Editing Oral tradition (section)

===Europe===
====Albania====
[[File:Gjama.jpg|thumb|Men of [[Theth]] ([[Shala (tribe)|Shala]]) practicing the [[gjâmë]] – the [[Albanians|Albanian]] lamentation of the dead – in the funeral of Ujk Vuksani, 1937. The earliest figurative representations of this practice in traditional Albanian-inhabited regions appear on [[Dardani]]an funerary stelae of [[classical antiquity]].{{sfn|Joseph|Dedvukaj|2024|pp=1–3}}]]
{{Further|Albanian folklore|Albanian paganism|Albanian epic poetry|Kângë Kreshnikësh|Kanun (Albania)}}
Albanian traditions have been handed down orally across generations.<ref>{{harvnb|Elsie|1994|p=i}}; {{harvnb|Elsie|2001|p=ix}}; {{harvnb|Tarifa|2008|pp=3, 11–12}}; {{harvnb|Sokoli|2013|pp=182–184}}.</ref> They have been preserved through traditional memory systems that have survived intact into modern times in [[Albania]], a phenomenon that is explained by the lack of state formation among [[Albanians]] and their ancestors – the [[Illyrians]], being able to preserve their [[Albanian tribes|"tribally" organized society]]. This distinguished them from civilizations such as [[Ancient Egypt]], [[Minoans]] and [[Mycenaeans]], who underwent state formation and disrupted their traditional memory practices.{{sfn|Galaty|2018|pp=100–102}}

[[Albanian epic poetry]] has been analysed by [[Homeric scholarship|Homeric scholars]] to acquire a better understanding of [[Homer]]ic epics. The long oral tradition that has sustained Albanian epic poetry reinforces the idea that pre-Homeric epic poetry was oral.{{sfn|Gadamer|2013|p=160}} The theory of [[oral-formulaic composition]] was developed also through the scholarly study of Albanian epic verse.{{sfn|Blum|2023|p=91}} The Albanian traditional singing of epic verse from memory is one of the last survivors of its kind in modern [[Europe]],<ref>{{harvnb|Elsie|2014|p=1}}.</ref> and the last survivor of the Balkan traditions.<ref>{{harvnb|Di Lellio|Dushi|2024}}.</ref>

==== Ancient Greece ====
{{See also|Rhapsode|Aoidos}}
"All ancient Greek literature", states Steve Reece, "was to some degree oral in nature, and the earliest literature was completely so".<ref>Reece, Steve. "[https://www.academia.edu/30640456/Orality_and_Literacy_Ancient_Greek_Literature_as_Oral_Literature Orality and Literacy: Ancient Greek Literature as Oral Literature]", in David Schenker and Martin Hose (eds.), ''Companion to Greek Literature'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 2015) 43-57. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101220823/https://www.academia.edu/30640456/Orality_and_Literacy_Ancient_Greek_Literature_as_Oral_Literature |date=2020-01-01 }}.</ref> [[Homer]]'s epic poetry, states Michael Gagarin, "was largely composed, performed and transmitted orally".<ref>{{cite book |author=Michael Gagarin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vkfRvkgDTOsC |title=Signs of Orality |publisher=BRILL Academic |year=1999 |isbn=978-9004112735 |editor=E. Anne MacKay |pages=163–164}}</ref> As folklores and legends were performed in front of distant audiences, the singers would substitute the names in the stories with local characters or rulers to give the stories a local flavor and thus connect with the audience, but making the historicity embedded in the oral tradition unreliable.<ref>{{cite book |author=Wolfgang Kullmann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vkfRvkgDTOsC |title=Signs of Orality |publisher=BRILL Academic |year=1999 |isbn=978-9004112735 |editor=E. Anne MacKay |pages=108–109}}</ref> The lack of surviving texts about the Greek and Roman religious traditions have led scholars to presume that these were ritualistic and transmitted as oral traditions, but some scholars disagree that the complex rituals in the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations were an exclusive product of an oral tradition.<ref>{{cite book |author=John Scheid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZ5JP8gZgJEC&pg=PA17 |title=Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome |date=2006 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |isbn=978-3-515-08854-1 |editor=Clifford Ando and Jörg Rüpke |pages=17–28 |author-link=John Scheid}}</ref>

==== Ireland ====
An Irish ''[[seanchaí]]'' (plural: ''seanchaithe''), meaning bearer of "old lore"'','' was a traditional [[Irish language]] storyteller (the [[Scottish Gaelic]] equivalent being the ''seanchaidh,'' [[Anglicisation|anglicised]] as shanachie). The job of a ''seanchaí'' was to serve the head of a lineage by passing information orally from one generation to the next about [[Irish folklore]] and history, particularly in medieval times.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McKendry |first=Eugene |title=Study Ireland: An Introduction to Storytelling, Myths and Legends |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/11_16/storyteller/pdf/gen_notes_all.pdf |url-status=live |website=BBC Northern Ireland |access-date=2022-01-18 |archive-date=2022-02-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211021132/https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/11_16/storyteller/pdf/gen_notes_all.pdf }}</ref>

==== Rome ====
The potential for oral transmission of history in [[ancient Rome]] is evidenced primarily by [[Cicero]], who discusses the significance of oral tradition in works such as ''Brutus'',<ref>Cicero, Brutus, (75) translated by E. Jones (1776) Attalus, available at: Attalus</ref> ''Tusculan Disputations'',<ref>Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, (1.3) translated by J. King. Loeb Classical Library. London: Heinemann, 1927</ref> and ''On The Orator''.<ref>Cicero, On The Orator, (3.197) translated by E. Sutton. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942</ref> While [[Cicero|Cicer]]o’s reliance on Cato’s Origines may limit the breadth of his argument,<ref name="ReferenceA">Wiseman, T. Historiography and Imagination. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1994</ref> he nonetheless highlights the importance of storytelling in preserving [[Roman history]]. [[Valerius Maximus]] also references oral tradition in Memorable Doings and Sayings (2.1.10).<ref>Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings, translated by D. Shackleton Bailey. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000</ref>

Wiseman argues that celebratory performances served as a vital medium for transmitting Roman history and that such traditions evolved into written forms by the third century CE.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> He asserts that the history of figures like the house of Tarquin was likely passed down through oral storytelling for centuries before being recorded in literature.<ref>Wiseman, T. Roman Legend and Oral Tradition, The Journal of Roman Studies, 79, 129-137. Available at: JSTOR</ref> Although Flower critiques the lack of ancient evidence supporting Wiseman's broader claims,<ref>Flower, H. (1995). Fabulae Praetextae in Context: When Were Plays on Contemporary Subjects Performed in Republican Rome? The Classical Quarterly, New Series, 45(1), 170-190. Available at: JSTOR</ref> Wiseman maintains that dramatic narratives fundamentally shaped historiography.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>