RE: oral tradition

Vandergraaf, Chuck (vandergraaft@aecl.ca)
Thu, 22 Jul 1999 23:54:51 -0400

Glenn,

I did not intend to make oral tradition sound like a bad memory from 3rd
grade. I can't even think back that far! And, no, I have never seen a
story teller from the South (I suppose you mean the US South). What I was
trying to get across (and probably didn't manage to do) is that, in the case
of the aboriginal morticians, the apprentices had something tangible to work
with. Depending on the death rate, they may always have had a corpse around
as an example.

But, I accept your point that oral tradition is more than just "sittin' and
talkin' ("jawin"?).

Chuck

> You make oral tradition sound like a bad memory assignment from 3rd grade.
> Have you ever seen a story teller from the South? They tell oral tales.
> But they don't just sit there like lumps on a log verbalizing the tale.
> They move, they gesture, they act out, they change their voice. Oral
> tradition always involves the visual.
> glenn
>
> Foundation, Fall and Flood
> Adam, Apes and Anthropology
> http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
>
> Lots of information on creation/evolution
>