Slithering Stories We Live By: Animal Educators’ Construction and Enactment of Positive Snake Narratives

Representations of snakes abound in literature, oral traditions, and visual arts. Often constructed as sneaky or sinister, the cultural evaluation of snakes can perhaps best be stated by the adage, “The only good snake is a dead snake.” Such messages become the “stories we live by.” This evaluation is widespread but not universal. Educators are agents of alternative stories that exist in struggle with dominant ones. This study used ethnographic methods to explore how the setting, audience, storytelling educators, and story told all shape the conceptualization of “snake.” The setting may resist or perpetuate a negative cultural evaluation of snakes. Presuppositions, convictions, and available examples of modeling influence whether audience members choose to adopt a new story or retain the old one. Through their discourse, enactments, and material displays, educators offer an embodied, sensorial story with the central message, “The only good snake is a live snake.”