All narrative begins in sound. It is the sensual glue that binds our thoughts to the material and immaterial world. It is the sound of civilization and the creative act. It is the voice of the Universe. Our brains are hard-wired to pick up its special frequencies and nuances, while its existence as a physical phenomena is constantly retreating from our perception in an endless pantomime of receding surf.
The first stories told of our place in society and culture through
elaborate genealogical inventories. Repetitive structures built into the frame
work of such stories acted as navigational aids to locate one's sense of place
within the temporal unfolding of the narrative line. A cycle of stories and the
rituals built around them, functioned as a metaphorical model for how reality
was believed to work: a map powered by a tradition of commonly held beliefs, by
which one could measure the events of life's progress. Every human activity from
birth to death, had externalized ritualized representation of the internalized
narrative of the society. The stories were integrated in form and content to
give the listener a plane of reference within the workings of the perceived
universe. Everyone was on the same page. If the narrative was altered in any
way, the image of the universe would collapse and the society would be most
certainly doomed.
It is said that in many early and oral tradition-based cultures, the
poet was the most important member of the community, since he or she knew all
of the words, and all of the stories which the words made, and therefore they
knew the order in which the society existed. In pre-Christian Ireland for
example, the poet was in a social status right next to the king. In battle,
kings could be killed, but the killing
of a poet, was considered to be the worse sacrilege. Poets of opposing
armies would often begin a battle by flinging satires at each other. A gifted
poet could blight crops, raise blisters, and even kill with a single word.
Such a poet knew the precise etymology of every word and how to use
words for the maximum effect. To attain such a skill without depending upon
writing systems, would require the development of a prodigious memory skills
through a long and rigorous apprenticeship.
The stories had to be learned to be recited with complete and unfailing
accuracy, with no room for variations. In this regard, all the stories varied
little over great periods of time and were well-known by everyone within the
society. It was the incantatory retelling however, that was the ultimate sacred
duty for a poet: a constant act of artistic and priestly performance of speaking
the words aloud and thereby reinventing the order of all things through a
sympathetic magic which expressed the information that the society existed and
believed in.
The indigenous people of Australia, believe that their ancestors,
sung the world into existence during their travels in the Dream Time. Its
continued existence is maintained by those on walkabout singing the songlines.
The traditions of a 40,000 year old culture are transposed upon the geology of
Australia, and the whole continent can be sung like a musical score. Every rock
and crack of the unrelentingly vast outback has a song associated to it, and the
traveler knows exactly their location by their place along the songline. Any
deviation in the accuracy of the song would most assuredly bring death to the
traveller and untold damage to the world at large. Certainly, when one culture
overpowers another, it is the living memory of the story teller which is lost
after a single generation.
Some books on these subjects include:
Technicians of the Sacred, edited by Jerome Rothenberg (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1972). The classic anthology of ethnopoetry.
Shaking the Pumpkin, edited by Jerome Rothenberg (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1972). The traditional poetry of the Indian North Americans with an emphasis upon the non-semantic and connections with contemporary work.
Reading the Country, by Krim Benterrak, Stephen Muecke, and Paddy Roe (Freemantle, Australia: Freemantle Arts Centre Press, 1984). A collaboration between an Aboriginal poet/story-teller, a European taught anthropologist, and a Parisian-trained, Marrakech-born painter, to "read" an area of the Western Australian landscape.
The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin (Great Britain: Jonathan Cape, Ltd, 1987). The classic travelogue as poetry.
All images from passage-grave art in the Boyne valley, by Claire O'Kelly (Cork, Ireland: Claire O'Kelley, 1973).
