Oral tradition

The oral tradition is a method of passing cultural legacies, history, information, and other forms of knowledge through word of mouth. This method of transmission may take several forms, including through stories, myths, songs, poetry, and other expressions of cultural heritage. These traditions are usually shared in common by a culture and are deemed important enough to be passed on between generations. The oral tradition is sometimes referred to as the collective memory of humanity or as orality. One of the most vital expressions of the oral tradition is through storytellers.

The oral tradition is the oldest form of recording human experience. Ancient people used this means of communication to preserve aspects of law, lore, history, art, religion, and ideas. The later creation of written languages offered societies the ability to record cultural traditions so that they had greater permanence and their content remained fixed. Despite this, the recitation of oral traditions remains one of the primary forms of cultural transmission in contemporary society. In addition, traditional storytelling allows stories to retain their vitality for a live audience.

Background

Oral languages evolved as part of human communication before the establishment of written languages. By comparison, writing is a young form of communication. Expressions of cultural and familial traditions were passed from one generation to the next. Oftentimes, they were framed as myths or legends, in part to assist in memorization, but also to make them more enjoyable to the listener. As a result, many expressions of the oral tradition were presented as entertainment through the recitation of stories, songs, and even dance. In early civilizations, oral stories were often more than just a means of passing information; they served to create a sense of community and to pass idle time together in conversation. This aspect of the oral tradition often remains intact in contemporary society. Any recitation of a story with family and friends can be viewed as a continuation of the long oral tradition that has existed since the earliest days of human society. The passage of oral information between generations, such as information about herbs that have medicinal value or the teaching of recipes, can have value to society.

To help remember lengthy poems and other cultural artifacts, early storytellers developed oral tools—some of which have been engrained into the written tradition. For instance, elements of meter like that used in epic poetry such the Iliad and the Odyssey can trace their origins back to the oral tradition. Studies of storytelling traditions have shown that bards and other storytellers used recurring tools that enabled them to improvise and paraphrase certain details when reciting stories. One key aspect was the use of stock phrases, descriptions, scenes, and characters that could be inserted into a variety of stories. Stock phrases such as "owl-eyed Athene"—a description of the goddess Athena that would be familiar to a Greek audience—could be inserted at random to complete a hexameter line of poetic verse. Similarly, stock scenes, such as a battle sequence or a romantic connection, which could easily be pulled from memory, were both useful in engaging the audience and providing detail to a story. These improvisational elements could be reused repeatedly in a variety of oral stories. These elements helped to make stories that were told repeatedly seem different each time.

In many cases, the author from antiquity that is linked to a specific work may not have been the actual creator of the piece, but rather the first to record the story into a static written form. The result is that many stories derived from the oral tradition can have dozens of incarnations. Fairy tales and folktales are examples of stories that relate the same basic premise, but in which the specific details were altered between cultures or individual storytellers. Folklorists often differentiate between folktales, which remain part of the oral tradition, and fairy tales, which were folktales that became fixed parts of the written tradition.

The story of Cinderella is an example of both a folktale and a fairy tale, as it has written and oral versions. According to the Aarne-Thompson system of classifying folktales, it is an example of a persecuted heroine story. Dozens of variations are known, including examples from Greece ("Little Saddleslut"), Russia ("The Baba Yaga"), Ireland ("Ashley Pelt"), the Philippines ("Maria and the Golden Slipper"), and the Native American Zuni tribe ("The Indian Cinderella"). Printed versions by Charles Perrault (1697) and the Brothers Grimm (1812) are perhaps best known, but the oral tradition has offered many other incarnations of this story. These are usually tailored to fit the environment of a particular audience. Certain details change between these versions, such as the name of the character and the form of magic that changes her life, but many elements remain the same, including a wicked stepmother and a prince who rescues the suffering girl.

Overview

Many ancient works survive thanks to the oral tradition. For example, parts of the Bible are believed to have been preserved due to the oral transmission of stories. The life of Jesus is retold through several differing accounts in the New Testament. Jesus was surrounded in life by his apostles. After his death, these individuals recorded their memories of his deeds. According to the Bible, a major legacy of Jesus's life was his own use of parables and storytelling to express the meaning of God's intent for humanity. His followers chose to sustain his memory by recounting his words and deeds as they remembered them to their own followers. These stories, like much of the content of the Bible, became the various books of the New Testament. Similarly, many aspects of the Old Testament are derived from sources born from the oral tradition.

Despite its importance in the documentation of human society, the oral tradition has inherent flaws, particularly as a chronicle of time and history. As the details of oral data are transmitted from one person to the next, their presentation is dependent on the accuracy of the memory of all participants. Like the children's game of telephone, the original message can become increasingly garbled and unreliable after each repetition, thereby potentially losing its intrinsic value. However, oral histories can help preserve cultural traditions and the ethnic history of a people. In Africa, oral histories have helped ethnologists document the traditions of many tribes before the era of European colonization. These stories can also be valuable in recovering the hidden cultural histories of indigenous peoples. Storytelling was vital in indigenous cultures, and preserved history and stories, along with language. In the twenty-first century, several indigenous languages have vanished. Oral traditions helped to keep languages alive when governments were pursuing assimilation. Storytelling can be a vehicle to help preserve language along with history.

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