The Present-Day Importance of Oral Traditions — Their Preservationon, Publication and Indexing

Abstract

Oral traditions, transmitted in the form of tales, myths and legends, fairytales, songs, especially epic songs and poems, proverbs, riddles and other genres, form an important treasury of many a people’s cultural heritage even today. Among ethnic groups without a written tradition, almost all knowledge was conveyed orally from one generation to the next, but oral traditions play an important role also among peoples possessing written texts. The participants who took part in the workshop held in St. Augustin near Bonn from 19th to 23rd of November 1995 tried to find answers to the following questions: What is the present-day importance of oral traditions in different parts of the world? How can oral traditions safely be preserved, published and their contents be made accessible by indices?