JAN VANSINA ee ORAL TRADITION AS HISTORY 340220 Tue Universrry or Wisconsin Press LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND VIRGINIAPublished 1965 ‘The University of Wisconsin Press ‘114 North Murray Street Madison, Wisconsin 53715 Copyright © 1985 ‘The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin 5 All rights reserved ne First printing, Printed in the United States of America For LC CIP information see the colophon ISBN 0-299-10210-6 cloth; 0-299-102149 paper CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments CHAPTER ONE ORAL TRADITION AS PROCESS 1, Tue Generation or Massaces News Eyewitness (b) Hearsay (©) Visions, Dreams, and Hallucinations ) The Interpretation of Experience (3) Oral History Il. Dymamic Processes oF Orat TRapition (2) Memorized Speech Historical Gossip Personal Tradition Group Account Traditions of Origin and Genesis (©) Cumulative Accountsvi 8) Epic (4) Tales, Proverbs, and Sayings TL. Oran Trapizion as a Source or Hisroxy (1) Definition Oral Tradition as Evidence From Observation to Permanent Record (b) Evidence of What? CHAPTER TWo PERFORMANCE, TRADITION, AND TEXT L. Perrorwance @) Performing (2) Performers Il. Penrorwance ano Trapirion (2) Reproduction of Performances ) Frequency, Time, and Place >) The Intent of the Performance Remembering: Cueing and Scanning (d) Mnemotechnic Devices ariability Within a Tradition Poems and Their Kin Epic (©) Narrative ity, and Authorship HI. Recorpinc Travinions (2) Incidental and Accidental Mentions Contents 25 Contents IV, 1 IL (2) Systematic Research (@) The Recording Situation |» Testimony aNp Text (1) Verbal Testimony (2) Text CHAPTER THREE GETTING THE MESSAGE 68 Fors ann Content c ‘ 8) Genres Linguistic Form Internal Structure |. MEANING c ‘ Apparent Meaning, Intended Meaning (a) Metaphor and Metonym () Stereotype ILL. Tue Angs of tHE Message 1. CHAPTER FOUR THE MESSAGE IS A SOCIAL PRODUCT Tue Soctat Uses or Messaces (2) Messages as Tools (a) Functions vil 63 68 66 68 69 n 83 84 86 87 88 1 95 95 95 100 100Contents (b) Tradition as Weapon 102, Ieeok 103 405 107 Performers 108 The Usual Performing Situation 109 (b) ANovel Recording Situation 0 IL, Traprrion Mranors Soctery ae {Q) The Congruence of Traditions and Society ma (2) How Is Such Congruence Attained? 6 ) The Limits of Society and the Limits of Tradition ue (©) Significance us Repertory ng (3) Homeostasis 120 CHAPTER Five THE MESSAGE EXPRESSES CULTURE 124 Tue Sunstance oF Cutruse 124 (1) Basic Concepts as 125 a7 129 istorical Causality and Change 130 (2) Worldview 133 (a) Finding Worldviews 133 (b) Effects of Worldviews 136 Iaces anv Cuicués as Coutective Rerresentations 137 (2) Images 137 (2) Clichés 139 CHAPTER SIX TRADITION AS INFORMATION REMEMBERED 147 1. Tue Corpus as A Poot oF INFORMATION IL 1 (2) What Is the Corpus? (a) The Corpus Is Collective (b) Properties of the Corpus Information Flo Ina Single Societ Wandersagen Feedback (0) Capturing the Information Flows (3) The Interdependence of Traditions Tue Corrus as Rememperep over TiME ‘The Fallacy of Structuralism ‘Assumptions and Theory (©) Procedure of Analysis Structuring, Structuring of Narrative Accounts Effects of Structuring Cuxonorocy AND InFoRmatron RemeMmseReD (1) Measurement of Time (2) Memory Organizes Sequences, us 148 150 182 182 155 157 188 160 162 ws 174 176Contents (3) Sources for Dati ing: Lists and Genealogies CHAPTER SEVEN ORAL TRADITION ASSESSED 186 1. THe Liwrrarions oF On Ovtsipe Sources eee (GW) Chronology and Interdependence Selectivity and Interpretation (3) Degree of Limitations M1. Tue Uniqueness or Orat Trapition (2) Asa Source (2) As Inside Information MIL Conetusion Notes Bibliography Index 78 179 182 PREFACE (Daaku, p. 45) This Akan (Ghana) proverb puts it succinctly. The marvel of oral tradition, some will say its ct mns make an appearance only when they are joments they can be heard, but most of the nly in the minds of people. The utterance is ‘memories are not. No one in oral societies memories can be faithful repositories which contain the sum total of past human experience