Orality And Tradition

Culture builds up and shapes how people view the world and the people in it. It determines how we judge and view the way others act, look, and even how they think. In the texts “Where worlds collide”, “An Indian Father’s Plea”, and “Two Kinds”, it is shown that a person’s views of others and the world are solely determined by their culture.

The diversity of culture is an incredible notion. It is unfathomable how the anatomy of the human race is so similar, yet so different in the behaviors and ideas that take place. The two primary cultures I am focusing on throughout this essay are the differentiation between popular culture, and indigenous culture. I will also make the point of folk culture, and how it has slowly transformed itself from its self sufficiency, to relying more on the ways of popular culture.

It is clear that cultural tradition delivers set foundations into a person’s lifetime, giving identity and sense of belonging to a person and their social group. It allows individuals to feel part of something and understand their ancestral values and customs. Several people believe that it is very important to preserve cultural traditions because they feel as if tradition is the main enabler to a shared identity and to a construction of social consistency and unity. People also believe that conservancy of cultural traditions forms exclusive bonds within members of the community, holding people with the same background together to pass on cultural values, and excluding those who aren’t part of the culture. They think that the actual preservation of traditions means not to change the customs and traditions, to not grow from our culture, for example not learning another language because you already know your mother tongue. It is a way to group up and tag everyone in a form of an alliance, and to have better organization and awareness of where everyone comes from.

A key strength of Waltke’s article is his use of diverse cultures, spanning over the course of history, to prove that societies in different eras with different values and systems highly regarded written records over the uncertainty of oral tradition. By using an array of cultures and evaluating their use of writing and oral tradition, Waltke seeks to rightly handle the available evidence. He displays cultures that not only prioritized written record, but also those who did have more an emphasis on oral tradition, like the Ugarits, yet still regarded written records as something of great worth. Waltke builds his credibility with readers because of his diverse use of sources and how he handles them to ultimately support his

All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India contain neither literary or scientific information, and are, moreover so poor and rude that, until they are enriched from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them…

readers why every culture is unique and contributes in its own way to the collective heritage of

In Indigena as scribe: The (W)rite to remember. A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness Writings, Cherrie Moraga emphasizes the importance of writing, as people of color. Moraga makes us aware of how much we deny our culture, practices, and myths because we are so afraid to be like our ancestors. Although we fear this close proximity to our ancestors, to Moraga, that same proximity is what makes our narratives valuable. The fear carried within us silences us and makes us forget about the powerful voices we hold. Moraga also writes about the importance of recognizing that institutionally, we have become colonized beings and to understand this concept, can help us break away from the shackles that keep us from being who we truly are. For Moraga, it is important that we acknowledge the power that writing has. She wants us to realize that our narratives are important and we have the right to remember who we are.

Momaday's book collapses conventional divides between myth and history: by fusing the two he suggests that the conventional white conception of history as an enclosed and protected category is inherently suspect, and without speaking of politics makes a claim for other, equally valuable ways of knowing. However, in this sense his method of storytelling is political, because he suggests that the Indian ways of interpreting experience are just as valid as

Throughout time, storytelling has evolved and changed with society. While oral storytelling is not as prevalent as it once was, the stories that were once passed down orally have now been written and passed through generations and cultures in this manner. However, the form that the story takes has not had an effect on storytelling as a whole. Storytelling has provided a way for tellers to pass along ideas on culture, ways of life, and traditions that may otherwise have been lost. Oftentimes, stories can become convoluted after being passed on via word of mouth, yet, others keep their integrity. No matter the truthfulness of the story, storytelling has consistently been harmful due to its ability to influence the listeners’ or readers’ thinking. In this paper, I will prove that stories are inherently harmful due to the ability the teller has to influence the listener through relatable or believable stories, whether they be fact or fiction, to solidify the gender hierarchy as shown in literary stories such as Lysistrata, the Tale of Genji, and Sunjata.

Culture is the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. Culture can vary dramatically from group to group and the only way to spread those ideas on a common ground is through writing. Ishmael Beah wrote his memoir titled

Diamond depicts the theme development and interactions of cultures best in chapter 12 (Blueprints and Borrowed Letters). In this chapter, he talks about systems of writings and how they have changed as well as spread between cultures. Acknowledging the complexity of devising a

Passed down from generation to generation, oral tradition predominates as one of the most significant sources in discovering the history of the African diaspora. Plagued by illiteracy, the tangible text of the past remain useless for both the freed man and slave, this heightens the use of spoken word to elicit the events of themselves and their ancestors. Through the American Folklore Center, the stories that George Johnson convey, take form. Interviewed in 1940, George Johnson, a former slave from Brierfield, Virginia, recalls the tales of his own enslavement as well as the stories he passed down from his father and grandfather. However, his strictly progressive rendition of his place in North American slavery not only question the accuracy

The Indian Epics contrast very remarkably from that portrayed in Western lands, revealing majesty of the Lord when he manifested in to the world in human form. Mahakavya (epics) known as a genre of Indian epic poetry in classical Sanskrit and earliest form of Indian literature influences the religious and cultural life of the whole India and much of Asia. These two main epic poems of Hinduism include, the Ramayana (The Story of Rama) and the Mahabharata (The Great Epic of India). Beside the question of their value of being good or worthy literature, they are among the most important and earliest literature of the world. For India, the land of spiritualism, the composition of these two great epics have been the sources of inspiration to most Indians. Both these epics existed in oral form as chants before they were written down. During ancient India, the tradition of oral was cherished much more greatly than anything in written form.

Oral traditions are historical traditions passed down by word of mouth from one generation to another without written instruction. Oral tradition was used during

As such, firsthand approach to Indian tradition is lacking at large, and the idea of tradition being through the media of interpretative tradition has engendered the danger of a distorted view of tradition. The distortion often swings between two extremes – either in viewing tradition as Everything, or as Nothing.