Talking to Strangers: The Use of Stories as Guides to Intercultural Encounters by the Archaic Greeks and the Hudson’s Bay Cree

The Archaic Greeks and Hudson’s Bay Cree alike lived in a world without writing, sharing and maintaining social memory through oral storytelling. Since both were enterprising, well-travelled peoples, they became involved in meetings with other groups of completely unfamiliar language and culture: strange others. To manage these intercultural encounters, the Archaic Greeks and Hudson’s Bay Cree each used their own ideas of appropriate behaviour between guests and hosts, drawing on stories shared within their communities. They used the level of conformity with their own hospitality protocols that they observed in the strange other as an index of “us-ness,” a measure of the possibility of ongoing social relationship with them. Despite this common measure of “us-ness,” the Hudson’s Bay Cree and Archaic Greeks differed in how they used it, as shown by the lessons encoded in their traditional stories about the unfamiliar other.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Greek and Roman Studies

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Osborne, Carla

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bertolín Cebrián, Reyes

• Language--Ancient
• Literature--Classical
• Native American Studies

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/27974

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:11023/1653