Editing Oral tradition (section)

==Transmission==
[[File:Helsinki-Folk-singer-statue-1750.JPG|thumb|The legendary Finnish storyteller [[Väinämöinen]] with his [[kantele]]]]
Oral traditions face the challenge of accurate transmission and verifiability of the accurate version, particularly when the culture lacks written language or has limited access to writing tools. Oral cultures have employed various strategies that achieve this without writing. For example, a heavily rhythmic speech filled with [[mnemonic device]]s enhances memory and recall. A few useful mnemonic devices include [[alliteration]], repetition, [[assonance]], and proverbial sayings. In addition, the verse is often metrically composed with an exact number of syllables or [[morae]]—such as with Greek and Latin prosody and in [[Sanskrit prosody|Chandas]] found in Hindu and Buddhist texts.<ref name="TElizarenkova1995p112"/><ref name="Allan2013p228">{{cite book|author=Peter Scharf|editor=Keith Allan|title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BQfDosHckzEC|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-164344-6|pages=228–234}}</ref>

The verses of the epic or text are typically designed wherein the long and short syllables are repeated by certain rules, so that if an error or inadvertent change is made, an internal examination of the verse reveals the problem.<ref name="TElizarenkova1995p112">{{cite book|author=Tatyana J. Elizarenkova|title=Language and Style of the Vedic Rsis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-B0Y-IwTQAC|year=1995|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-1668-6|pages=111–121}}</ref> Oral traditions can be passed on through plays and acting, as shown in modern-day [[Cameroon]] by the Graffis or Grasslanders who perform and deliver speeches to teach their history through oral tradition.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Oral tradition in African literature|others=Smith, Charles,, Ce, Chinenye|date=4 September 2015 |isbn=9789783703681|location=[Nigeria]|oclc=927970109}}</ref> Such strategies facilitate transmission of information without a written intermediate, and they can also be applied to oral governance.<ref name="Longman Publishers USA">{{cite book|last1=Crowley|first1=David|last2=Heyer|first2=Paul|title=Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society|date=1999|publisher=Longman Publishers USA|page=67|edition=Third}}</ref>

===Oral transmission of law===
{{main|Oral law}}

{|style="border:1px; border: thin solid white; background-color:#f6f6FF; margin:20px;" cellpadding="10"
|-
| The law itself in oral cultures is enshrined in formulaic sayings, proverbs, which are not mere jurisprudential decorations, but themselves constitute the law. A judge in an oral culture is often called on to articulate sets of relevant proverbs out of which he can make equitable decisions in the cases under formal litigation before him.<ref name="Longman Publishers USA"/>
|}

[[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The Jungle Book]]'' provides an excellent demonstration of oral governance in the [[Law of the Jungle]].{{Citation needed|reason=Kipling reference needs source and citation|date=June 2022}} Not only does grounding rules in oral proverbs allow for simple transmission and understanding, but it also legitimizes new rulings by allowing extrapolation. These stories, traditions, and proverbs are not static, but are often altered upon each transmission, barring any change to the overall meaning.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hanson|first1=Erin|title=Oral Traditions|url=http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/culture/oral-traditions.html|website=Indigenous Foundations|access-date=5 May 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518082618/http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/culture/oral-traditions.html|archive-date=18 May 2015}}</ref> In this way, the rules that govern the people are modified by the whole and not authored by a single entity.

===Indian religions===
Ancient texts of [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]] and [[Jainism]] were preserved and transmitted by an oral tradition.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hartmut Scharfe |title=Handbook of Oriental Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7s19sZFRxCUC |year=2002|publisher=BRILL Academic |isbn=978-90-04-12556-8 |pages=24–29, 226–237}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Donald Lopez |title=Buddhist Scriptures |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Pd-2IIzip4C |year=2004|publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-190937-0 |pages=xi–xv}}</ref> For example, the [[śruti]]s of Hinduism called the [[Veda]]s, the oldest of which trace back to the second millennium BCE. [[Michael Witzel]] explains this oral tradition as follows:<ref name=witzel68/>

{{Blockquote|The Vedic texts were orally composed and transmitted, without the use of script, in an unbroken line of transmission from teacher to student that was formalized early on. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the classical texts of other cultures; it is, in fact, something like a ''tape-recording''... Not just the actual words, but even the long-lost musical (tonal) accent (as in old Greek or in Japanese) has been preserved up to the present.|Michael Witzel<ref name=witzel68>M Witzel, "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in Flood, Gavin, ed. (2003), The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., {{ISBN|1-4051-3251-5}}, pages 68–71</ref>}}

