Jack Goody is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College. Recently knighted by Her Majesty The Queen for services to anthropology, Professor Goody has researched and taught all over the world, is a Fellow of the British Academy and in 1980 was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and he was elected Commandeur des Arts et Lettres in 2006.

• Introduction; 1. Religion and ritual from Tylor to Parsons: the definitional problem; 2. Oral 'literature'; 3. The anthropologist and the tape-recorder; 4. Oral creativity; 5. The folktale and cultural history; 6. Animals, men and gods in northern Ghana; 7. The Bagre in all its variety; 8. From oral to written: a breakthrough in story-telling; 9. Writing and oral memory: the importance of the lecto-oral; Appendix. Folktales in northern Ghana; Bibliography.

Jack Goody is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College. Recently knighted by Her Majesty The Queen for services to anthropology, Professor Goody has researched and taught all over the world, is a Fellow of the British Academy and in 1980 was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and he was elected Commandeur des Arts et Lettres in 2006.

• Introduction; 1. Religion and ritual from Tylor to Parsons: the definitional problem; 2. Oral 'literature'; 3. The anthropologist and the tape-recorder; 4. Oral creativity; 5. The folktale and cultural history; 6. Animals, men and gods in northern Ghana; 7. The Bagre in all its variety; 8. From oral to written: a breakthrough in story-telling; 9. Writing and oral memory: the importance of the lecto-oral; Appendix. Folktales in northern Ghana; Bibliography.

Jack Goody is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College. Recently knighted by Her Majesty The Queen for services to anthropology, Professor Goody has researched and taught all over the world, is a Fellow of the British Academy and in 1980 was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and he was elected Commandeur des Arts et Lettres in 2006.

• Introduction; 1. Religion and ritual from Tylor to Parsons: the definitional problem; 2. Oral 'literature'; 3. The anthropologist and the tape-recorder; 4. Oral creativity; 5. The folktale and cultural history; 6. Animals, men and gods in northern Ghana; 7. The Bagre in all its variety; 8. From oral to written: a breakthrough in story-telling; 9. Writing and oral memory: the importance of the lecto-oral; Appendix. Folktales in northern Ghana; Bibliography.