| fairy tales | a kind of legend originally transmitted orally that is generally a socializing narrative that suggests to children important values and cultural ideas
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| folktales | stories set within a timeless framework which are concerned with imparting moral values and demonstrating the consequences of violations of the moral code of society
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| legends | stories set in the less remote past than myths, usually about heroes who overcome obstacles in order to establish the independence of their homelands, often to justify their claim to the land
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| myths | stories set in the remote past that explain the origin of both natural and cultural things
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| performance | usually refers to the oral transmission of stories and is an approach to stories that considers how changes are introduced by the storytellers that reflect the cultural (gender of teller, age, environment) and historical context of the telling of the story; also considers the creativity of the storyteller in telling the story
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| trickster | a type of character appearing in many different cultures' legends'; he is simultaneously a liar, creator, destroyer, duper and one who is always duped himself.
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| unilineal evolutionary theory | the now-discredited theoretical perspective associated with Lewis Henry Morgan and other nineteenth century scholars that suggests all societies progress through a fixed succession of cultural stages, culminating in the characteristics of Westernized, urbanized, monotheistic states
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| urban legend | a story in a contemporary setting reported as a true individual experience
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education