Page 128 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

Introduction 103

information in societies where the oral tradition is the functional
channel of communication on a large scale.
Two attributes are characteristic of those straightforward discursive
performances. First, they are subject to ‘constant adjustment; myths
from earlier periods are recast in conformity with the social assump-
tions of later periods’. Second, the question is not of validating them
through ascertaining their historical authenticity; it is conversely to
probe the reasons for their acceptance as grounds for social validation
of beliefs, rituals, values, norms and particular historical actions.

In a historical tradition the themes of myths act as factors of
continuity.... Myths made the past intelligible and meaningful, but it
was intelligibility and meaningfulness which related to the present,
for the continuity of myth is largely with reference to the present ...
As validating charters myths have a close connection with social
organization, not only representing as they do, the assumptions about
the past but also underpinning the social relations of the present.
(Thapar 1984: 296–97)

The chapters in this section display a variety of discursive collective
memories—narratives, poems and melodies—maintained as commu-
nicational foundation for communities in search of cohesion, identity
and ground for conflictual strategies. They demonstrate how an oral
heritage can be reactivated under the challenge of defiant forces and
prove to be a powerful symbolic asset for assertion and dissent. They
try to answer queries about the extent and modes of this power of oral-
ity, a secret inherited from traditional cohesive societies: How were
people’s narratives, poetry and melodies heard and transmitted, and
to what extent can they circulate again? How do they piece groups or
communities together?

Terrains of Rejuvenation

Depending on the actors and contexts, the discursive dimension may
be carried by narratives or songs. The first three contributions address
more particularly the following questions: How does one listen to nar-
ratives or songs and make sense of them? What would be the ways
of a fair ‘reading’ doing justice to the myths and songs themselves?