The major purpose of this book is to illustrate and explain the fundamental similarities and correspondences between humankind's oldest and newest thought-technologies: oral tradition and the Internet. To illustrate these ideas, this volume is designed as a “morphing book,” a collection of linked nodes that can be read in innumerable different ways. Challenging the default medium of the linear book and page and all that they entail, this “brick-and-mortar” book exists as an extension of The Pathways Project (http://pathwaysproject.org), an open-access online suite of chapter-nodes, linked websites, and multimedia all dedicated to exploring and demonstrating the dynamic relationship between oral tradition and Internet technology.
