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On this page about Oral tradition:

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Encyclopedia: Oral tradition

Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. An example that combined aspects of oral literature and oral history, before eventually being set down in writing, is the Homeric epic poetry of the Iliad and the Odyssey. In a general sense, "oral tradition" refers to the transmission of cultural material through vocal utterance, and was long held to be a key descriptor of folklore (a criterion no longer rigidly held by all folklorists). As an academic discipline, it refers both to a method and the objects studied by the method. (The study of oral tradition is distinct from the academic discipline of oral history, which is the recording of personal memories and histories of those who experienced historical eras or events.)

Translations

How to say "Oral tradition" in other languages:

	(Spanish)	Tradición oral
	(French)	Tradition orale
	(Italian)	Tradizione orale

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Tiberian vocalization

Tiberian Hebrew language is an oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient forms of Hebrew... cantillation signs. Though the written symbols came into use in the early middle ages, the oral tradition they..." vowelisation. As mentioned above, the Tiberian points were designed to reflect a specific oral tradition for...

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Epic of King Gesar

The epic of King Gesar is a Tibetan epic poem about King Gesar, who ruled the mythical Kingdom of Ling. The epic was created collectively by oral tradition among the Tibetan people. The earliest manuscript versions were written by Buddhist monks beginning in the 11th century. The epic is...

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Mende

The Mende are a large tribe (population approximately 700,000) living primarily in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Their oral traditions indicate that they migrated to the area from Sudan between the 2nd and 16th centuries. They are traditionally growers of rice and several other crops...

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Orature

, have no literature, but may possess a rich and varied orature. Orature covers oral traditions... Orature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken (oral) word to literature as literature operates in the domain of the written word. It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of culture...

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High and late medieval German literature

The Nibelungenlied is one of the few examples we have of early German literature, and is believed to have been passed on from Scandivian oral tradition. Many anonymous works were composed in Middle... Arthurian romances. Others wrote poems in the Minnesinger tradition...

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Milman Parry

Milman Parry was a classical scholar who between 1933 and 1935 was in Yugoslavia studying the oral traditions among the South Slavs. In the course of his work, he could not help but notice the similarities between the oral poetry he was hearing and the formulaic verse of the Iliad. The epic poets...

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The Saga of Eric the Red

The Saga of Eric the Red was, by most accounts, written by Jon Thorharson in 1387, almost four centuries after the events in the saga, which were almost certainly handed down by oral tradition. In the saga, the events that led Eric the Red's banishment to Greenland are chronicled, as well as Leif...

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Cascadia Earthquake

other earthquake. The natives have oral traditions. Other megathrust earthquakes are the slightly more...

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Griot

of Mali, Gambia and Senegal where their tradition is alive to this day. This oral tradition was (and... societies as written language was very scarcely used. Griots also traditionally play important roles as...

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Haik

Haik is the legendary establisher of the first Armenian nation. His story is told in an epic, taken down from oral tradition by Movses Khorenatsi (Moses of Khorene) in the Fifth Century AD. In the epic, Haik is a chieftain of the Armens, an Armenian tribe, and leads them against the invading...

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