The social aspects of transliteracy can enhance the workplace by creating robust systems of knowledge sharing and can enhance user experience by granting them a role in the construction of information. The first is the mastery phase (1960s to the mid-1980s), with an emphasis on gaining knowledge and skill on how to master the computer and different programming languages. Other familiar works with deep roots in oral tradition include the Judeo-Christian Bible, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, and the medieval English Beowulf. nificant stage in the conceptual study of oral tradition, and especially of its relation to other traditions of communication and signification. On one side were writers like McLuhan (1964) and Ong (1982 and earlier) who not only strongly contrasted literacy and orality but often envisaged human history as a series of major changesfrom orality, to writing, to print. Literacy and Society: 18. Informatics, one of its more recent offshoots, leaves deep imprints in actual everyday life. /Type /Annot This resonated with evolutionary and romantic notions, carrying connotations of orality as primeval, emotional, and homogeneous, characterized by unchanging and communal tradition rather than individual creativity, as against the rationality, individualism, science, urbanism, modernity, and economic development associated with literacy. /Rotate 0 These fundamental cultural developments in Europe lead to a revolution in learning, which in turn lead to revolution in politics with the birth of modern democracy. The origins of Western literacy: literacy in Ancient Greece and Rome Rosalind Thomas 20. WebOralityis thoughtand verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy(especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population. Notwithstanding their tremendous diversity, oral traditions share certain characteristics across time and space. Whoever Homer was, whether a legend or an actual individual, the poems attributed to him ultimately derive from an ancient and long-standing oral tradition. /XObject << In terms of cultural and linguistic diversity, however, UNESCO has also long For additional information on forms and functions of oral tradition, see folk literature. At the same time, alphabetic script was and is a most powerful metaphor in Western thinking, leaving its traces, e.g., in molecular biology. The scale corresponds to a series of ever more complex and demanding textual genres. Computing as apparatus, for example, is understood as the meeting of Aristotle's truth tables and Leibniz's binary numbers in Tesla's logic gate. /A 50 0 R Aenean eu leo quam. Webferences can be recognized in communication styles, literary genres, advertising, and electronic communication today. Lamont Lindstrom, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015. endobj While Confucian and neo-Confucian educational principles did stress individual development as self cultivation, the emphasis of formal schooling, especially in later neo-Confucian institutions, focused more on situating the individual within the hierarchical structure of society than on actually developing the potential of individuals (Kalton, 1977, pp. WebThe subject of this book is the differences between orality and literacy. While mediality is trivial, the conceptual aspect is best conceived of as a continuum, thus blurring any clearcut distinction between orality and scripturality. Cultural The modern movable type printing press was first invented in Europe around 1450 by the German printer Johannes Gutenberg. These skills, competencies and mental models are both reflected in and shaped by information organisation tools. /Type /Annot A scene-setting chapter that situates Ongs work within the historical and disciplinary context of post-war Americanism and the rise of communication and media studies; A closing chapter that follows up Ongs work on orality and literacy in relation to evolving media forms, with a discussion of recent criticisms of Ongs approach, and an assessment of his concept of the evolution of consciousness; Extensive references to recent scholarship on orality, literacy and the study of knowledge technologies, tracing changes in how we know what we know. Postman, N. (1992). endobj >> The mystery of the archaic Homeric poemssimply put, Who was Homer and what relation did he have to the surviving texts?was solved by modern comparative investigation. For example, after thinking through a solution to a problem there is no way to leave a permanent solution for others to see, therefore communication of information in a memorable way is vital if the solution is not to be lost. Websites, wikis and blogs now coexist with older information groupings that have been reformatted for the Web, such as books and academic journals. Prophetic messages of all sorts, in fact, are not unusual in Melanesia. Far more than just talking, oral tradition refers to a dynamic and highly diverse oral-aural medium for evolving, storing, and transmitting knowledge, art, and ideas. /Length 865 22 0 obj /StructParent 1 >> /Parent 2 0 R Knowledge is also a performance, a social act. Electracy is to digital technology what literacy is to alphabetic writing. In terms of the evolution of computer/ICT literacy, there is an awareness of the need for more critical, evaluative, and reflective approaches to using technology. They wanted to know if certain ideas or activities were good or bad. >> The characteristics of thought in an oral society are described as being additive, aggregative, redundant, conservative, agonistically toned, empathetic, participatory, situational, and close to the human lifeworld. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. Humans reached their present state of biological evolution around 40,000 years ago (Diamond, 1992, p. 47). done even without writing. 6 0 obj Orality and Literacy Orality, literacy and the great divide in cultural values /TrimBox [0 0 612 792] ]xdxs}u 8%svZmm CigNXKKmg=q~OfJ#^ ?k=T(/{?\nv{MY,WTFr. Women in a host of South Asian cultures employ oral traditions to explore the ambiguities of gender, ideology, and identity within their complex communities. COMM 10: Module 1, Activity 1 Successful students became a master of arts by around sixteen or seventeen, and then continued to study medicine, law, or theology for four more years (Ong, 2004/1958, pp. endobj The development of writing opened the door to a new intellectual practice called philosophy, the art of critical thinking. << Members of a literate society have thought processes that rely on the technology of writing and tend to be analytic and dissecting, rather than the aggregate and harmonizing tendencies of thought by members of an oral society (Ong, 1982). of English and the language arts at all levels of education. endobj Orality Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. 17.6: References - Social Sci LibreTexts They use special languages and performance arenas while employing flexible patterns and structures that aid composition, retention, and reperformance.