List of oral repositories

People termed as "oral repositories" have been likened to "walking libraries", leading to the saying "whenever an old man dies, it is as though a library were burning down".{{Cite book |last=Jolly |first=Margaretta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pedJAgAAQBAJ&q=Amadou+Hamp%C3%A2t%C3%A9+B%C3%A2+OLD+MAN+DIES&pg=PA89 |title=Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136787447 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=John |first1=Magnus |date=July 1979 |title=Libraries in oral-traditional societies |journal=International Library Review |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=321–339 |doi=10.1016/0020-7837(79)90003-7 }}{{cite conference |title=The Challenges and Opportunities of preparing LIS Students for Orally based communities |last1=Chisita |first1=Collence |last2=Abdullahi |first2=Ismaili |url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/105585795/152-chisita-en-libre.pdf?1694123279=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DThe_Challenges_and_Opportunities_of_prep.pdf&Expires=1725124737&Signature=P-~F~jXhhOaUYZBiO0P5-GZJnz7CnZDSovF61zTjcwnDNScY0PxfptoQrXa217bfWnJjaKjK-SyBI7uUQBc5TXnrssLxyY~U3hplJZXkmPE24TQ4WJeqJrl~h1b1oKWkbArarj9hrIld9LWaDaCpkV2sGXj9schoNx2L88BRW4anwjXEXdVF9UE-LikUqfG-6YezzpQrqZsPpVGWKA-FH~EGdmJpU1RMz-nidtoh9l~zNbZFf0cox0ftL2LqH7HCmOQWBSKvcRimTX-eUAQOp7kl3n2kq2xXsI1jw8nXojGznU~N1wnmfOFt0-VqotyXGgB3hMzW2TCStdzG4YvevQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA |publisher=WORLD LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CONGRESS: 76TH IFLA GENERAL CONFERENCE AND ASSEMBLY |year=2010}} Roles vary, and can be titular, formal or informal, some professional specialists such as the Caucasian ashik, or more commonly amateurs and knowledgeable generalists such as the bulaam of the Kuba people.{{Cite book |last=Vansina |first=Jan |url=https://archive.org/details/oraltraditionash0000vans |title=Oral tradition as history |date=1985 |publisher=Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-299-10213-5}}{{rp|36–39}}

Types of information held by oral repositories includes lineages, oral law, mythology, oral literature and oral poetry (of which oral history is often entwined), folk songs and aural tradition, and traditional knowledge. In many indigenous societies, such as Native American and San, these roles are fulfilled in a general sense by elders.{{Cite book |last1=Backwell |first1=Lucinda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7QM7EAAAQBAJ&dq=san+elder+oral+tradition&pg=PP6 |title=San Elders Speak: Ancestral knowledge of the Kalahari San |last2=d'Errico |first2=Francesco |date=2021-07-01 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-1-77614-665-9 |language=en}}{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9781315777344 |title=The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-317-69319-2 |editor-last1=Madsen |editor-first1=Deborah L. |chapter=The Historical and Literary Role of Folklore, Storytelling, and the Oral Tradition in Native American Literatures |first1=Susan Berry |last1=Brill de Ramírez |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gepCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT448 }} In some societies anyone could become a generalist or traditionalist regardless of their social class, and acquisition depends solely on individual aptitude, while in others the roles are hereditary and dependent on class or caste.{{Cite book |last=Ba |first=Amadou |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000042225 |title=General History of Africa: Volume 1 |date=1981 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |chapter=The living tradition}}{{Rp|pages=192–193}}

These people usually hold authority within their respective societies, although musicians sometimes constitute a low caste/class. They can be religious figures playing roles in rituals and ceremonies.{{Cite book |last=Goody |first=Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5BJ_PDhpy2QC&dq=oral+tradition+religious+ceremonies&pg=PR5 |title=Myth, Ritual and the Oral |date=2010-10-14 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49303-1 |language=en}} With regard to narrative traditions, they usually perform from their repertoire and apply their distinct style while innovating on a well-known tale or work, seeking to create an experience by leading, involving, and responding to the audience.{{Rp|page=34}} Some participate in improvised poetry competitions such as the Central Asian aytysh, the North African Kabyle people's amusnaw, the Spanish {{Ill|Repentismo|lt=repentismo|es}}, or the African Ewe people's halo.{{cite book |last1=Pimienta |first1=Alexis Díaz |title=Teoría de la improvisación: primeras páginas para el estudio del repentismo |date=1998 |publisher=Sendoa |isbn=978-84-89080-74-4 |language=es }}{{page needed|date=September 2024}}{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-15617-5_3 |chapter=Halo: The Ewe Battle Tradition of Music, Songs, and Performance |title=African Battle Traditions of Insult |series=African Histories and Modernities |date=2023 |last1=Missihoun |first1=Honoré |pages=37–54 |isbn=978-3-031-15616-8 }} In parts of the world they remain as custodians of culture despite rising literacy rates.{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Carol |date=2018-01-01 |title=Comparing literate and oral cultures with a view to improving understanding of students from oral traditions: an autoethnographic approach |url=https://dc.ewu.edu/theses/482/ |journal=EWU Masters Thesis Collection}}

• Troubador - Occitan poet, until the 14th century
• Shadow play
• Rakugoka - Japanese performer of verbal comedy
• Bharatanatyam - Tamil traditional dance and literature
• Katha (storytelling format) - Indian religious storytelling

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last=Boileau |first=Gilles |date=2002 |title=Wu and Shaman |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |volume=65 |issue=2 |pages=350–378 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X02000149 |s2cid=27656590}}
• {{EI2 |last=Jacobi |first=Renate |article=Rāwī |volume=8 |pages=466–467}}
• {{cite book |title=Nobody's People: Hierarchy as Hope in a Society of Thieves |series=South Asia in Motion |year=2020 |publisher=Stanford University Press |place=California, USA |first=Anastasia |last=Piliavsky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=atQBEAAAQBAJ |isbn=978-1503614215 |lccn=2020025601 |oclc=1182020277 }}

Category:Oral tradition

Category:Oral literature