The Importance Of Oral Tradition

Before writing existed, information had to be transferred orality to following generations. Even to this day the vast majority of languages around the world lack a system of writing, which means that speech is primal and was established independently from writing. Though the technology of writing has allowed civilizations more easily to maintain enormous amounts of information throughout time, it appears that it has also hindered our ability for memorization..
Oral tradition is the original way through which knowledge has been kept and passed down the generations. This tradition requires interpersonal relationships for its access and its continuation in time. Some extensive works of information require mnemonic tools to be retrievable in memory. These mnemonic tools are aids for memory retention and they exist not only in auditory forms but visual and …show more content…
For one reason, there is no loss of meaning in translation if it is assumed that the information is passed down in the same language. Two, because oral tradition allows for someone to explain what it is said and can be rephrased so that is better understood or even argued against by the receiver, as oppose to text that cannot fend for itself and only restate what it is written. Three, if the oral work is built with a mnemonic structure like the ancient Greek epic poem, the Iliad, then there is no room for modification since it will ruin the pattern that made it easily memorable in the first place. Last reason I can give is that oral tradition can promote more ‘experience’ of the information for the receiver because there is a greater chance that the information becomes more integrated than it would be if only read by him or her. However, orality is an outward expression that involves at least two people, therefore it strays them from the introspection that reading could