Children as Interpreters of Culture: Producing Meanings from Folktales in Southern Ethiopia

Folktale performance is a popular cultural activity among the Guji-Oromo, an ethnic group in southern Ethiopia. While Guji-Oromo children gain pleasure from hearing and telling folktales, they also learn cultural practices and values as a result of tale performance. Parents tell folktales to their children in order to teach survival skills and cultural norms, but children also share folktales among themselves. This article analyzes how children produce meanings from the folktales they hear and tell. Using data from ethnographic fieldwork, I suggest that children are actors in their own socialization. As they tell and talk about stories, they reflect on the morals of former generations while also critiquing the social complexities of their immediate environments. While the children are eager to engage with modernity, their interpretations also bolster existing cultural norms.