In his book, If This is Your Land Then Where are Your Stories? Edward Chamberlin explains that it is a misconception that there are such distinctions as “oral Cultures” and “written cultures”. Chamberlin states that, “all so-called oral cultures are rich in forms of writing, albeit non-syllabic and non-alphabetic ones” going on to say that “’written cultures’ . . . are in fact arenas of strictly defined and highly formalized oral traditions” (Chamberlin, ch. 1). So what does this say about the relationship between these two forms of narrative?
If we break down language to its basic form: sign, signifier and signified, we can further understand the root of Chamberlin’s argument. Acknowledging here that signifier means the form a sign takes, and signified is the meaning we deride from said form, we can see that the very basic concepts of language are so fundamentally linked to our personal understanding of the world around us. Now, the study of semiotics, while fascinating, can get convoluted and isn’t really the point of this blog. If you would like to gain a deeper understanding of this subject, Semiotics For Beginners is a great place to start.
The reason I’m bringing it up is because this concept is integral to what Chamberlin is trying to say. As I was reading, specifically the passage I mentioned above, the first thing that came to mind was the saying; “When is a sheep not a sheep? When it’s an art piece.” We have tried for so long to fit the complexities of language into a neat understandable container. It’s a difficult thing to do when we don’t even know how humans began to communicate with each other in the first place.
We are dependent on our understandings of the signs around us to create the concepts of our world, and yes those meanings are often culturally formed. Much like in the example Chamberlin provides for us, there is great meaning for Mary Johnson in her ada’ox, while to Judge McEachern it seemed nonsensical. Chamberlin concludes here that this outcome is obvious, because Judge McEachern had no context to what the ada’ox meant. Now does this excuse the Judge’s extreme dismissal of the Gitksan people, obviously not, but Chamberlin does caution against those who assume they could relate to Mary Johnson’s ada’ox without any cultural context. Chamberlin states that, “it is an assumption that understanding sophisticated oral traditions comes naturally to the sympathetic ear. It doesn’t. Just as we learn to read, so we learn how to listen” (Chamberlin ch. 1) once more showing us that language and meaning cannot be divergent.
It is important to understand that at the heart of communication is connection. We communicate to connect with each other and the world around us, and the way we communicate is constantly evolving. At the crux of it, the dismissal of the validity of oral traditions and cultures from Western cultures is from a lack of wanting to make those connections. They didn’t want to communicate because then it becomes harder to “other” another culture and another person, and as Courtney MacNiel points out in her article, “Orality”, “it is worth remembering that to this day, the majority of the world’s inhabitants use orality as their primary communicative medium, and the “global village” of modern media is in fact not as “global” as the lens of Occidentalism might lead us to believe”. It is easy to forget the oral traditions that lie at the heart of many global west cultures, because the primary narrative has been constructed through the written word.
Thankfully, the advances in technology and the changes in the way we communicate have enabled us to expand our personal cultural understandings. Projects that have worked to create digital archives of oral narratives, are a step towards bridging knowledge, but, as Erin Hanson cautions in their article, “Oral Traditions”, without proper context and understanding meaning can still be lost.
Acknowledging that oral narratives and traditions carry the same significance and meaning as written ones, is the first step in broadening our personal understandings. From there, it will take work build a truer connection, and change our perception of the sheep into an art piece.
Works Cited
Chamberlin, Edward. If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground. AA.
Knopf. Toronto. 2003. Print.
MacNiel, Courtney, “Orality.” The Chicago School of Media Theory. Uchicagoedublogs. 2007. Web.
19 Feb. 2013.http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/orality/
Hanson, Erin. “Oral Traditions.” Indigenousfoundations, indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/oral_traditions/.