Use Of Oral Tradition Research Articles

Approaches to the Study of African Oral Literature

Opening ParagraphDr. Ruth Finnegan's study Oral Literature in Africa (The Oxford Library of African Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970, pp. xix+558, £5) is likely to become an influential book. It surveys and summarizes much of our knowledge regarding the basic forms of African oral literature. Although there have been a number of essays published discussing some of the issues involved in recording, analysing, and appreciating such literature, as well as on the use of oral tradition for historical studies, this is the first modern attempt to take stock of our general knowledge in this field and to suggest how and along what paths future research should proceed.

The use of oral tradition in Irish historical geography∗

The use of oral tradition in Irish historical geography∗

The Saga of Coe Ridge: A Study in Oral History

Few black groups in the United States carry with them the romance, the gripping history, the pathos, the indestructible spirit of the Coe Ridge colony during the ninety years of its existence. . . . a new and long needed departure in American historiography. . . . This is in every way an impressive book. It contains detailed accounts of the informants, tables of folklore motifs, genealogical charts, a prologue and epilogue explaining authoritatively the hypotheses of oral traditional history, and handsome photographs of the Coe Ridge area.--Richard M. Dorson, Journal of American History. Lynwood Montell has written an invaluable book for all those interested in the use of oral tradition as a tool in the reconstruction of history. . . . This is a book worthy of being on any folklorist's shelf.--Richaed A. Reuss, Journal of American Folklore.

Historical Aspects of Genealogies in Northern Somali Social Structure

Few anthropologists, I think, would question that the use of oral tradition as a historical source in tribal studies requires a knowledge of the part tradition plays in the society in which it occurs. Most would agree that oral tradition does not have a universal validity—it is not equally ‘true’ or equally ‘false’ in all tribal societies. Rather its historical content, where unequivocal historical evidence is lacking, has to be evaluated in the light of the contemporary social situations to which it is related. Since Malinowski, many anthropologists have tended to the view that traditions about the past express the reality of the present more than they record what actually happened in the past. Legends about the past, indeed, have often been described as ‘charters’ validating the present by attributing a respectable antiquity to its origins.