Oral Tradition as History

273 Pages·1985·8.13 MB·English

by  Jan M. Vansina

ORAL TRADITION AS HISTORY

JAN VANSINA
ORAL
TRADITION
AS
HISTORY
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS
The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
www.wisc.edu\wisconsinpress
Copyright © 1985
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
5 7 9 8 6
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Vansina. Jan.
Oral tradition as history.
Bibliography: pp. 229-245
Includes index.
1. Oral tradition. 2. History-Methodology.
3. Oral tradition-Africa. 4. Africa-History-Methodology.
I. Title.
016. V2784 1985 960 84-40504
ISBN 0-299-10210-6
ISBN 0-299-10214-9 (pbk.)
CONTENTS
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
CHAPTER ONE
ORAL TRADITION AS PROCESS 3
I. THE GENERATION OF MESSAGES 3
(1) News 3
(a) Eyewitness 4
(b) Hearsay 6
(c) Visions, Dreams, and Hallucinations 7
(2) The Interpretation of Experience 7
(a) Reminiscence 8
(b) Commentaries 10
(c) Verbal Art 11
(3) Oral History 12
II. DYNAMIC PROCESSES OF ORAL TRADITION 13
(1) Memorized Speech 14
(2) Accounts 17
(a) Historical Gossip 17
(b) Personal Tradition 18
(c) Group Account 19
(d) Traditions of Origin and Genesis 21
(e) Cumulative Accounts 24
v
vi Contents
(3) Epic 25
(4) Tales, Proverbs, and Sayings 25
III. ORAL TRADITION AS A SOURCE OF HISTORY 27
(1) Definition 27
(2) Oral Tradition as Evidence 29
(a) From Observation to Permanent Record 29
(b) Evidence of What? 31
CHAPTER TWO
PERFORMANCE, TRADITION, AND TEXT 33
I. PERFORMANCE 34
(1) Performing 34
(2) Performers 36
II. PERFORMANCE AND TRADITION 39
(1) Reproduction of Performances 39
(a) Frequency, Time, and Place 39
(b) The Intent of the Performance 41
(c) Remembering: Cueing and Scanning 42
(d) Mnemotechnic Devices 44
(0 Objects 44
(ii) Landscapes 45
(iii) Music 46
(e) Learning 47
(2) Variability Within a Tradition 48
(a) Poems and Their Kin 48
(b) Epic 51
(c) Narrative 53
(3) Authenticity, Antiquity, and Authorship 54
III. RECORDING TRADITIONS 56
(1) Incidental and Accidental Mentions 57
Contents vii
(2) Systematic Research 58
(3) The Recording Situation 59
IV. TESTIMONY AND TEXT 63
(1) Verbal Testimony 63
(2) Text 66
CHAPTER THREE
GETTING THE MESSAGE 68
I. FORM AND CONTENT 68
(1) Linguistic Form 69
(2) Internal Structure 71
(3) Genres 79
II. MEANING 83
(1) Apparent Meaning 84
(2) Intended Meaning 86
(a) Metaphor and Metonym 87
(b) Stereotype 88
III. THE AIMS OF THE MESSAGE 91
CHAPTER FOUR
THE MESSAGE IS A SOCIAL PRODUCT 94
I. THE SOCIAL USES OF MESSAGES 95
(1) The Institutional Framework 95
(a) Performance and Institution 95
(b) Social Control of Information 96
(c) Official and Private Traditions 98
(2) Messages as Tools 100
(a) Functions 100
viii Contents
(b) Tradition as Weapon 102
(c) Ideological Uses 103
(d) Idealization 105
(e) Whose Past is History? 107
(3) Performers 108
(a) The Usual Performing Situation 109
(b) A Novel Recording Situation 110
II. TRADITION MIRRORS SOCIETY 114
(1) The Congruence of Traditions and Society 114
(2) How Is Such Congruence Attained? 116
(a) The Limits of Society and the Limits of
Tradition 116
(b) Significance 118
(c) Repertory 119
(3) Homeostasis 120
CHAPTER FIVE
THE MESSAGE EXPRESSES CULTURE 124
I. THE SUBSTANCE OF CULTURE 124
(1) Basic Concepts 125
(a) Space 125
(b) Time 127
(c) Historical Truth 129
(d) Historical Causality and Change 130
(2) Worldview 133
(a) Finding Worldviews 133
(b) Effects of Worldviews 136
II. IMAGES AND CLICHES AS COLLECTIVE
REPRESENTATIONS 137
(1) Images 137
(2) Cliches 139
(3) Interpreting Cliches: The Mbegha Case 140
(4) The Validity of Interpretations and Implicit
Meaning 142
CHAPTER SIX
TRADITION AS INFORMATION
REMEMBERED 147
I. THE CORPUS AS A POOL OF INFORMATION 148
(1) What Is the Corpus? 148
(a) The Corpus Is Collective 148
(b) Properties of the Corpus 150
(2) Information Flows 152
(a) In a Single Society 152
(b) In Several Societies 154
(i) Wandersagen 155
(ii) Feedback 156
(c) Capturing the Information Flows 157
(3) The Interdependence of Traditions 158
II. THE CORPUS AS REMEMBERED OVER TIME 160
(1) The Fallacy of Structuralism 162
(a) Assumptions and Theory 162
(b) Procedure of Analysis 163
(2) Structuring 165
(3) Structuring of Narrative Accounts 167
(4) Effects of Structuring 172
III. CHRONOLOGY AND INFORMATION
REMEMBERED 173
(1) Measurement of Time 174
(2) Memory Organizes Sequences 176