by Diana Black
Archetypes are here to stay…
The practice of storytelling is a defining characteristic of Homo sapiens. Why? Let’s take time out for a quick history lesson. As a species, we’ve been around for about 1.5 million years. Going back just 300 000 years ago, we find concrete evidence of ritualized behavior (related to burials) and so there’s
every likelihood that alongside saying ‘Good bye’ to one’s significant others, stories were told. How better to entertain the fireside audience than having certain members of the tribe get on their feet – adorn themselves with make-up and costume and take on a ‘role’ – the hunter, the hunted etc.?
Conflict as a premise started early. If we do the math, that roughly equates to members of 12 000 generations (? 4 gen/100 years) ‘strutting the floorboards’. Equally peculiar, is the notion that by-and-large, we’re still enacting the same dramas; only now they’re ‘gussied-up’ with marginally more sophisticated plotlines and CGI.