Book excerpt: Introduction / Joel Sherzer and Greg Urban -- Semiotic functions of macro-parallelism in the Shokleng origin myth / Greg Urban -- Oratory is spoken, myth is told, and song is sung, but they are all music to my ears / Anthony Seeger -- Three modes of Shavante vocal expressions : wailing, collective singing, and political oratory / Laura Graham -- Quoted dialogues in Kalapalo narrative discourse / Ellen Basso -- Report of a Kuna curing specialist : the poetics and rhetoric of an oral performance / Joel Sherzer -- Styles of Toba discourse / Harriet Klein -- Topic continutity and OVS order.