“Oral History” and oral traditions

Contemporary Pacific academics are giving oral tradition an identity so this article briefly overviews the discourse of oral tradition, meaning of its forms — oral history and oral literature — and their relevance to the Pacific Islands.  Oral tradition is a form of human communication where useful information is received, preserved and transmitted orally or verbally for posterity. The transmission of a preserved cultural knowledge is done via vocal utterances prevalent especially in preliterate societies. It includes spoken words in form of folk tales, ballads, chants, jokes, riddles, stories, legends, proverbs, belief, motion, music and songs.  This tradition does not remain stagnant in terms of its historicity as it keeps on changing and evolving over time, filtered and codified with every generation.  For full article click here.