Module 1 Weblog #1

by Clare Roche

The Pathways Project

            I was looking for sites which deal with the importance of oral traditions in indigenous communities, when I came across this site which compares oral traditions (OT) with Internet technology (IT). This site reinforced an idea I had about using technology for languages which have never been written down. I was fascinated by the concept that “Because of their inherent dynamics, both OT and IT are always in flux; they remain open, emergent, and forever under construction rather than closed, determined, and complete.”(p.1)

            At first I found myself trying to read the information in my traditional linear style, but this site really encourages you to step away from the traditional and to wander around the site following whichever threads of the conversation interest you. I spent some time in the Museum of Verbal Art and from there I sidetracked to the Ideology of the Text.  I ended up a long way from my original search, but it was worth it.

http://www.pathwaysproject.org/pathways/show/HomePage

1 comment


1 Stuart Davidson { 09.21.09 at 7:19 pm }

Clare,

I found this site to very interesting considering some of the readings we have done in the first three weeks. This sections of text caught my attention:

“OTs can be performed by multiple people without fear of violating any laws governing exchange in what amounts to an open-source marketplace. Those rules may limit eligibility by gender, age, kinship, status, or calendar, for example, but no individual ever “authors” a tradition, any more than a single individual ever authors a language. Nor can any one person ever deliver the final, canonical, “best” performance until texts enter the picture and make such a dead-end concept of verbal art imaginable and feasible…”

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