The world of oral tradition: Aspects of orality

preliterate, not illiterate

1. Additive rather than subordinative

2. Aggregative rather than analytic

3. Redundant

speech is repetitive

useful for listeners and speakers

4. Conservative or traditionalist

5. Close to human lifeworld

everything is immediately related to human life

"Catalogue of Ships"

6. Agonistically toned

boasting and insults (flyting) common

challenges before combat

confrontation between Agamemenon and Achilles in Bk. 1 of the Iliad

action frequently violent and gory

7. Empathetic and participatory rather than objectively distanced

reciters and listeners identify with action and characters

Plato's "condemnation" of poets and poetry

modern students' plot summaries

8. Homeostatic

oral cultures slough off unneeded memories

past interpreted in light of the present

Tiv of Nigeria: genealogies recast

Ndewura Jakpa, founder of Gonja and his 7 (or is it 5?) sons

old words and meanings disappear

oral and oral-derived texts historical in approach but contemporary in meaning

9. Situational rather than abstract

People in an oral culture:

Identify geometrical figures by names of objects

engage in situational thinking

are unable to produce or follow logical syllogisms

resist definitions

have difficulty producing articulate self-analysis