Digital Storytelling : A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainmen

Chapter 1 Powerful Reenactments in Other Cultures 7
Figure 1.2 This Dogon dancer on stilts represents a female tingetange, or waterbird. Dogon
dancers don masks and costumes to portray mythological beings or spiritual figures in much
the same way as game players control avatars to play character roles in digital dramas.
Photograph courtesy of Stephenie Hollyman.
a character in a game. Thus, even in a place as far away as Mali, in a region without
electricity or telephone service, we can find parallels with computer-based entertainment.
Closer to home, and to our own lives, we can examine our own traditional
religious practices and discover other surprising similarities to interactive storytelling.
In the Jewish faith, for example, we find the profoundly powerful holiday
of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, an observance that dates back thousands
of years. It is a holiday I’ve observed all of my life, first in children’s services and
then with the adults in the congregation.