Ancient Indians developed techniques for listening, memorization and recitation of their knowledge, in schools called [[Guru]]kul, while maintaining exceptional accuracy of their knowledge across the generations.<ref name=scharfe28>{{cite book|author=Hartmut Scharfe |title=Handbook of Oriental Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7s19sZFRxCUC |year=2002|publisher=BRILL Academic |isbn=978-90-04-12556-8 |pages=24–29, 226–232}}</ref> Many forms of recitation or ''pathas'' were designed to aid accuracy in recitation and the transmission of the ''[[Veda]]s'' and other knowledge texts from one generation to the next. All hymns in each Veda were recited in this way; for example, all 1,028 hymns with 10,600 verses of the [[Rigveda]] was preserved in this way; as were all other Vedas including the [[Principal Upanishads]], as well as the Vedangas. Each text was recited in a number of ways, to ensure that the different methods of recitation acted as a cross check on the other. Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat summarizes this as:<ref name=filliozat-p139/>
* ''Samhita-patha'': continuous recitation of Sanskrit words bound by the phonetic rules of euphonic combination;
* ''Pada-patha'': a recitation marked by a conscious pause after every word, and after any special grammatical codes embedded inside the text; this method suppresses euphonic combination and restores each word in its original intended form;
* ''Krama-patha'': a step-by-step recitation where euphonically combined words are paired successively and sequentially and then recited; for example, a hymn "word1 word2 word3 word4...", would be recited as "word1word2 word2word3 word3word4 ...."; this method to verify accuracy is credited to Vedic sages Gargya and Sakalya in the Hindu tradition and mentioned by the ancient Sanskrit grammarian Panini (dated to pre-Buddhism period);
* ''Krama-patha'' modified: the same step-by-step recitation as above, but without euphonic-combinations (or free form of each word); this method to verify accuracy is credited to Vedic sages Babhravya and Galava in the Hindu tradition, and is also mentioned by the ancient Sanskrit grammarian Panini;
* ''{{IAST|Jata-pāṭha}}'', ''{{IAST|dhvaja-pāṭha}}'' and ''{{IAST|ghana-pāṭha}}'' are methods of recitation of a text and its oral transmission that developed after 5th century BCE, that is after the start of Buddhism and Jainism; these methods use more complicated rules of combination and were less used.

These extraordinary retention techniques guaranteed an accurate Śruti, fixed across the generations, not just in terms of unaltered word order but also in terms of sound.<ref name=scharfe28/><ref>Wilke, Annette and Moebus, Oliver. Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism (Religion and Society). De Gruyter (February 1, 2007). P. 495. {{ISBN|3110181592}}.</ref> That these methods have been effective, is testified to by the [[Rigveda#Transmission|preservation of]] the most ancient Indian religious text, the ''[[Rigveda|{{IAST|Ṛgveda}}]]'' ({{circa|1500 BCE}}).<ref name=filliozat-p139>{{cite book|author=Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat|editor=Karine Chemla|title=History of Science, History of Text|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u9w13rSxWcsC|year=2006|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4020-2321-7|pages=138–140}}</ref>

===Poetry of Homer===
{{Further|Oral-formulaic composition}}
Research by [[Milman Parry]] and [[Albert Lord]] indicates that the verse of the Greek poet [[Homer]] has been passed down not by rote memorization but by "[[oral-formulaic composition]]". In this process, extempore composition is aided by use of stock phrases or "formulas" (expressions that are used regularly "under the same metrical conditions, to express a particular essential idea").<ref>Milman Parry, ''L’epithèt traditionnelle dans Homère'' (Paris, 1928), p. 16; cf. Albert B. Lord, ''The singer of tales'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 4</ref> In the case of the work of Homer, formulas included ''eos rhododaktylos'' ("rosy fingered dawn") and ''oinops pontos'' ("winedark sea") which fit in a modular fashion into the poetic form (in this case six-colon Greek hexameter). Since the development of this theory, of oral-formulaic composition has been "found in many different time periods and many different cultures",<ref name=ADFotA2003:17>[[#ADFotA2003|Dundes, ''Fables of the Ancients?'', 2003]]: p.17</ref> and according to another source (John Miles Foley) "touch[ed] on" over 100 "ancient, medieval and modern traditions."<ref>Foley, John Miles. ''The Theory of Oral Composition''. Bloomington: IUP, 1991, p 36.</ref><ref>Catherine S. Quick, ‘Annotated Bibliography 1986-1990’, ''Oral Tradition'' 12.2 (1997) 366-484</ref><ref>Bannister, Oral-Formulaic Study, 65-106.</ref>

