Anthropology and ORal Tradition Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Anthropology and ORal Tradition - Research Paper Example This essay will examine the concept of oral tradition the context at, which it is told and the role that it plays in the society. Performing verbal traditions is an occupation that is highly specialized where the community holds some special performers whom they regard to be guardians of collective memory. Since oral tradition is passed by the word of mouth, expressions and oral tradition differ significantly in their expression of the oral traditions. Stories are an amalgamation of many issues that differ from context to context, genre to genre and from entertainer to entertainer of improvisation, reproduction and creation. The amalgamation of the stories makes them colorful and vibrant form of expression (Benton-Banai, 2010). The stories are fragile because their practicability depends on a continuous chain passing their customs from one cohort of storyteller to another. Many societies such as the Aboriginal and Native Americans have relied upon the oral tradition on the transmission of stories, lessons, histories and other knowledge. They have continued this tradition to maintain their historical record and sustain their identities and cultures. The Iroquois are a Native American community that is rich in their oral tradition and they are proud of their culture and traditions. In North America, the American Indians were the only people living there before the Europeans explores decided to settle on their land in the 17th century. The Native Americans believed that they bought all sort of weapons and diseases that resulted in mass deaths. The Europeans treated Native Americans badly where they even took their land abusing and killing the people in the society (Hartz, 2009). The suffering of the Native Americans brought oral stories to help them sense if the world. This is because the events that took place in the nation seemed random such as natural