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Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.[1][2][3] The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system. Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism,[4] and Jainism, for example, have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns and mythologies from one generation to the next.[5][6][7] Sub-Saharan African societies have broadly been labelled as "oral civilisations", contrasted with "literate civilisations", due to the emphasis placed on oral tradition and the important place it has in their cultures.[8][9]
Oral tradition is information, memories, and knowledge held in common by a group of people, over many generations; it is not the same as testimony or oral history.[1][10] In a general sense, "oral tradition" refers to the recall and transmission of a specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge through vocal utterance.[2][11] As an academic discipline, it refers both to a set of objects of study and the method by which they are studied.[12]
The study of oral tradition is distinct from the academic discipline of oral history,[10] which is the recording of personal memories and histories of those who experienced historical eras or events.[13] Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality, defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population.[14] A folklore is a type of oral tradition, but knowledge other than folklore has been orally transmitted and thus preserved in human history.[15][16]
- ^ a b Vansina, Jan: Oral Tradition as History (1985), reported statements from present generation which "specifies that the message must be oral statements spoken, sung or called out on musical instruments only"; "There must be transmission by word of mouth over at least a generation". He points out, "Our definition is a working definition for the use of historians. Sociologists, linguists or scholars of the verbal arts propose their own, which in, e.g., sociology, stresses common knowledge. In linguistics, features that distinguish the language from common dialogue (linguists), and in the verbal arts features of form and content that define art (folklorists)."
- ^ a b Oral Tradition Archived 2016-08-09 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopædia Britannica, John Miles Foley
- ^ Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: "Methodology and African Prehistory", 1990, UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa; James Currey Publishers, ISBN 0-85255-091-X, 9780852550915; see Ch. 7; "Oral tradition and its methodology" at pages 54-61; at page 54: "Oral tradition may be defined as being a testimony transmitted verbally from one generation to another. Its special characteristics are that it is verbal and the manner in which it is transmitted."
- ^ "Catechism of the Catholic Church - The Transmission of Divine Revelation". www.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
- ^ Jack Goody (1987). The Interface Between the Written and the Oral. Cambridge University Press. pp. 110–121. ISBN 978-0-521-33794-6.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
witzel68was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Donald S. Lopez Jr. (1995). "Authority and Orality in the Mahāyāna" (PDF). Numen. 42 (1). Brill Academic: 21–47. doi:10.1163/1568527952598800. hdl:2027.42/43799. JSTOR 3270278. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
- ^ Vansina, Jan (1971). "Once upon a Time: Oral Traditions as History in Africa". Daedalus. 100 (2). MIT Press: 442–468.
- ^ Hama, Boubou; Ki-Zerbo, Joseph (1981). "The place of history in African society". General History of Africa: Volume 1. UNESCO Publishing.
- ^ a b Henige, David (1988). "Oral, but Oral What? : The Nomenclatures of Orality and Their Implications". Oral Tradition. 3 (1–2): 229–238. hdl:10355/64090.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
MacKay1999p1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Dundes, Alan, "Editor's Introduction" to The Theory of Oral Composition, John Miles Foley. Bloomington, IUP, 1988, pp. ix-xii
- ^ "Oral History". Archived from the original on 20 August 2011.
- ^ Ong, Walter, S.J., Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen, 1982 p 12
- ^ Degh, Linda. American Folklore and the Mass Media. Bloomington: IUP, 1994, p. 31
- ^ Folklore in the Oral Tradition, Fairytales, Fables and Folk-legend Archived 2016-07-19 at the Wayback Machine, Julie Carthy (1984), The Oral Tradition, Volume IV, Yale University, Quote: "Folklore is said to be in the oral tradition. Dundes states that the most common criterion for a definition of folklore is its means of transmission that is, orally. He clarifies however that materials other than folklore are also orally conveyed. Therefore oral transmission itself is not sufficient to distinguish folklore from non-folklore."