Another Visit to the School of Environmental Studies

Today, I visited the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, Minnesota, to speak in Todd Carlson's class. The class deals with indigenous knowledge and mythology











Todd shares with the students the mythologies of various traditional cultures, such as Native American, Aboriginal Australians, and the Khoisan of Southern Africa.

He also shares with the students some parts of my Matengo Folktales. Whenever I visit the School, I meet students who are well prepared.



 

As in the past, we had a great experience today. After my brief introduction, highlighting Africa as the original home of humans, the cradle of technology, language and other specifically human accomplishments, I talked about the emergence and evolution of storytelling.

The students had, as usual, engaging questions, spanning the spectrum from the intriguing similarities among different folklore traditions, to the modalities and ethics of folklore field work to the vexed question of translation.