with insight and deep understanding, If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? examines why it is now more important than ever to attend to what others are saying in their stories and myths—and what we are saying about ourselves. Only then will we understand why they have such power over us. |
From inside the book
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... listen to . " -Sander L. Gilman , author of Jewish Frontiers : Essays on Bodies , Histories , and Identities " Explores the idea of home through storytelling . This enthralling book touches on religion , nationalism , literature and ...
... listen to . " -Sander L. Gilman , author of Jewish Frontiers : Essays on Bodies , Histories , and Identities " Explores the idea of home through storytelling . This enthralling book touches on religion , nationalism , literature and ...
Page 10
... listening to yodelling either , even though some musicologists say that music begins with the yodel , since the singing voice carries farther than speech . Still , to the settlers it sounded barbaric . The word " barbaric " was first ...
... listening to yodelling either , even though some musicologists say that music begins with the yodel , since the singing voice carries farther than speech . Still , to the settlers it sounded barbaric . The word " barbaric " was first ...
Page 19
... listening are simple and natural , we say ; while writing and reading are cultivated and complex . We wonder how people in these oral cultures recall things so clearly and how they reflect on ideas without the benefit of writing ; and ...
... listening are simple and natural , we say ; while writing and reading are cultivated and complex . We wonder how people in these oral cultures recall things so clearly and how they reflect on ideas without the benefit of writing ; and ...
Page 21
... listen ; and this learning does not come naturally . Belligerent conservatives ask better questions than sympathetic liberals ; that's why I am interested in the judge and his tin ear and his tendentious " Why not just write it down ...
... listen ; and this learning does not come naturally . Belligerent conservatives ask better questions than sympathetic liberals ; that's why I am interested in the judge and his tin ear and his tendentious " Why not just write it down ...
Page 24
... listening to Mary Johnson sing her song in Gitksan and insisting that it be written down in English . A choice between having some sense of tradition , of convention , of table manners . . . and having none . Not different ones , but ...
... listening to Mary Johnson sing her song in Gitksan and insisting that it be written down in English . A choice between having some sense of tradition , of convention , of table manners . . . and having none . Not different ones , but ...
Contents
1 | |
8 | |
LOSING | 74 |
REALITY AND THE IMAGINATION | 94 |
To Be or Not to Be | 118 |
RIDDLES AND CHARMS | 160 |
CEREMONIES OF BELIEF | 192 |
Beyond Conflict | 198 |
Notes | 241 |
Permissions | 253 |
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Common terms and phrases
aboriginal Americas asked Australia become beginning believe bring called century ceremony choice civilized comes contradiction course cowboys cultures death described dream English especially fact faith father feel Gitksan give happen heart hold horses human hundred idea imagination important Indian John kind knew land language later listen live look meaning metaphor mind mountains move native natural Navajo never North once poem poet question reality recognize remark represented rhymes river sacred seemed sense settlers side sing society sometimes sounds speak spirits stories and songs storytellers strange talking tell things thought told traditions translated true truth turned understand United West wonder writing written