===Islam===
The most recent of the world's major religions,<ref name="EMONT-why">{{cite journal |last1=EMONT |first1=Jon |title=Why Are There No New Major Religions? |journal=Atlantic |date=6 August 2017 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/new-religions/533745/ |access-date=10 July 2019 |archive-date=10 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710025159/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/new-religions/533745/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Islam]] claims two major sources of divine revelation—the [[Quran]] and [[hadith]]—compiled in written form relatively shortly after being revealed:<ref name="Carroll-Q-H">{{cite web |last1=Carroll |first1=Jill |title=The Quran & Hadith |url=https://www.world-religions-professor.com/quran.html |website=World Religions |access-date=10 July 2019 |archive-date=20 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220220092934/https://www.world-religions-professor.com/quran.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
*The [[Quran]]—meaning "recitation" in Arabic—is believed by Muslims to be God's revelation to the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]], delivered to him from 610 CE until his death in 632 CE. It is said to have been carefully compiled and edited into a standardized written form (known as the {{transliteration|ar|[[mushaf]]}}){{#tag:ref|"During Abu Bakr's khalifate, at Omar's suggestion, all the pieces of the Qur'an were compiled in one place. It was a miscellaneous collection at first, because then the revelations were coming in, people recorded them on anything that came to hand -- a sheet of parchment, a piece of leather, a stone, a bone, whatever. As khalifa, Omar began a sorting process. In his presence, each written verse was checked against the memorized version kept by the professional reciters whom this society regarded as the most reliable keepers of information. Scribes then recorded the authorized copy of each verse before witnesses, and these verse were organized into one comprehensive collection."<ref>{{cite book |author=Tamim Ansary |title=Destiny Disrupted, a History of the World Through Islamic Eyes |url=https://archive.org/details/destinydisrupted00ansa_0 |url-access=registration |publisher=Public Affairs |year=2009|isbn=9781586486068 }}</ref>|group=Note}} about two decades after the last verse was revealed.
*[[Hadith]]—meaning "narrative" or "report" in Arabic—is the record of the words, actions, and the silent approval, of Muhammad, and was transmitted by "oral preachers and storytellers" for around 150–250 years. Each hadith includes the {{transliteration|ar|[[isnad]]}} (chain of human transmitters who passed down the tradition before it was sorted according to accuracy, compiled, and committed to written form by a reputable scholar.{{#tag:ref|Muhammad is thought to have died in 632 CE. The compilers of the six collections of Sunni hadith that have enjoyed near-universal acceptance as part of the official canon of Sunni Islam died (that is, must have stopped compiling hadith) between 795 CE and 915 CE.|group=Note}}

The oral milieu in which the sources were revealed,<ref name=AGBRtT2014:2/> and their oral form in general are important.<ref name="QP"/> The [[Arabic epic literature|Arab poetry]] that preceded the Quran and the hadith were orally transmitted.<ref name=AGBRtT2014:2>[[#AGBRtT2014|Bannister, "Retelling the Tale", 2014]]: p.2</ref> Few Arabs were literate at the time and paper was not available in the Middle East.<ref>Michael Zwettler, The Oral Tradition of Classical Arabic Poetry, Ohio State Press, 1978, p.14.</ref><ref name=arab-news-27-2-2015/>

The written Quran is said to have been created in part through memorization by [[Companions of the Prophet|Muhammad's companions]], and the decision to create a standard written work is said to have come after the death in battle ([[Battle of Yamama|Yamama]]) of a large number of Muslims who had memorized the work.<ref name="QP">{{cite web |title=Quran Project - Appendix - Preservation and Literary Challenge of the Quran |url=https://www.quranproject.org/Quran-Project-Appendix-Preservation-and-Literary-Challenge-of-the-Quran--224-d |website=Quran Project |date=26 February 2015 |access-date=10 July 2019 |archive-date=21 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621200307/http://www.quranproject.org/Quran-Project-Appendix-Preservation-and-Literary-Challenge-of-the-Quran--224-d |url-status=live }}</ref>

