English, asked by thrabavi0, 8 months ago

A story based on orature
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Answered by raotd
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Explanation:Many early anthropologists argued that all societies transition from hunter-gatherer, to nomadic herding, to agriculture, to the formation of large cities in the same way, and that the later stages were superior to the earlier ones. Anthropology has moved on from this idea; however, the idea that certain societies are superior to others is connected with other widespread ideas such as the myth of progress (new technologies are invariably better), Whig history (past societies are evolving towards democratic freedom), Social Darwinism (the fittest humans survive best, so the poor should be left to starve), and Scientific Racism (whites or Caucasians are at the top of an evolutionary ladder). These ideas purport to describe reality, but in fact, they are successful because they confirm the beliefs of those in power. At best they are ethnocentric and blinkered; at worst, they rationalize brutal oppression. These generalizations were frequently applied to languages and other modes of communication.

Example of the Mayan book, the Dresden Codex, written before contact with Europeans

Example of the Mayan book, the Dresden Codex, written before contact with Europeans. Page 9 adapted from the 1880 edition by Förstemann: Wikimedia Commons

Cultures without writing, or without the kind of writing familiar to Europeans, such as hieroglyphs, pictographs, or characters, were seen as backward, as at an earlier stage of civilization. (For more on some New World writing systems, see Mesolore). Similarly, oral narratives were seen as inferior to written literature.

Oral narratives are preserved in human memories, passed down from generation to generation. European thinkers saw epics, such as Homer’s Iliad or the Germanic Beowulf, that were sung before they were written down, as precursors to written literature. This distinction produced a binary between orality and literacy—what anthropologists called the “Great Divide,” a divide that is sometimes called a “relic of academic colonialism” (Jack Goody qtd. in Finnegan 270). This binary privileges literacy over orality and makes it easy to dismiss whole cultures.

The categorical division between orality and literacy supported the idea that oral traditions as suitable only for children, rather than a system for transmitting important philosophical and moral concepts. In fact, these traditions taught important social and cultural principles, such as the importance of hospitality and of respect for those weaker than oneself.

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