Recently, Hank Kune introduced me to the fascinating concept of orality, which has had a profound impact on human communication. It made me question why I hadn’t discovered it earlier, given its significant influence on our cultural heritage.
Orality is the practice of transmitting knowledge, culture, and traditions through spoken language and oral traditions rather than written texts.
As I delved deeper into the subject, I was reminded that for a period possibly as long as 100,000 years before writing was developed around 5,000 years ago, our memory, history, knowledge, and cultural practices were predominantly transmitted orally. We didn’t have written records. This reliance on oral communication fostered rich traditions of storytelling, poetry, songs, and aphorisms. Naturally, other non-verbal forms of expression, such as visual arts, dance, gestures, and rituals, along with observation and collaboration, also played crucial roles in the transmission of culture.
This revelation shed light on why we, as humans, possess such a profound ability to tell and listen to stories. It dawned on me that tens of thousands of years of evolution have shaped us to excel in this art of storytelling, as it was an essential aspect of our ancestors’ lives for an extensive period of time.
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Knowledge Letter: Issue: 277 (Subscribe)
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