Table Of ContentORAL TRADITION
A Study· in
Historical Methodolo9y
by
JAN VANSINA
translated by
H. M. WRIGHT
ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL
LONDON
First published 1961 as
DE LA TRADITION ORALE
B.!ISAI DE METHODE HISTORlQ.UE
in 'Annales du Musee Royal de l' Afrique Centrale,
Sciences humaines, No. 36'
©Jan Vansina 1961
This translation first published 1965
by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
Broadway House, 68·74 Carter Lane
London, E.C.4
Reprinted 1969
Translation copyright Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd 1965
Printed in Great Britain by Compton Printing Ltd
London and Aylesbury
.No part of this book may he reproduced
in any form without permission from
the publisher, except for the quotation
of brief passages in criticism
SBN 1700 2234 4
Contents
PREFACE pagex
I. ORAL TRADITION AND HISTORICAL
METHODOLOGY
I
I. AIMS AND PLAN OF THE WORK I
2. THE RELATION OF ORAL TRADITION TO
WRITTEN HISTORY 2
3· THE TREATMENT OF ORAL TRADITION IN
ETHNOLOGICAL LITERATURE 8
II. TRADITION AS A CHAIN OF TESTIMONIES 19
I. DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS 19
I. Definition I 9
2. Characteristics 20
2. THE VERBAL TESTIMONY OF THE CHAIN OF
TRANSMISSION 21
I. The verbal testimony 22
2. The verbal testimony and the chain of transmission 24
3. The text and variant versions of a testimony 26
4. The manner of testifying 27
(a) The group testimony 28
( b) Dispute between informants
(c) Interrogation of informants
5. Summary
1
3· THE METHOD OF TRANSMISSION IN ORAL TRADITION 3 I
1. Instruction 3 I
2. Control over recital of traditions 33
3. Esoteric traditions 34
4. Mnemonic devices 36
5. Summary 39
v
CONTENTS
4• DISTORTIONS DUE TO TRANSMISSION pagl 40
1. Failure of Memory 40
(a) The method of transmission 41
(b) Control over recital 41
(c) Frequency of repetition 43
(d ) How to evaluate the effects of failure of memory 43
2. Explanatory interpolations 44
3. Summary 45
Ill. UNDERSTANDING THE TESTIMONY 47
I. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF A TESTIMONY 47
1. Intentional and unintentional testimonies 48
2. Significance 49
3. Structure and literary categories 51
4. Method of transmission 52
5. The manner of testifying 52
6. Other criteria of classification 53
7. Summary 54
2. THE' STRUCTURE OF THE TESTIMONY 54
1. The outward formal structure 54
(a) Formal /actors ojfecting the testimony 55
(b) Formal factors affecting transmission 56
2. The internal structure 57
3. The light thrown on the testimony by its structure 63
4. Summary 65
3• THE MEANING OF THE TESTIMONY 65
I. The literal meaning of a testimony 65
2. The purport of a testimony 67
(a) Literary categories 67
( b) Symbolism and poetic allusions 69
(c ) Stereotypes 72
3. Summary 75
IV. THE TESTIMONY AS A MIRAGE OF
76
REALITY
I. THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF A TESTIMONY 77
1. The testimonies of the chain 8o
(a) Purpose • 80
V1
CONTENTS
( b) Significance page 84
2. The initial testimony 87
3. The final testimony
91
(a) The ieformant and his fellow countrymen 91
( b) The ieformant and the investigator 92
4. Summary
95
2. CULTURAL VALUES AND THE TESTIMONY 95
1. Cultural v:alues and the initial informant 97
2. Cultural concepts concerning history 99
(a) The measurement of time 100
(b ) The idea of historical truth 102
(c) Historical development 104
3. Idealization of the past 106
4. Summary 108
3· THE PERSONALITY OF THE INFORMANT AND THE
TESTIMONY 108
Summary 111
V. THE EVALUATION OF TESTIMONIES 114
I. THE ORIGIN OF TESTIMONIES J14
1. The initial testimony 115
2. Hearsay testimonies 118
3. Summary 120
2. COMPARISON OF TESTIMONIES 120
1. Textual comparison 121
(a) Fixed texts 121
( b) Free texts 126
2. Comparison of the circumstances of transmissio~ 129
(a) The informant 129
( b) The locality of transmission 133
(c ) The type of testimony 134
3. Results obtained by the comparative method 137
4. Summary
139
VI. HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE
I. TYPES OF TRADITIONS AND THEIR CHARACTERIS•
..
