Why Did Narrative Evolve? (Human) Nature and Narrative.

The writer considers how and why narrative is "hardwired" into human beings. He provides evidence to support a function of narrative in human culture—socio-environmental regulation. The term narrative is generally associated with literature, but the writer uses it in a more inclusive manner that transcends literature to include all forms of storytelling. He defines narrative as an adaptation that has evolved by natural selection as a means of regulating two interconnected social arrangements: the intrasocial, namely the relationships between individuals within a given society; and the extrasocial, or the relationship between the society and its natural environment. He pays particular attention to the extrasocial dimension and draws on the account of narrative given in Roy Rappaport s book, Pigs for the Ancestors.