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Arapaho Storytelling
Because Arapaho was not a written language until recently, "literature" was
handed down orally. The Arapaho had - and still have to a lesser
extent - many genres of verbal art forms. These included:
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Creation stories
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Stories of mythological heros,
characters, and events
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Stories about the origin of the
various Arapaho ceremonial lodges and other important aspects
of Arapaho culture
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Stories about historical events,
such as warfare
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Arapaho verbal narratives made use of complex poetic
devices, many of which are unique to oral storytelling. These included:
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Extensive repetition of events,
in order to allow listeners to follow the story, as well as to
provide emphasis
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Grammatical parallelisms, in order
to provide overall structure to stories
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Use of certain words to mark "verses" or "strophes" within
the stories, giving them a semi-poetic form
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Use of changes in the speed, tone
or volume of the vocal delivery
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Hand and facial gestures, some
of which were borrowed from Plains Indian sign language
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Special words and phrases used
only in narratives, which carried great traditional weight for
an audience familiar with their uses.
Listen
to the Trickster story of "Nih'oo3oo and the Ducks" in
English or Arapaho
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