Page 88 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

oral history 1389

The record—history—exists only in the media, and the people
who make the media, make history. • James Monaco (b. 1954)

event or period of time, they provide historians with ditions have been passed from generation to generation
important primary source materials, often from several in nonliterate societies worldwide.Among the earliest his-
points of view. torians to explicitly rely on oral accounts was the ancient
Greek historianThucydides,who interviewed participants
Oral Accounts and in the PeloponnesianWars (460–404 BCE). Other exam-
Oral Traditions ples abound throughout history. For instance, Franciscan
Oral history, in that it focuses on eliciting information friars in sixteenth-century New Spain (Mexico) relied on
(oral accounts) from people who actually experienced or “the memories of the old men” to record the histories and
witnessed historical events, differs somewhat from the customs of the indigenous people in their native language
fields of folklore and ethnography (cultural studies), (Dibble and Anderson 1982, 10), and the French writer
which also collect verbal information from living persons. Voltaire (1694–1778) questioned lords and servants
All of these fields of study rely heavily on interviews, but alike in preparing his history of the French kings.
they pursue different goals. In general the folklorist seeks
to uncover folk traditions known throughout a group, Oral History:
and the ethnographer seeks to unravel the cultural pat- Methods and Goals
terns and organizational structure of a group. Both the As a systematic field of study, oral history is relatively
folklorist and the ethnographer attempt to interview a young. In the United States formal interest in oral history
representative sample of people to uncover general cul- dates from 1938 with a suggestion by the U.S. historian
tural patterns, although many ethnographers are also Allan Nevins to establish an organization to collect oral
fond of collecting biographies that embed a great deal of as well as written accounts of significant events from peo-
historical context.The folklorist and ethnographer there- ple who had participated in those events. The idea per-
fore focus on reconstructing oral traditions. Oral tradi- sisted and developed into the formation of the Oral
tions are verbal accounts of events from the more distant History Association in 1966. Oral history enterprises
past that have been handed down over generations and have gained popularity in Latin America since the 1960s
are shared by a group of people. Oral traditions tend to and in Europe since the 1970s and 1980s.
become modified during long time periods, often serving Oral historians emphasize the collection of verbal
to identify and legitimize a group. As one moves further information through interviews. Other oral sources, such
and further into the past, history often fuses with legends as scripted performances and the spontaneous recording
and myths in oral tradition and folkloric accounts. of unrehearsed events, may embed historical information
Nonetheless, the boundaries dividing these fields of study but are usually not used as major sources in a deliber-
are often blurry because cultural traditions often embed ately designed oral history study. The oral historian, in
intriguing information about a group’s actual past, and collecting oral accounts, has a particular research ques-
contemporary oral history accounts frequently reveal in- tion in mind and a set of questions to elicit meaningful
sights into a people’s culture. information about that question.
By necessity oral history focuses on the most recent
Early Uses of Oral generations whose memories can be tapped for their per-
History Accounts sonal experiences and involvement in the historical events
The incorporation of oral accounts into written histories or moments of interest to the historian. The field has
is undoubtedly as old as history itself. Indeed, oral evolved from its initial interest in prominent people to an
accounts would have predated the invention of writing as interest in everyday witnesses and participants, with eth-
the primary means by which events and ideals of the past nic and gender diversity of particular recent importance.
were captured for a group’s posterity. Oral transmission Sophisticated digital technologies of the twenty-first cen-
has also been the usual manner in which histories and tra- tury enable oral historians to accurately record interviews