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First, unlike Gerhardsson’s model, there is no hierarchical structure for who can share the story.
According to Bailey, the only requirement for being a storyteller is that one must have grown
up in the village, long enough to have been exposed to the tradition in the haflat samar. There
is no special meeting place, such as a Church or Synagogue or Mosque; there is only the
gathering to share stories. Bailey notes that the name samar is derived from the Hebrew word
for ‘to preserve’. So in essence, this is how modern Middle Eastern villagers, using ancient
methods, orally pass on the traditions that are important to them.
Again, unlike the form critical model of oral tradition, this particular one is controlled.
The tradition is controlled not by teachers (since there are none) but rather by the community
as a whole. The amount of control exercised is in varying degrees and is directly dependent on
what kind of material is being transmitted. The strictest controls are exercised when the
material are poems or proverbs. In this type of recital, details must be precise to the exact
word, nothing omitted or added that does not belong. The community will immediately let the
reciter of the proverb or poem know when they have made an error. Bailey notes that in a
shame culture such that exists in the Middle East, reciters are careful to keep the tradition
accurate to avoid being shamed by the community.
Bailey identifies some degree of flexibility in this model, however, with material such as
parables. The framework must remain the same and the “the punch-line” must be precise to
the last word. Other than that there is some degree of leeway in the way the story is told.
Bailey notes, “The teller could vary the pitch of one character’s emotional react ion to the other,