Octopus

 Let’s begin with a question, the kind anthropologists love: are any customs universal?  Found everywhere, in every culture, from frozen Nunavut to the blistering sands of the Sahara? 

Storytelling is a cultural universal. People snooze in classrooms and during religious services, but never when a spooky story is told around a campfire.  These are some of my favorite stories, collected by anthropologists.

Bibliography:

Grimble, Arthur, A Gilbertese Creation Myth, In Reader in Comparative Religion,
Lessa & Vogt, eds. Harper and Row, 1965.
Beals, Allan, Gopalpur: A South Indian Village. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962
Chagnon, Napolean, Yanomamo, The Fierce People. Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
3 rd edition. 1983
Pierce, Joe, Life in a Turkish Village. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.
John Middleton Hyena and Rabbit: A Kaguru Representation. In Myth and
Cosmos, John Middleton, ed. University of Texas Press, 1967