For centuries, copies of the Qurans were transcribed by hand, not printed, and their scarcity and expense made reciting the Quran from memory, not reading, the predominant mode of teaching it to others.<ref name=arab-news-27-2-2015/> To this day the Quran is memorized by millions and its recitation can be heard throughout the Muslim world from recordings and mosque loudspeakers (during [[Ramadan]]).<ref name=arab-news-27-2-2015/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Abu Zakariya |title=The Miraculous Preservation of the Qur'an. |url=http://www.manyprophetsonemessage.com/2014/01/08/the-miraculous-preservation-of-the-quran/ |website=Many Prophets One Message |publisher=One Reason |access-date=10 July 2019 |date=8 January 2014 |archive-date=10 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710025157/http://www.manyprophetsonemessage.com/2014/01/08/the-miraculous-preservation-of-the-quran/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Muslims state that some who teach memorization/recitation of the Quran constitute the end of an "un-broken chain" whose original teacher was Muhammad himself.<ref name=arab-news-27-2-2015>{{cite news |title=Qur'an and its preservation through chain of oral tradition |url=http://www.arabnews.com/islam-perspective/news/710661 |access-date=13 June 2019 |agency=Arab News |date=27 February 2015 |archive-date=21 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421140608/http://www.arabnews.com/islam-perspective/news/710661 |url-status=live }}</ref> It has been argued that "the Qur'an's rhythmic style and eloquent expression make it easy to memorize," and was made so to facilitate the "preservation and remembrance" of the work.<ref>The Qur'an, verses 44:58; 54:17, 22, 32, 40. Arab-news-27-2-2015</ref>

Islamic doctrine holds that from the time it was revealed to the present day, the Quran has not been altered,{{#tag:ref|An alternative belief is that some of what was revealed to Muhammad was later abrogated in some way by God. "The {{transliteration|ar|mushaf}} is incomplete, in the sense that not everything that was once revealed to Muhammad is to be found today in our {{transliteration|ar|mushaf}}. The Quran, however, is complete, in the sense that everything that God intends us to find in the {{transliteration|ar|mushaf}} we shall find there, for whatever God intended to include, He made sure to preserve..."<ref>{{Cite book | first1=John | last1=Burton | title=The Sources of Islamic Law: Islamic Theories of Abrogation | publisher=Edinburgh University Press | year=1990 | isbn=0-7486-0108-2 | url=http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Burton,%20J%20-%20The%20Sources%20of%20Islamic%20Law.pdf | access-date=21 July 2018 | ref=JBSILITA1990 | page=44 | archive-date=4 January 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200104171116/http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Burton,%20J%20-%20The%20Sources%20of%20Islamic%20Law.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref>|group=Note}} its continuity from divine revelation to its current written form ensured by the large numbers of Muhammad's supporters who had reverently memorized the work, a careful compiling process and divine intervention.<ref name="QP"/> (Muslim scholars agree that although scholars have worked hard to separate the corrupt and uncorrupted hadith, this other source of revelation is not nearly so free of corruption because of the hadith's great political and theological influence.)

At least two non-Muslim scholars ([[Alan Dundes]] and Andrew G. Bannister) have examined the possibility that the Quran was not just "recited orally, but actually composed orally".<ref name=AGBRtT2014:1>[[#AGBRtT2014|Bannister, "Retelling the Tale", 2014]]: p.1</ref> Bannister postulates that some parts of the Quran—such as the seven re-tellings of the story of the [[Iblis]] and [[Adam]], and the repeated phrases "which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?" in sura 55—make more sense addressed to listeners than readers.<ref name=AGBRtT2014:2/>

Banister, Dundes and other scholars (Shabbir Akhtar, Angelika Neuwirth, Islam Dayeh)<ref name=AGBRtT2014:1-4>[[#AGBRtT2014|Bannister, "Retelling the Tale", 2014]]: p.1-4</ref> have also noted the large amount of "formulaic" phraseology in the Quran consistent with "[[oral-formulaic composition]]" mentioned above.<ref name=ADFotA2003:16>[[#ADFotA2003|Dundes, ''Fables of the Ancients?'', 2003]]: p.16</ref> The most common formulas are the [[God in Islam#Attributes|attributes of Allah]]—all-mighty, all-wise, all-knowing, all-high, etc.—often found as doublets at the end of a verse. Among the other repeated phrases{{#tag:ref|Dundes lists of repeated phrases come from an English translation and so those Quranic phrases in the original Arabic sometimes have slight differences|group=Note}} are "Allah created the heavens and the earth" (found 19 times in the Quran).<ref>The Quran, 6:14, 79; 7:54, 10:3, 12:101, 14:10, 19, 32; 17:99, 29:44, 61; 30:8, 31:25, 32:4, 35:1, 39:38, 46; 42:11, 45:22, 46:33, cf. 2:117, 6:101</ref><ref name=ADFotA2003:32>[[#ADFotA2003|Dundes, ''Fables of the Ancients?'', 2003]]: p.32</ref>