TICS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES
Vll
CONTENTS
1. The typology page 143
2. Formulae 143
(a) Titles 145
(b) Slogans I45
(c ) Didactic formulae 146
(d ) Ritual formulae 146
3. Poetry 147
(a) Historical poetry 148
( b) Panegyric poetry 149
(c ) Religious poetry 150
(d ) Personal poetry I5I
4. Lists 151
(a) Place-names 152
( h) Personal names I53
5. Tales 154
(a) Tales concerning general history 155
(h) Tales concerning local history 155
(c ) Tales concerning family history 156
(d) Myths 157
(e) Aetiological myths 158
(f) Tales of artistic merit 159
(g) Personal recollections 16o
6. Commentaries 160
(a) Legal precedents 161
(b ) Explanatory commentaries 161
(c ) Occasional comments 163
7. Summary I64
2. HOW TRADITIONS ARE BIASED I64
I. Types of tradition and political organization, as
exemplified by Rwanda and Burundi I66
2. The limitations of oral tradition I 70
3• ·THE CONTRIBUTION OF AUXILIARY DISCIPLINES I 73
1. Archaeology I74
2. The methods of cultural history I76
3. Linguistics 180
4. Physical anthropology 181
5. Summary 182
viii
CONTENTS
VII. THE INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY page 183
APPENDIX:
IN SEARCH OF ORAL TRADITIONS 187
I. Getting to know the environment 188
2. The search for informants 190
3. The systematic collection of sources 194
4. How to record one,s sources 198
5. Summary 202
NOTES 205
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED 216
INDEX 223
IX
Preface
Verba volent, scripta manent, says the proverb; but it is given
the lie by those peoples the world over whose behaviour and
institutions prove that the word is not quite so transitory as
might be supposed. It is enough to have witnessed the guardians
of oral traditions solemnly reciting the texts stored in their
memory to be convinced of this. The listeners, motionless and
intent, follow every word that is spoken, and there can be no
doubt that to them these words bring the past back to life, for
they are venerable words that provide the key to the storehouse
of wisdom of the ancestors who worked, loved, and suffered in
times gone by. There can be no doubt that to them oral tradi
tions are a source of knowledge about the past.
Among the various kinds of historical sources, traditions
occupy a special place. Yet little has been done towards
analys~
ing their special features as historical documents. This is all the
more astonishing in view of the fact that they are constantly
being used as source material, for not only are traditions
the most important sources for the history of peoples without
writing, but they are known to be the basis of many written
sources too, especially those of classical antiquity and of the
early Middle Ages.
This study hopes to draw attention to this lacuna in the
theoretical analysis of historical sources and to remedy it by
examining the value of oral traditions as a historical source. By
oral traditions, I mean all oral testimonies concerning the past
which are transmitted from one person to another. It is of
course impossible, with the limited amount of information so
far at our disposal, to deal exhaustively in this one book with a
subject so vast and so unexplored, and all I can attempt to do is
to point out the problems involved. This book is therefore no
morethananintroduction. Butitw. illhave fulfilleditspurpose ifit
XI
PREFACE
leads to further studies, whether they be of a theoretical nature,
or whether they treat oral sources in a properlyscientificmanner.
Since my treatment of the subject lies in the field of theory,
I could not a priori limit my field of investigations to any parti
cular time or place, but in practice most of the traditions on
which this study is based come from present-day preMliterate
peoples. This is because there is sufficient information about
some of these sources to enable the historian to estimate their
value as historical evidence, which is far from being the case with
traditions which have reached us by means of written records
made in the distant past. In spite of my efforts to give as wide a
field of reference as possible, the reader will notice that it is
mainly African traditions I have made ust: of, the reason for this
being that I am better acquainted with the literature on Africa
than with any other. The sources I have chiefly relied upon are
those which I myself collected in Belgian colonial territory,
among the Kuba of the Kasai (Congo) and in Rwanda and
Burundi. This was unavoidable, because the literature on oral
traditions does not contain the kind of information required for
dealing with the problems that are raised in this study. This
attempt to evaluate oral traditions as a historical source de
veloped out of the fieldwork I carried out among the Kuba
from 1953 to 1956, and in Ruanda-Urundi from 1957 to 1960,
so that the material collected there has naturally influenced the
way in which my theories have been arrived at.
I am very well aware that the approach to the subject which
I have chosen is not the only one possible, and that the plan of
arrangement which I have adopted is not the only one that
could have been followed. Since almost all the 1' oblems dealt
with raise a whole host of other problems, a large number of
other possible plans of arrangement suggested themselves; but
after trying out several of them, I decided that the one I have
chosen was best suited for a clear exposition of the subject. I
have had to leave out numerous examples which were to have
illustrated various points in my argument, for fear of over
loading this book, but I hope to publish, within the next two
years or so, a history of the Kuba, a history of Burundi, and a
book on the problems of Rwanda history, which will form com
plementary volumes to this one.
XU
