Oral Traditions

"Every time an Elder dies, it is like a library has burned down."
-African Proverb
Oral History Main Page

Documentation and Dissemination of Oral History

Bringing Oral History to the Classroom

References

Back to Ms. McKeen's Homepage		 Elderly man sitting in a chairNative American EldersTwo elderly women speaking to an elementary school class


What is an Oral Tradition?

      An oral tradition is information that is passed from generation to  generation by means of oral communication. Oral communication can include such activities as speaking, singing, telling stories, and creating plays.3 This is slightly different from an oral history, which focuses on the specific history of a person, group or place told through oral communication. Both are important and both are discussed throughout these pages. The concepts are tied closely together and often overlap, but it is important to understand the distinction.

      Oral traditions are an important part of many cultures. For example, for many years all the Aboriginal peoples in the Northwest Territories taught future generations the skills necessary for survival, such as hunting and other food gathering, making shelters and clothes, and other important social skills and crafts, through oral traditions.3 The Bantu people of West Africa use riddles as one way to educate their children. These riddles represent an important skill for "for children’s fuller participation in the social, cultural, political, and economic life of African communities."5

      Oral traditions have been around much longer than the written word, in the form of poetry, song, tales and other recitations. Even after writing was developed and became prevalent in many cultures, oral traditions are still a vital part of many cultures.1 To disregard these traditions as invaluable or primitive would be to make a huge error in judgement and to miss out on a wealth of knowledge and information.
In cultures where oral traditions are prevalent, the elders are very important to the tribe because they are believed to hold more knowledge than other members of the community. This belief is almost always true as well, for with oral tradition experience is knowledge and who but the eldest would have the most experience? The elders are therefore the educators of younger generations and pass on their knowledge to their pupils.2

Oral traditions, because they are passed down from person to person, also have the characteristic of being variable, from performance to performance and from person to person.1 Unlike written knowledge which is in one form no matter what the context in which it is read and learner, oral knowledge is highly effected by the context in which it is presented and so will be slightly different in different circumstances and with different people.2 This does not mean that we should disregard the information and knowledge that oral traditions contain, just that we need to be aware of the ways in which this information is different than the written knowledge that we encounter in everyday life. These differences are an important part of what an oral tradition is and so should be valued as well.