Hello all. Michael Harvey, sorry for mixing your name up it would help if I learned to read!
Thanks, too for clarification. I very much agree.
One thing I think, so far, that keeps coming up no matter how each individual approaches it is that 'tradition' is difficult to be definite about, unless discussed in a specific context.
Not wanting to muddy the waters, either, but perhaps there is no such thing as a traditional story or a traditional storyteller. There is only the activity, the process, of traditional storytelling. This has to take place in a context--as part of a small community or family, as part of a religious practice, etc.
Those within the context would define a story as 'traditional' then....what we outside the small community identify as 'traditional', then they may not, and vice versa.
Professional storytellers, may come from such a context, or who may pursue it from the outside, by trying to find living, traditional practices and study it, and then use what they find. But to be honest, and effective, they must take their findings and either apply it to their own traditional context or process, or else must create a new traditional context or process.