Western society isn’t the only one to rely on chronological order and the written word to preserve stories. It would be naive to think a culture fits into any sort of predetermined format. Other societies that included a reliance on written records can be found throughout history. The Chinese bureaucratic tradition became a staple of subsequent dynasties. The Japanese kept official court chronicles like the Nihon Shoki. Islamic scholarship not only preserved ancient Greek texts, but created their own.
It’s not to say that cultures that don’t follow the modern western style of storytelling don’t use elements familiar to us. Let’s look at an example familiar to many that showcase this point.
The Biblical account of creation, found in Genesis 1-2 does not follow a Western style of writing. It was not intended to be a chronological list of the order and details of creation. Following the styles of other Near Eastern civilizations from antiquity, its central point is establishing order from chaos.
The Biblical account is written in a poetic, repetitive style, meant to communicate profound truths about the origin of the world. Its cyclical format repeats with phrases, “And God said,” “And it was good,” and “There was evening and there was morning.”
In Genesis one, the first three days involve separating (light and darkness, water above from water below, and land and plants); the last three days involves assigning locations (sun, moon, & stars, birds in the air & fish in the sea, and animals & humans to fill the land).
The whole point of this is not to analyze a timeline or method for the formation of the universe and the creation of life. The point is to show how even things many are familiar with contain elements foreign to much of Western thinking. Again, it’s not good or bad. It’s just different.
Happy teaching,
Ryan Wagoner The Lyceum of History
“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.” ~Alexander the Great
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