4. What are the characteristics of oral traditions? What are the implications of loss of language... more 4. What are the characteristics of oral traditions? What are the implications of loss of language diversity across the globe? Oral traditions are more important that we might initially suppose and they are in severe jeopardy, a frightening number threatening to disappear forever in the immediate future. To offer an insight into the extent of this tragedy, it is presently approximated that we stand to lose a language every ten days for the foreseeable future (Harrison 2007:5). These verbally transmitted stories, myths, poems, ballads, songs, dramas, and narratives are the spoken transmissions of cultural understanding. Passed down through the generations via word of mouth rather than by way of the written medium, the form is fluid and constantly changing, free to transform with the culture as it evolves. This form-in the contemporary world-assures a vulnerable existence. In an era of globalisation in which peoples feel that it would be better for their children to learn the dominant language in a region so as to guarantee a "better" future, and as a result of past colonisations and oppressions, oral traditions are fading away into the seas of oblivion never to be retrieved, merging with those many which have experienced a similar fate before them. Often spoken traditions and alternative literacies are demeaned whilst alphabetic written systems are esteemed but, as we shall explore, these assumptions have been generally undone owing to recent developments in anthropological scholarship. With 'the demise of cultural diversity, the erosion of what might be termed the ethnosphere, the full complexity…of human potential as brought into being by culture and adaptation since the dawn of consciousness' (Davis 2007:5), our capacity as people for a more open-minded approach to life diminishes, as we perceive a decreasing number of alternative paths for understanding, of both other people and of the cosmos around us. Characteristics of Oral Traditions and difficulties with transcription Often written transcriptions of oral traditions are largely unsuccessful in their efforts at capturing meaning. Tedlock has drawn attention to those aspects of oral performance which are missed if a textual record is made instead of a voice recording, namely bodily movements; pauses; dynamics; the remarks or movements of an audience.
4. What are the characteristics of oral traditions? What are the implications of loss of language... more 4. What are the characteristics of oral traditions? What are the implications of loss of language diversity across the globe? Oral traditions are more important that we might initially suppose and they are in severe jeopardy, a frightening number threatening to disappear forever in the immediate future. To offer an insight into the extent of this tragedy, it is presently approximated that we stand to lose a language every ten days for the foreseeable future (Harrison 2007:5). These verbally transmitted stories, myths, poems, ballads, songs, dramas, and narratives are the spoken transmissions of cultural understanding. Passed down through the generations via word of mouth rather than by way of the written medium, the form is fluid and constantly changing, free to transform with the culture as it evolves. This form-in the contemporary world-assures a vulnerable existence. In an era of globalisation in which peoples feel that it would be better for their children to learn the dominant language in a region so as to guarantee a "better" future, and as a result of past colonisations and oppressions, oral traditions are fading away into the seas of oblivion never to be retrieved, merging with those many which have experienced a similar fate before them. Often spoken traditions and alternative literacies are demeaned whilst alphabetic written systems are esteemed but, as we shall explore, these assumptions have been generally undone owing to recent developments in anthropological scholarship. With 'the demise of cultural diversity, the erosion of what might be termed the ethnosphere, the full complexity…of human potential as brought into being by culture and adaptation since the dawn of consciousness' (Davis 2007:5), our capacity as people for a more open-minded approach to life diminishes, as we perceive a decreasing number of alternative paths for understanding, of both other people and of the cosmos around us. Characteristics of Oral Traditions and difficulties with transcription Often written transcriptions of oral traditions are largely unsuccessful in their efforts at capturing meaning. Tedlock has drawn attention to those aspects of oral performance which are missed if a textual record is made instead of a voice recording, namely bodily movements; pauses; dynamics; the remarks or movements of an audience.
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