ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a general introduction to the range of attested story genres of this kind within the region. It addresses certain comparative issues concerning the relationship between the imagined world which is evoked in chanted tales and the contemporary, lived world within which they are performed. Across a large region within the Western and Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea there are ways of telling stories that make use of special intonational and/or rhythmic patterns which are different from those of ordinary speech. The chapter three cognate genres of chanted tales from the New Guinea Highlands: tom yaya kange as performed in the Ku Waru region, pikono as performed by the Duna, and bi te as performed by the Huli. Precisely how the intonational and/or rhythmic patterns of the chanted tales differ from those of ordinary speech is a matter on which there is wide variation across the region, and even among performers with a single region.
