9/20/21
Scholarly Reflections
McKean, Thomas. "Tradition as Communication." Oral Tradition 18:1 (2003), 49-50.
McKean observes that tradition is a form of social communication, which combines memory, orality, and literacy as it passes ideas from one generation to another (McKean 2003, 49). In this sense, then, oral tradition is a living means of communicating an authority figure's information over time. However, McKean also acknowledges the instrumentality of the performer, who is, in a sense, creating a newly autoritative version of a work. The tradition, then, has both private and public elements, often oral and written sources, and multiple levels of connection among generations and cultures (McKean 2003, 50).
Scholarly Reflections
McKean, Thomas. "Tradition as Communication." Oral Tradition 18:1 (2003), 49-50.
McKean observes that tradition is a form of social communication, which combines memory, orality, and literacy as it passes ideas from one generation to another (McKean 2003, 49). In this sense, then, oral tradition is a living means of communicating an authority figure's information over time. However, McKean also acknowledges the instrumentality of the performer, who is, in a sense, creating a newly autoritative version of a work. The tradition, then, has both private and public elements, often oral and written sources, and multiple levels of connection among generations and cultures (McKean 2003, 50).
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