Once a year in a small village deep in the mountains of Mali, members of the Mande community gather around the world\u2019s oldest balafon to hear the folk stories of their traditions. The sacred instrument, known as the Sosso Bala, is made of wood and looks like a xylophone. It transmits traditions from the 13th Century that keep this distributed community tethered together through space and time.<\/p>\n

The man playing and singing is a direct descendant of the original storyteller and king. He holds all the knowledge of their world and its history: a one-stop shop for everything to do with the Mande people.<\/p>\n

Most of us don\u2019t have a musical instrument that ties us together, but we will have someone in our lives who\u2019s the keeper of the knowledge. Often it\u2019s a matriarch \u2013 a grandmother, a mother, a great aunt \u2013 who, out of interest or a sense of responsibility, keeps all our stories ready to tell upon request.<\/p>\n

The stuff in their heads is amazing. Who did what to whom and when, possibly the reasons why, where and certainly how. This is translated from gossip to noble truths, and turns into fables that have cautionary outcomes and actionable points. The ones that are more generic are unfortunately known as \u2018old wives\u2019 tales\u2019, a turn of phrase that diminishes their value as good advice throughout the ages.<\/p>\n

The stories can be useful for dealing with all sorts of queries: how do I get rid of that stuff between my toes? How do you treat morning sickness? (Often followed by: what\u2019s the best way to get a baby to sleep?) Sometimes they answer bigger questions: where do I come from? What\u2019s my moral compass? The stories provide an answer, but the questions don\u2019t often have a single answer to them. It\u2019s just useful to speak with someone who knows how things are done.<\/p>\n

Recently, we discovered that this very human trait isn\u2019t limited to humans. Marine biologists, animal behaviourists and other researchers have documented cultural knowledge in other species; whale pods returning to parts of the sea that they\u2019d abandoned a generation before; monkeys that communicate hunting skills to their offspring. Folk knowledge is not only culture, it\u2019s also survival. This is why we do it.<\/p>\n