Oral Traditions

[Guest guest]

Hi All;

 

A quick note on that oral tradition thread we had a few weeks ago: Shackleton,

1916, south pole expedition, made some interesting and indirect comments on why

a written tradition can cause history to seem so materialistic as well as flaky:

 

When I look back on those days, I have no doubt that providence guided us, not

only across snowfields, but also across the stormwhite sea [...] I know that

during that long and racking [sic] march [...] it seemed to me often that we

were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but

afterwards Worsely said to me, " Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that

there was another person with us " . Cream confessed to the same idea. One feels

the " dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech " in trying to

describe things intangible, but a record of our journey would be incomplete

without a reference to a subject very near to our hearts.

 

(Shackleton 1947, pg 211)

 

It is easy to fall for the trap that written transmission is accurate and

superior in every way to oral transmission. We all know how omission can

severely distort a perspective. My teacher's oral instruction? " Don't think,

don't say, don't do " .

 

 

Hugo