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Orality

An oral community in Takéo , Cambodia , confronts writing . Modern scholarship has shown that orality is a complex and tenacious social phenomenon . Orality is thought and verba...

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An oral community in Takéo, Cambodia, confronts writing. Modern scholarship has shown that orality is a complex and tenacious social phenomenon.

Orality is thought and verbal expression in societies, distinct from the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print). The study of orality is closely allied to the study of oral tradition.

The term "orality" has been used in a variety of ways, often to describe, in a generalised fashion, the structures of consciousness found in cultures that do not employ, or employ minimally, the technologies of writing.

Walter J. Ong's work was foundational for the study of orality, and exemplifies the fact that despite the striking success and subsequent power of written language, the vast majority of languages are never written, and the basic orality of language is permanent.[1]

In his later publications Ong distinguishes between two forms of orality: 'primary orality' and 'secondary orality'. Primary orality refers to thought and expression un-touched by the culture of writing of print; secondary orality is explained by Ong as oral culture defined (implicitly influenced) by the written and printed word, and includes oral culture made possible by technology such as a newscaster reading a news report on television.

In addition, 'residual orality' is also defined – it is the remnants, legacy, or influence of a predominantly oral culture carried over into the written realm – an example might include the use of dialogue as a philosophical or didactic tool in written literature, such as used by the Greek thinker Plato.

Origins of philosophy and definition

Impact of literacy on culture

Antes de que la escritura se convirtiera en una forma de comunicación para muchas culturas , ya existía la oralidad. Desafortunadamente, gran parte de la oralidad conservada se ha perdido o ha cambiado drásticamente. Aquellas que se han podido preservar nos brindan información sobre culturas pasadas y la magnitud de los cambios sociales a lo largo de la historia. [ 2 ] En Oralidad y alfabetización (2.ª ed. Ong 2002 ), Ong resume su propio trabajo de las tres décadas anteriores, así como el de numerosos otros académicos. Con respecto a la tradición oral y la oralidad primaria, se basa en el trabajo pionero de Milman Parry , Albert B. Lord y Eric A. Havelock . Marshall McLuhan fue uno de los primeros en apreciar plenamente la importancia del trabajo anterior de Ong sobre la cultura impresa y la palabra escrita e impresa como tecnología . En su obra La galaxia de Gutenberg (McLuhan, 1962) , McLuhan cita y analiza trabajos de Ong de la década de 1950 sobre la cultura impresa. [ 3 ]

Oralidad primaria

La «oralidad primaria» se refiere al pensamiento y su expresión verbal dentro de culturas «totalmente ajenas a cualquier conocimiento de la escritura o la imprenta ». [ 4 ] Ong sostiene que la inmediatez del sonido y la longevidad de la escritura corresponden a las formas intrínsecamente diferentes en que funcionan las sociedades y las personas orales y letradas. [ 5 ]

En sus estudios sobre la cuestión homérica , Milman Parry pudo demostrar que la métrica poética presente en la Ilíada y la Odisea había sido «empaquetada» por la sociedad oral griega para satisfacer sus necesidades de gestión de la información. Estas ideas abrieron la puerta a una mayor apreciación de la sofisticación de las tradiciones orales y sus diversos métodos de gestión de la información. [ 6 ] Posteriormente, Frances Yates documentó exhaustivamente las herramientas mnemotécnicas antiguas y medievales en su libro El arte de la memoria ( Yates 1966 ) .

Oralidad residual

Sócrates, en el Fedro de Platón , citando la profecía de Amón (Thamus)  : «[La escritura] producirá olvido en la mente de quienes aprendan a usarla, porque no ejercitarán su memoria. [...] Has inventado un elixir no de la memoria, sino del recuerdo; y ofreces a tus alumnos la apariencia de sabiduría, no la verdadera sabiduría.» (trad. H. N. Fowler; línea 275).

‘Residual orality’ refers to thought and its verbal expression in cultures that have been exposed to writing and print, but have not fully ‘interiorized’ (in McLuhan's term) the use of these technologies in their daily lives. As a culture interiorizes the technologies of literacy, the ‘oral residue’ diminishes.

Importance of the concept

It has been a habit of literate cultures to view oral cultures simply in terms of their lack of the technologies of writing. This habit, argues Ong, is dangerously misled. Oral cultures are living cultures in their own right. While literacy extends human possibilities in both thought and action, all literate technologies ultimately depend on the ability of humans to learn oral languages and then translate sound into symbolic imagery.

Theory of the characteristics of oral culture

Drawing on hundreds of studies from anthropology, linguistics and the study of oral tradition, Ong summarizes ten key aspects of the 'psychodynamics of orality', including the following. These are subject to continuing debate.

  • Formulaic styling: Information is expressed through common and repeated structures, for ease of memorization.
  • Additive rather than subordinative: Oral cultures tend to avoid complex clause structures in sentences, rather opting for simpler and more sequential ones.
  • Aggregative rather than analytic: Oral expression is characterized by habitual stock phrases which are used unaltered.
  • Redundant or 'copious': A speaker may repeat concepts for emphasis and reconsideration throughout a story or discussion.
  • Conservative or traditionalist: Because oral societies have no effective access to writing and print technologies, they must invest considerable energy in basic information management. To qualify for storage, information must usually concern matters of immediate practical concern, or familiarity to most members of the society.
  • Situational rather than abstract: Concepts are used in a way that minimizes abstraction, focusing to the greatest extent possible on objects and situations directly known by the speaker.

See also

References

  1. ↑Cronin, Crosson & Eastlake 2009, p. 5.
  2. ↑Couch, Carl J. Information Technologies and Social Orders. Transaction Publishers, 2017.
  3. ↑McLuhan 1962, pp. 104, 129, 146, 159–60, 162–63, 168, 174–76.
  4. ↑Ong 2002, p. 11.
  5. ↑Ong 2002, p. 32.
  6. ↑Parry, Adam, ed. (1971), The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 272

Sources

  • Cronin, Nessa; Crosson, Seán; Eastlake, John, eds. (2009). Anáil an Bhéil Bheo: Orality and Modern Irish Culture. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Goody, Jack; Watt, Ian (1968). Goody, Jack (ed.). "The Consequences of Literacy". Literacy in Traditional Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Jousse, Marcel (1978). "Le Parlant, la parole, et le souffle". L'Anthropologie du Geste. 3. Gallimard, Paris: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.
  • McLuhan, Marshal (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
  • Ong, Walter J. (2002) [1982]. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
  • Yates, Frances A. (1966). The Art of Memory. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Further reading

  • Goody, Jack (1987). The Interface Between the Written and the Oral. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Havelock, Eric A. (1986). The Muse Learns to Write: Reflections on Orality and Literacy from Antiquity to the Present. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Innis, Harold A. (1951). The Bias of Communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802060273.{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  • Martin, Henri-Jean (1994). The History and Power of Writing. Translated by Cochrane, Lydia G. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-50835-8.
  • Misztal, Barbara (2003). Theories of Social Remembering. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
  • Ong, Walter J. (1967). The Presence of the Word. New Haven: Yale University Press..