Quote:
Originally Posted by creekster
This is interesting. I am reading Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale and he spends some time at the beginning analogizing between written history and DNA tranmission, while shunting oral histories by comparison due to thier inaccuracy. I found his point easy to accept, but I thought he had given very short shrift to the value and possible accuracy of oral histories. Socrates apparenly agreed as to the value of learning and transmitting knowledge orally.
|
I read in the facinating New Yorker article I've referenced about oral histories that these bards they've found in India and the Balkans, who can carry around in their heads and recite the entire text of Bible-length and longer works, lose their powers of memorization if they become literate.