and explain the how and. ‘why of present day conditions. Tete are ne nne: “Ancient things are today” or “History repeats itself.” Whether memory changes for not, culture is reproduced by remembrance put into words and deeds, The mind through memory carries culture from gen- How it is possible for a mind to remember lex ideas, messages, and instruc- tions for living, which manifest continuity over time is one of atest wonders one can study, comparable only to human so great, it students lture, of ideology, of society, of psychology, of art, and, fi- nally, of history. Itis with this last aspect that we are concerned in this book. ‘Among the various kinds of historical sources tr cupy a special place. They are messages, but unwt ns oc- ten; their xi‘many ancient writing 1s in the Mediterr me “Ancient things are today.” re today.” Yes, oral traditions a - inet ofthe presen, because they ae tld inthe teen eg embody a message from the past, so they are expres, the past in the present. One canna see preenation of sions of the past at the same time. always be understox d as tins le breath, cting both past Tr and present in a examination of how the re tions can be evaluated, deals. ec In 1959 I wrot of drawing a book to answer this question in the hope is lacuna in the methodology of his. pearly gue to the characterises ince then many articles and some books h n devoted fo this and related questions sch Study of traditions as forms of art. The book needed to be Preface vii compass, to introduce the reader to the usual set of rules of his- torical evidence as they apply to oral traditions. These rules of evidence form a body, a apply some and neglect the others. They are a single whole. the notes I introduce the reader to the discussions pertaining to them. Given the scope of the project, this book should not be limited to any particular period or place. This should be all the more the case because I hold that all human thought and mem- ory operates in the same way everywhere and at all times. Some deny this and in discussing, “modes of thought” confuse inking with the process of thinking. As an in- ‘goal, this essay should also stress the wught among all humans, and hence place and time. And yet in practice most of 1a preponderance of African ex- ng from my own researches within For these last cases further book-length analyses are available and even the raw material of sources as taken down is accessible to the interested reader.* No harm is done in using one’s own experience or predominantly African cases as in most parts of the world and allow us to confidently state that we are dealing with general conditions. ‘A massive volume along the lines of this essay could show this, but within the compass of a study about method, conciseness isxiv Preface 4 crucial virtue and points made. should be illustrated rather than with a description of the TOK me to better define whats is can be becomes a record, a testimony or a textual criticism should be applied. icidation of its social context, and its meant by this expr discussion of how a trat text to which the rules of te From there I can turn to elu may look, is not the only plan of the earlier book. the reader wi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ‘Anyone writing about oral tradition as a process rooted in a col- lectivity becomes aware of the degree to which she or he is im- mersed in the flow n of historiography and scholar- his wide river, eddies can be found: tudents, and writers one has never seen traditions or friends. And they are not less wi professional scholars are. Then there are the ins house research and feed researchers: the museur and university departments. Even if one could disentangle everyone's share? Here and Il recognize debts and influences in this tional readers—if they exist—will see what port. first is Prof. J. Desmet, quondam mentor. This distinguished me- dievalist certainly must have found me an unruly student. Later he saw himself saddled with me plus the topic. He performed into this project. The institution is the now defunct Institut pour