1 / 14

Oral Culture

Oral Culture. Team Presentation 1: Laura Ahumada, Nick Cerretti, Brian Hall, Kara McDermott, Yasmine Sareini. History of Orality. 40,000 yrs ago: records show the beginnings of oral traditions 6,000 yrs ago: Chirographic culture begins

yon
Download Presentation

Oral Culture

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Oral Culture Team Presentation 1: Laura Ahumada, Nick Cerretti, Brian Hall, Kara McDermott, Yasmine Sareini

  2. History of Orality • 40,000 yrs ago: records show the beginnings of oral traditions • 6,000 yrs ago: Chirographic culture begins • Ancient Greece: first significant move from a primarily oral

  3. Ancient Greece • First significant move from a primarily oral culture • Greek vowels appeared in the 4th cent. BC • Allowed for a closer representation of the sounds of spoken language

  4. Western World • In the last 1000 years or so, oral culture has been mostly replaced by a literate culture • The invention of the printing press marks the end of oral culture • Orality still exists in some forms within the literate culture

  5. Roles in an Oral Culture • “Poet”- very important member of society • Responsible for knowing all the vocabulary, history, and traditions of a society and passing them down to the next generation

  6. Secondary Orality • Orality still important in gathering history (e.g. experiences in wars) • Sustained by telephone, radio, TV, internet • These forms create the same collaboration found in oral culture • Characteristics: • Deplotted fictions • “Hollowed-out” characters • Post-Modernism

  7. Characteristics of Orality • Additive vs. subordinate • Aggressive vs. Analytic • Redundant • Conservative • Thought is concrete • Agonistically intoned • Sympathetic vs. distanced • Homeostatic • Situational vs. abstract

  8. Aspects of an Oral Culture • Superstitions • Music • Dance

  9. Development in an Oral Culture • Evolution of human speech capabilities

  10. How Orality is seen in our texts • Emphasis on stress and alliterative long line used as a mnemonic device • Reinforcement of values • E.g. Loyalty and bravery in the Battle of Maldon • Makes Christian themes accessible • Entertainment • As seen in the riddles, which could be passed from person to person as a game

  11. Advantages of an Oral Culture • Flexibility • Personal • Emphasis on memory • Focus on community

  12. Works Cited • Biakolo, Emevwo. “On the Theoretical Foundations of Orality and Literacy.” Research in African Literatures. Austin: Summer 1999. vol. 30, Iss. 2; pg. 42. Accessed from Proquest on 3 October 2006. • Dolan, Molly. “Orality in Relation to Computer-Mediated Communication.” The Implications of Technology on the Perception of Community. http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~univ302/StudentWork/S96/Dolan/orality.html • Wolman, David Chewing Over the Evolution of Speech, Science and Spirit Magazine 2002. • Fitch, W. T. (2000) The evolution of speech: a comparative review. Trends in cognitive sciences, 4(7):258--267. • The Evolution of Speech, in: Brown, K (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics 2nd edition, Elsevier.

  13. Works Cited • Comparative Vocal Production and the Evolution of Speech:Reinterpreting the Descent of the Larynx, W. Tecumseh Fitch (in press in: The Transition to Language (A. Wray, Ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. • “Descent of the larynx in chimpanzee infants” by Takeshi Nishimura, Akichika Mikami, Juri Suzuki, and Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Published online 05 29 03, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 10.1073/pnas.1231107100 • http://www.ucalgary.ca/~bakardji/Orality/orality_characteristics.html • http://www.engl.nin.edu/wac/ong_rvw.html

  14. Works Cited • Bingham, Art. “Review of Walter J. Ong's Orality and Literacy.” • <http://www.engl.niu.edu/wac/ong_rvw.html> • The Computer Culture. < http://www.units.muohio.edu/englishtech/eng49501/ • moscakj/essay.htm>. • Charlton, Thomas L, Lois E. Myers, and Rebecca Sharpless. Handbook of Oral History. • Altamira: New York, 2006. • December, John. “Characteristics of Oral Culture in Discourse on the Net.” 1993. • http://www.december.com/john/papers/pscrc93.txt

More Related