As much as one third of the Quran is made up of "oral formulas", according to Dundes' estimates.<ref name=ADFotA2003:65>[[#ADFotA2003|Dundes, ''Fables of the Ancients?'', 2003]]: p.65</ref> Bannister, using a computer database of (the original Arabic) words of the Quran and of their "grammatical role, root, number, person, gender and so forth", estimates that depending on the length of the phrase searched, somewhere between 52% (three word phrases) and 23% (five word phrases) are oral formulas.<ref name=AGBRtT2014:6-7>[[#AGBRtT2014|Bannister, "Retelling the Tale", 2014]]: p.6-7</ref> Dundes reckons his estimates confirm "that the Quran was orally transmitted from its very beginnings". Bannister believes his estimates "provide strong corroborative evidence that oral composition should be seriously considered as we reflect upon how the Qur'anic text was generated."<ref name=AGBRtT2014:10>[[#AGBRtT2014|Bannister, "Retelling the Tale", 2014]]: p.10</ref>

Dundes argues oral-formulaic composition is consistent with "the cultural context of Arabic oral tradition", quoting researchers who have found poetry reciters in the [[Najd]] (the region next to where the Quran was revealed) using "a common store of themes, motives, stock images, phraseology and prosodical options",<ref name="P._Marcel_Kurpershoeck_1994:57">{{cite book |first1=P. Marcel |last1=Kurpershoeck |date=1994 |page=57 |title=Oral Poetry and Narratives from Central Arabia |volume=1 |location=Leiden |publisher=E.J.Brill}}</ref><ref name=AGBRtT2014:68>[[#AGBRtT2014|Bannister, "Retelling the Tale", 2014]]: p.68</ref> and "a discursive and loosely structured" style "with no fixed beginning or end" and "no established sequence in which the episodes must follow".{{ref|group=Note|Scholar Saad Sowayan referring to the genre of "Saudi Arabian historical oral narrative genre called {{transliteration|ar|suwalif}}".<ref name="Saad Sowayan,1992:22">{{cite book |first1=Saad |last1=Sowayan |date=1992 |page=22 |title=The Arabian Oral Historical Narrative: An Ethnographic and Linguistic Analysis |location=Wiesbaden |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz}}</ref><ref name=ADFotA2003:68-9>[[#ADFotA2003|Dundes, ''Fables of the Ancients?'', 2003]]: p.68-9</ref>

=== Catholicism ===
The [[Catholic Church]] upholds that its teaching contained in its [[deposit of faith]] is transmitted not only through [[Sacred Scripture|scripture]], but as well as through [[sacred tradition]].<ref name=":2" /> The [[Second Vatican Council]] affirmed in {{lang|la|[[Dei verbum]]}} that the teachings of [[Jesus Christ]] were initially passed on to early Christians by "the [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostles]] who, by their oral preaching, by example, and by observance handed on what they had received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html|title=Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation "Dei verbum"|last=Paul VI|date=November 18, 1965|website=www.vatican.va|publisher=The Hole See|access-date=2020-01-15|archive-date=2014-05-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531175312/https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The Catholic Church asserts that this mode of transmission of the faith persists through current-day [[bishop]]s, who by right of [[apostolic succession]], have continued the oral passing of what had been revealed through Christ through their preaching as teachers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html|title=Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen gentium"|last=Paul VI|date=November 21, 1964|website=www.vatican.va|access-date=2020-01-15|archive-date=2014-09-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906031754/https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Eastern Orthodoxy ===

In Eastern Orthodoxy, there is one Tradition, the tradition of the church, incorporating the scriptures and the teaching of the [[Church Fathers]].<ref name="goarch">{{Cite web|url=https://www.goarch.org/-/tradition-in-the-orthodox-church|title=Tradition in the Orthodox Church - Theology - Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America|website=www.goarch.org|access-date=5 January 2021}}</ref>

Sacred Tradition for the Eastern Orthodox is the deposit of faith given by [[Jesus]] to the Apostles and passed on in the Church from one generation to the next without addition, alteration, or subtraction.<ref>"Tradition and Traditions", in Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, ''The Meaning of Icons'', (Olten, Switzerland: Urs Graf-Verlag, 1952), 17, in the revised edition (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1982), 15.</ref>