Editing Oral tradition (section)

{{Short description|Culture preserved through speech or song}}
{{about|oral tradition in general|the gospel tradition in Christianity|Oral gospel traditions|the journal|Oral Tradition (journal){{!}}''Oral Tradition'' (journal)}}
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[[File:Kyrgyz Manaschi, Karakol.jpg|thumb|A traditional [[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]] [[manaschi]] performing part of the [[Epic of Manas]] at a [[yurt]] camp in [[Karakol]]]]
'''Oral tradition''', or '''oral lore''', is a form of [[human communication]] in which knowledge, art, ideas and [[culture]] are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.<ref name = "Vansina">[[Jan Vansina|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)."</ref><ref name=britannicaot/><ref name = "Ki-Zerbo">Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: "Methodology and African Pre-history", 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."</ref> The transmission is through [[speech]] or song and may include [[Folklore|folktale]]s, [[ballad]]s, [[chant]]s, [[prose]] or [[poetry]]. The information is [[memorisation|mentally recorded]] by [[List of oral repositories|oral repositories]], sometimes termed "walking libraries", who are usually also performers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=John |first=Magnus |date=1979 |title=Libraries in oral-traditional societies |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/0020-7837%2879%2990003-7 |journal=International Library Review |language=en |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=321–339 |doi=10.1016/0020-7837(79)90003-7 |issn=0020-7837}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last1=Chisita |first1=Collence |last2=Abdullahi |first2=Ismaili |year=2010 |title=The Challenges and Opportunities of preparing LIS Students for orally based communities |url=https://www.academia.edu/64565540 |publisher=World Library and Information Congress: 76th Ifla General Conference and Assembly |via=[[Academia.edu]]}}</ref> Oral tradition is a [[Media (communication)|medium of communication]] 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. It is the [[History of communication#Storytelling|most widespread]] medium of human communication.<ref name="Oral tradition">{{Cite web |title=Oral tradition |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/oral-tradition |access-date=2024-08-23 |website=Britannica |language=en-GB}}</ref> They often remain in use in the [[modern era]] throughout for [[cultural preservation]].

Religions such as [[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Catholicism]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a2.htm|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church – The Transmission of Divine Revelation|website=vatican.va|access-date=2020-01-15|archive-date=2014-10-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027062716/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a2.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Jainism]] have used oral tradition, in parallel to writing, to transmit their canonical [[Religious text|scriptures]], [[ritual]]s, [[hymn]]s and mythologies.<ref name="Goody1987p82">{{cite book|author=Jack Goody |title=The Interface Between the Written and the Oral  |url=https://archive.org/details/interfacebetween00good |url-access=registration |year=1987|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-33794-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/interfacebetween00good/page/110 110]–121 }}</ref><ref name=witzel68/><ref name=lopez1995p21>{{cite journal|author= Donald S. Lopez Jr.|year= 1995|title= Authority and Orality in the Mahāyāna|journal= Numen|volume= 42|number= 1|pages= 21–47|publisher= Brill Academic|jstor= 3270278|doi= 10.1163/1568527952598800|url= https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43799/1/11076_1995_Article_1568527952598800.pdf|hdl= 2027.42/43799|hdl-access= free|access-date= 2019-09-23|archive-date= 2011-01-01|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110101012117/http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43799/1/11076_1995_Article_1568527952598800.pdf|url-status= live}}</ref> African societies have broadly been labelled ''oral civilisations'', contrasted with ''literate civilisations'', due to their reverence for the [[spoken word|oral word]] and widespread use of oral tradition.{{Efn|This characterisation has come under criticism by some African scholars, as it implies conflict between the oral and written. They instead contend that in reality, the characterisation is defined by the interaction between three ways of expression and diffusion: the oral, the written, and the printed word.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Encyclopedia of African Religions and Philosophy |chapter=Orality |year=2022 |publisher=Springer |doi=10.1007/978-94-024-2068-5_296 |url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-024-2068-5_296 |last1=Mouralis |first1=Bernard |pages=537–539 |isbn=978-94-024-2066-1 }}</ref> [[Bethwell Allan Ogot]] notes that images of Africa composed by Western writers have often been in terms of "opposites" and how they differ from "us".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ogot |first=Bethwell Allan |title=Rereading the History and Historiography of Epistemic Domination and Resistance in Africa |journal=African Studies Review |year=2009 |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1353/arw.0.0127 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/rereading-the-history-and-historiography-of-epistemic-domination-and-resistance-in-africa/775F359EADE441ABC3CB3E4A68B1B679}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Vansina |first=Jan |title=Once upon a Time: Oral Traditions as History in Africa |journal=Daedalus |volume=100 |issue=2 |pages=442–468 |year=1971 |publisher=MIT Press |jstor=20024011 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20024011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hama |first1=Boubou |last2=Ki-Zerbo |first2=Joseph |title=General History of Africa: Volume 1 |chapter=The place of history in African society |year=1981 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000042225&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_27359687-a44e-44a0-b09c-9dc9dbeaec74%3F_%3D042225engo.pdf&updateUrl=updateUrl1135&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000042225/PDF/042225engo.pdf.multi&fullScreen=true&locale=en#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A421%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2Cnull%2Cnull%2C0%5D}}</ref>

Oral tradition is memories, knowledge, and expression held in common by a group over many generations: it is the long preservation of immediate or contemporaneous [[testimony]].<ref name = "Vansina"/><ref name=Henige1988>{{cite journal |last1=Henige |first1=David |title=Oral, but Oral What? : The Nomenclatures of Orality and Their Implications |journal=Oral Tradition |date=1988 |volume=3 |issue=1–2 |pages=229–238 |hdl=10355/64090 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> It may be defined as the recall and transmission of specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge through vocal utterance.<ref name=britannicaot>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/oral-tradition Oral Tradition] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809191457/https://www.britannica.com/topic/oral-tradition |date=2016-08-09 }}, ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', John Miles Foley</ref><ref name="MacKay1999p1"/> Oral tradition is usually popular, and can be [[exoteric]] or [[wikt:esoteric|esoteric]]. It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bâ |first=Amadou |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000042225 |title=General History of Africa: Volume 1 |date=1981 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |chapter=The living tradition}}</ref>{{Rp|page=168}}

As an [[academic discipline]], oral tradition refers both to objects and methods of study.<ref>Dundes, Alan, "Editor's Introduction" to ''The Theory of Oral Composition'', [[John Miles Foley]]. Bloomington, IUP, 1988, pp. ix–xii</ref> It is distinct from [[oral history]],<ref name=Henige1988/> which is the recording of personal testimony of those who experienced historical eras or events.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/oral_history.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820112837/http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/oral_history.html|url-status=dead|title=Oral History|archive-date=August 20, 2011}}</ref> Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of [[orality]], defined as [[thought]] and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of [[literacy]] (writing and print) are unfamiliar.<ref>Ong, Walter, S.J., ''Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word''. London: Methuen, 1982, p. 12.</ref> [[Folklore]] is one albeit not the only type of oral tradition.<ref>[[Linda Degh|Degh, Linda]]. ''American Folklore and the Mass Media''. Bloomington: IUP, 1994, p. 31</ref><ref>[http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1984/4/84.04.01.x.html Folklore in the Oral Tradition, Fairytales, Fables and Folk-legend] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160719070432/http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1984/4/84.04.01.x.html |date=2016-07-19 }}, 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."</ref>