"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 culture, customs and traditions of a certain group of people that are passed down through spoken word.
Definition and Characteristics of Oral Traditions: An overview of what constitutes oral traditions, including their unique characteristics and how they differ from written traditions.
Functions of Oral Traditions: A look at the various social, cultural, and historical functions that oral traditions serve, such as preserving cultural practices and beliefs, transmitting knowledge and information, and reinforcing group identity.
Types of Oral Traditions: An exploration of the different types of oral traditions found in various cultures, including myths, legends, folktales, epic poetry, and proverbs.
The Oral Tradition and the Written Word: An examination of the relationship between the oral and written traditions, including the ways in which they interact and influence each other.
Transmission of Oral Traditions: A discussion of how oral traditions are transmitted from one generation to the next, including the role of memory, performance, and improvisation.
Oral Traditions and Performance: An analysis of the performative aspects of oral traditions, including the use of music, dance, and other forms of artistic expression.
Gender and Oral Traditions: A consideration of the role of gender in oral traditions, including how gender influences the content, performance, and transmission of these traditions.
Power and Authority in Oral Traditions: An exploration of how power and authority are reflected in oral traditions, including the ways in which they are used to maintain social hierarchies and political systems.
Ritual and Oral Traditions: An examination of the role of ritual in oral traditions, including how rituals are incorporated into these traditions and how they help to reinforce cultural values and beliefs.
Oral Traditions and Globalization: A consideration of the impact of globalization on oral traditions, including the ways in which these traditions are adapting to new technologies, changing social structures, and shifting cultural practices.
Myths and Legends: Oral traditions that recount the stories of gods and heroes, explaining natural phenomena and the origins of cultures and societies.
Epics: A long, narrative poem that describes heroic acts and deeds.
Fables: Short moral tales that feature animals or objects as the main characters.
Folktales: Stories that reflect the beliefs and values of a culture, often featuring ordinary people or animals as main characters.
Proverbs: Short, pithy sayings that offer wisdom and advice.
Ballads: Songs that tell stories of love, loss, and tragedy.
Fairy tales: Stories featuring magical and fantastical elements, often with a moral message.
Riddles: Puzzling questions or statements that require creative thinking to solve.
Trickster tales: Stories featuring a mischievous and clever character who outwits others through wit and trickery.
Personal narratives: True stories told by individuals, often about their own experiences or the experiences of their ancestors.
Creation stories: Tales that explain the origins of the world, humanity, and other natural phenomena.
Historical narratives: Oral histories that tell the stories of past events, places, and people.
Origin stories: Tales that explain how certain customs, traditions, or practices originated within a culture or society.
Migratory legends: Oral traditions that explain the migration of peoples, languages, or cultures.
Spiritual and religious tales: Stories that impart spiritual or religious beliefs and values, often featuring divine or supernatural beings.
"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."