"Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas, and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another."
The social, historical, and cultural background that shapes the creation and reception of oral traditions and storytelling.
Cultural Anthropology: Cultural anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures around the world. It involves examining various cultural practices, beliefs, and institutions to understand how they shape people's views of the world.
Linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure. It includes analyzing language sounds, grammar, and meaning, as well as how languages evolve over time.
Folklore: Folklore is the study of traditional stories, customs, and beliefs of a particular culture. This includes analyzing myths, legends, and folktales to see how they reflect cultural values and traditions.
Oral Traditions: Oral traditions are the stories, songs, and other cultural practices that are passed down from generation to generation through spoken communication. The study of oral traditions involves understanding how societies have used these traditions to transmit cultural knowledge and values.
Mythology: Mythology is the study of myths and legends that have been passed down through generations. This includes analyzing how these myths reflect the beliefs and values of the cultures that created them.
Storytelling: Storytelling is the art of conveying a narrative through spoken or written communication. The study of storytelling involves analyzing the different techniques used to tell stories, including the use of language, symbols, and imagery.
Literature: Literature is the written or spoken works of artistic expression. The study of literature involves examining different types of literature, including poetry, fiction, and drama, to understand how they reflect cultural values and traditions.
Performance Studies: Performance studies is the study of human communication through performance. This includes analyzing how cultural practices such as storytelling, music, dance, and theater reflect and shape cultural values.
Cultural Studies: Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that explores how culture shapes human beliefs and behaviors. This includes examining the role of popular culture, media, and other forms of artistic expression in shaping cultural attitudes and trends.
Cultural History: Cultural history is the study of how culture has evolved over time. This includes analyzing the various social, political, and economic factors that have influenced cultural development and how cultural practices have changed over time.
Folklore: Stories, legends, and beliefs passed down through generations by word of mouth.
Mythology: A collection of myths or stories that describe the origin of a culture. They explain the existence of gods, heroes, and humans.
Fairy tales: Stories that involve supernatural beings, magical creatures, and enchantments. They usually convey moral lessons.
Epic poems: Lengthy tales with a heroic protagonist that reflect cultural values and beliefs.
Fables: Short tales that teach moral lessons by using animal characters.
Proverbs: Brief sayings that express a practical truth or belief. They are often passed down orally and can vary in interpretation.
Riddles: A type of word puzzle that challenges the listener to find a hidden meaning or answer.
Ballads: Poems or songs that tell a story, often about love, death, or major historical events.
Folk songs: Songs that reflect cultural heritage and social norms. They are often passed down orally and can vary within the same region.
Legends: Stories that are based on historical events or characters and are embellished over time.
Creation myths: Stories that explain the origin of the world according to particular cultures.
Oral history: Accounts of historical events that have been passed down through oral tradition and storytelling.
Morality plays: Dramatic performances that use characters to teach moral values, such as in Medieval Europe.
Rituals: Customary ceremonies or practices often rooted in spiritual or religious beliefs.
Traditional dance and music: Cultural expressions that reflect social customs and beliefs.
"The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry."
"It is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law, and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system."
"Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Jainism, for example, have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns, and mythologies."
"Oral tradition is information, memories, and knowledge held in common by a group of people, over many generations; it is not the same as testimony or oral history."
"In a general sense, 'oral tradition' refers to the recall and transmission of a specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge through vocal utterance."
"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."
"Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality, defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population."
"A folklore is a type of oral tradition, but knowledge other than folklore has been orally transmitted and thus preserved in human history."
"Knowledge, art, ideas, and cultural material" are transmitted through oral tradition.
"It is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law, and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system."
"Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Jainism, for example, have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns, and mythologies."
"Oral tradition is information, memories, and knowledge held in common by a group of people, over many generations; it is not the same as testimony or oral history."
"As an academic discipline, it refers both to a set of objects of study and the method by which they are studied."
"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."
"Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality, defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population."
"Knowledge other than folklore has been orally transmitted and thus preserved in human history."
"The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry."
"Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Jainism (...) have used an oral tradition, in parallel to a writing system, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns, and mythologies."
"Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas, and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another."