Scholars have widely discussed and debated what is “oral tradition” and there are many contending theories and definitions. However, a good, working definition was provided by Francis Lee Utley in his work “Folk Literature: An Operational Definition”. According to him, oral tradition or folk literature is “orally transmitted literature whenever found, among primitive isolates or civilized marginal cultures, urban or rural societies, dominant or subordinate groups.” Dissecting the term itself: oral means verbal and unwritten, while tradition means transmission.

Oral tradition is important to society because, as stated by Damiana Eugenio, it is the “artistic expression of significant human experience through the medium of language”. The communication and transmission of culture, history and experiences between and among members of a society is the essence and purpose of oral tradition. In the Philippines as well as in other countries, oral tradition appears in different forms. According to Damiana Eugenio in her landmark book “Philippine Folk Literature”, oral tradition can be grouped under the following genres: myths, legends, folktales, epics, riddles, proverbs and songs. As explained by Dr. Fernando N. Zialcita in “Oral Literature”, each form performs various functions in a society or community. Myths are “sacred narratives that pertain to the remote past”. Legends explain “how things came to be and why things are what they are”, or they narrate heroic stories or feats. Folktales are “fictional, secular stories”, while epics are “narratives in verse of sustained length revolving around supernatural events or heroic deeds which embody the beliefs, customs and values of a people”. Riddles are “traditional verbal expression which contains one or more descriptive elements, a pair of which may be in opposition and the referent of the elements is to be guessed”; on the other hand, proverbs are “expression or combination of words conveying a truth by a figure, antitheses or hyperbole”. In whatever form it takes, oral tradition plays important roles in creating, transmitting, distributing, receiving and preserving a society’s way of life.

The characteristics of oral tradition are most evident when they are juxtaposed against those of the written word. In “The Oral and The Written: An Anthropological Approach”, Dr. Fernando N. Zialcita, contrasts oral tradition and the written word as follows: (a) oral “involves several senses simultaneously (oral, aural and visual)”, whereas written “uses only the visual”; (b) oral is “personal, face-to-face and involves community”, while written is generally “impersonal and a solitary experience”; (c) oral is “transmitted through people’s memories (limited spatially and temporally)”, while written is transferred through materials which are permanent and in physical form; (d) oral is “continuous with rhythm, prosody and enunciation”; on the other hand, written is “discontinuous with its discrete units within the language”.

While oral tradition is universally used by all cultures, it has since been eclipsed by the written word. Dr. Zialcita explains in “The Oral and the Written: An Anthropological Approach” that improvements in writing technology (paper and Gutenberg’s movable type), the spread and use of Arabic script and the Phoenician alphabet, increasing dependence on the written word, and primacy of literary and schooling made writing more pervasive and universally used than oral tradition. The characteristics of the written word made its use more ideal and apt in the industrial and information ages.

After centuries of dominance by the written word, oral tradition is returning into the everyday life of communities. While it is true that radio and television shows seemingly have characteristics of oral tradition (the verbal communication of information), these forms of media are generally impersonal and didactic and they do not have the personal and communal aspects of oral tradition. The recent rise of podcasting has made it possible for people and communities to resurrect oral tradition in its truest sense, but with the benefits of digitalization and advances in technology. Podcasting is oral tradition in the digital age – but on steroids.

Oral tradition is made even better by podcasting. Contrasted to traditional radio programs, podcasts are better characterized as conversations between a podcaster and his or her listeners. In general, podcasts are about specific topics and matters that appeal to narrow segments of society, which are normally not covered or discussed in popular mass media – what Chris Anderson describes as “The Long Tail”. There is, thus, a stronger sense of community and group affinity within these smaller communities. Because podcasts are in digital format, they are no longer restricted by impermanence and spatial and temporal limitations. Podcasts no longer just reside in memories of those who heard them, but they may also exist and reside on one’s computer hard drive, iPod, server, and on the Internet. The audience of a podcast is not limited to a particular group or a specific place. Podcats can be accessed by anyone in the world who is connected to the Internet – it has a global reach. Oral tradition, in the form of podcasts, now has the same permanence, portability and ease of mass-reproduction and distribution as that of the written word. With services like Podzinger, podcasts are searchable like written texts. Podcasting has such a low barrier for entry (both in terms of skills and technical requirements) that anyone can be a podcaster. There are thousands of podcasts available online right now and the number is growing exponentially every day.

Podcasts can be used in and have a significant impact on various areas like art, culture, education, language, politics, news gathering and dissemination, community-building and socio-economic development. For example, podcasting can be very useful in Philippine education. Class lectures in top schools in Manila can be made available online as podcasts so that these can be downloaded by students and teachers in other parts of the country. This is already being done in the United States by Apple Computer where lectures in UC Berkeley and Stanford University are made accessible as podcasts for download through Apple’s iTunes software. However, since Internet connectivity is a major problem in developing countries, an alternative would be to burn these podcasts onto CDs and distribute the CDs themselves to students or schools. Podcasts (whether subscribed to online or distributed in a physical medium like CDs) can even replace schoolbooks. Instead of reading Jose Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere”, William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” or other literary works, students can listen to audio versions of these works together in class (or privately in their homes). Initially, students and teachers might find it strange to listen to these literary works instead of reading them, but oral tradition has long been used for this purpose. This is just one of the many ways that podcasting can improve the way people live, learn, interact and relate with each other.

Podcasting, as oral tradition, is truly the “artistic expression of significant human experience through the medium of language”. Podcasting signals the rebirth of orality in society but in a postmodern, digital form. People are able to freely and intimately create, communicate and share stories, histories and culture with one another through speech. Podcasting is about giving voice to one’s way of life.

This was originally posted on 7 May 2006 at: http://lawnormscode.sync.ph/?p=17