Oral History, and the Modern Day Link to The Past
After being exposed to the
content in the web link videos, I have gained a whole new perspective on the
importance of, and need for oral tradition.
In order to truly appreciate what is being conveyed, I found myself viewing
and listening to the videos more than once.
The video entitled Running on the Edge of the Rainbow: Laguna Stories
and Poems, while focused on more recent historical accounts, helped me to
understand just why these stories and oral traditions are so important. Oral tradition according to Leslie Marmon
allows the listener to understand the essence of the moment, based on facial
expressions, tone of voice, mannerisms and other actions that one can only get
by either listening in person, listening to a recording, or viewing a video.
It helped me in understanding
the context in which the story was based.
I compare this to reading
about historical events in a book, where we are challenged to understand the
essence of the moment by drawing from our own frame of reference based on our limited
perceptions and predisposed knowledge of a situation. Here we are sometimes challenged to recreate
images in our mind that help us relate to the information in the story. As explained by Leslie Marmon, stories of
life experiences passed on through generations, helps us to reveal both
historical and current events, and in many instances, the link by which these
events are connected over time. She also
explained how the telling and retelling of stories by Native Americans is
essential in establishing cohesion, or bringing everyone together within
communities and linking relationships to places, families, and activities
allows one to share and contribute to these oral traditions. I viewed this as meaning that as these
stories are shared, each person hearing the story can somehow recall events that
they experiences either in that same timeframe, or another that are similar or
related, a connection to the person telling the story. This in turn encourages other stories, or the
evolution of existing stories. In
viewing the videos, Native Americans get a sense of connection to the
historical experiences, fate, and tragedy in a way that as Leslie Marmon
explains as never alone and never lost.
References:
Leslie Marmon Silko. Running
on the Edge of the Rainbow: Laguna Stories and Poems. University of Arizona.
(1978). Retrieved from http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/wordsandplace/silko.html
Very good, I can understand what you mean by watching someone tell a story as opposed to reading it. Good observation.
ReplyDeleteI totally was just writing about this when I was responding to the class discussion. As mentioned, many civilizations have used writing as the means for recording history as it lasts a long time and it can be found and translated even when there is not a human left to decipher. This is a benefit of such recording, but oral tradition possesses benefits as well. Where written documents are just that, written documents, oral stories and songs offer a feeling, a series of emotions, an overall sense of what is actually going on. When looking at writing, these are all fabulous pieces of information that are lost.
ReplyDelete