Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism,[7] and Jainism have used oral tradition, in parallel to writing, to transmit their canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns and mythologies.[8][9][10] African societies have broadly been labelled oral civilisations, contrasted with literate civilisations, due to their reverence for the oral word and widespread use of oral tradition.[a][12][13]
Oral tradition is memories, knowledge, and expression held in common by a group over many generations: it is the long preservation of immediate or contemporaneous testimony.[1][14] It may be defined as the recall and transmission of specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge through vocal utterance.[2][15] Oral tradition is usually popular, and can be exoteric or esoteric. It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes.[16]: 168
As an academic discipline, oral tradition refers both to objects and methods of study.[17] It is distinct from oral history,[14] which is the recording of personal testimony of those who experienced historical eras or events.[18] Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality, defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (writing and print) are unfamiliar.[19]Folklore is one albeit not the only type of oral tradition.[20][21]
^ abVansina, Jan: Oral Tradition as History (1985), reported statements from present generation which "specifies that the message must be oral statements spoken, sung or called out on musical instruments only"; "There must be transmission by word of mouth over at least a generation". He points out, "Our definition is a working definition for the use of historians. Sociologists, linguists or scholars of the verbal arts propose their own, which in, e.g., sociology, stresses common knowledge. In linguistics, features that distinguish the language from common dialogue (linguists), and in the verbal arts features of form and content that define art (folklorists)."
^Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: "Methodology and African Prehistory", 1990, UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa; James Currey Publishers, ISBN0-85255-091-X, 9780852550915; see Ch. 7; "Oral tradition and its methodology" at pages 54–61; at page 54: "Oral tradition may be defined as being a testimony transmitted verbally from one generation to another. Its special characteristics are that it is verbal and the manner in which it is transmitted."
^ abHenige, David (1988). "Oral, but Oral What? : The Nomenclatures of Orality and Their Implications". Oral Tradition. 3 (1–2): 229–238. hdl:10355/64090.
^Cite error: The named reference MacKay1999p1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Ong, Walter, S.J., Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen, 1982, p. 12.
^Degh, Linda. American Folklore and the Mass Media. Bloomington: IUP, 1994, p. 31
^Folklore in the Oral Tradition, Fairytales, Fables and Folk-legendArchived 2016-07-19 at the Wayback Machine, Julie Carthy (1984), The Oral Tradition, Volume IV, Yale University, Quote: "Folklore is said to be in the oral tradition. Dundes states that the most common criterion for a definition of folklore is its means of transmission that is, orally. He clarifies however that materials other than folklore are also orally conveyed. Therefore oral transmission itself is not sufficient to distinguish folklore from non-folklore."
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