what is oral history?

Question

an oral history is a spoken record of past events. the task of remembering west africa's history was entrusted to story tellers.

Answer 1

You answered your own question!! Very well I might add. Spoken History passed down thorough generations

Answer 2

The main advantage of an oral history is that many centuries down the line, the story remains exactly as first told, even if scholars do not believe this. Most oral history comes from cultures which are best described a illiterate, but not always so. An illiterate person has a much better memory than a literate person. Why? Because a person who cannot read and write must remember everything which needs to be remembered since none of it can be written down. In Turkey today there is an illiterate tribe of troubadours, living somewhere in the North of Turkey who perform the ILIAD in it's original sung format - it is thought to be word perfect. Much oral tradition exists in Britain, mostly in the form of Celtic Myths and Legends. Greek Mythology is from a written format and therefore probably contains a lot of inaccuracies. Why? Because in ancient times, every time someone wanted to borrow a book from the library, they had to make a copy of the book in written form. You know scribes! Lots of mistakes and whole paragraphs left missing. Thankfully the borrower kept he copy and the original was returned to the Library. Problem is that Julius Caesar's uncle had a vast library not far from Vasuvius which exploded and the whole thing got burnt to a crisp along with everyone and everything else. Some of the manuscripts are being unravelled [if that's the correct word] as we speak new knowledge of Greek Phylosophy an Science is being revielaved as we speak!! Also remember that Julius Caesar had the great library at Alexandria in Egypt burnt down. This library contained just about everything the Greeks had committed to paper since the time of Alexander himself. So - books burnt, what we're left with are copies with mistakes. Oral tradition contains no mistakes. SPELL CHECKER BUT...!

Answer 3

Oral history can be any history that is passed down thru generations. This can include legends, folk tales and many other things and is not exclusive to African peoples, as all cultures have an oral history.

Answer 4

It sounds like you already know :) Yes, some cultures don't have a "written" culture and the knowledge of their people is passed down via word of mouth by professional storytellers. These people often have to remember the histories exactly, word for word, so that they remain unchanged over hundreds of years.

Answer 5

All of the early history was passed down that way.

Answer 6

It's a great way to pass on your culture to the next generation. American Indians also used this method of preserving culture and heritage.

Answer 7

North American 1st Nations have incredible ORAL HISTORY to share with us ... but few are interested.

Sometimes ... I wish I was a 1st Nations person!

Answer 8

That's not a question, it's a question and answer.