eraturu

Eraturu is a term used in speculative fiction and worldbuilding to describe a traditional mnemonic performance that blends narrative storytelling, gesture, and song to preserve an oral history. In many imagined cultures, eraturu is performed by a memory keeper, with participants acting out episodes from genealogies, migrations, and laws. The term is constructed for fictional settings and does not correspond to a real-world practice outside those contexts.

The word eraturu is a constructed term, drawn from a fictional language and interpreted by its creators as meaning 'to remember the path' or similar; exact roots vary by work.

Elements of performance include sequence retelling, call-and-response chants, circular dance, and mnemonic devices such as refrains and hand signs; props like staffs or carved heads may accompany the ritual, and venues may be council grounds or ceremonial plazas.

Its social role includes preserving genealogies, land and title rights, and ritual obligations; it serves as education, legal testimony, and political legitimization, and it fosters communal cohesion.

In fiction studies and critical commentary, eraturu is often cited as an example of how memory-work shapes identity; some writers use it to explore authority, inclusion, and the transmission of power, while others discuss potential limitations such as gatekeeping and the ritual's length.

See also: oral tradition, ritual performance, mnemonic devices.