Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Education in Africa Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Undefining of Oral Tradition
Author:Cohen, David W.ISNI
Year:1989
Periodical:Ethnohistory
Volume:36
Issue:1
Period:Winter
Pages:9-18
Language:English
Geographic term:Uganda
Subjects:oral traditions
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Education and Oral Traditions
History and Exploration
Abstract:This paper points to flaws in formalist definitions of 'oral tradition' which have the capacity to affect reconstructions of the African past. Historical knowledge in regions such as Busoga, Uganda, is not lodged in a distinctive series of texts read as 'oral tradition' but is engaged in and derives from the everyday critical, lively intelligence which surrounds status, activities, gestures, and speech. Reflections on the organization of knowledge of past in Busoga may help scholars overcome a rigidity of thinking about the pasts of oral societies which the attempts to formalize definitions of oral tradition have produced. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
Views