David Byrne from Australia
Adelaide
The oral tradition goes back that far…15,000 years! It makes written history seem – well, not worth the papyrus it’s written on.
I wonder whether there are studies comparing the quality of knowledge obtained by listening to knowledge obtained by reading or watching TV. I have a hunch that there may be a difference in how we assimilate knowledge, how we retain it and use it, depending on how it reaches us. Just wondering…
From experience, oral tradition/history is valuable due to the person to person/s exchange.
The story is as rich as the story teller.
An offshoot of oral tradition is oral history. What can seem so ordinary can actually be inspiring later. Most likely there are studies that show that a high value can be placed in comparison to reading or watching television. There is so much more transmitted. For instance, live performance versus television.
There is a heart-breaking article on the front page of today’s Washington Post about the long string of warm winters in the Arctic circle. An Inuit elder is quoted as saying that this is something that their old oral history has never mentioned, and that they feel they can’t pass on their traditional knowledge about the weather because it’s no longer reliable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032101722.html?sub=AR