Hello all<\/p>\n
In this post I will be addressing question one, from assignment 1:2.<\/p>\n
In Courtney MacNeil\u2019s\u00a0 article on orality, the author challenges an academic viewpoint which puts oral cultures and literary cultures at odds with one another. According to MacNeil, placing these traditions within a rigid binary suggests that oral culture is inferior, and plays into an ideology of \u201cWestern egocentrism.\u201d In this way, the idea that oral culture is somehow more primitive than literate culture connects to a broader bias against non-Westernized societies.<\/p>\n
Likewise, J Edward Chamberlain addresses this binary analysis, stating that \u201cThis kind of thinking\u2014 if we can call it that\u2014encourages people to treat other societies with a blend of condescension and contempt while celebrating the sophistication of their own.\u201d(n. pag.) For both writers, creating a definitive distinction between oral and written cultures is symptomatic of a greater malignant thought process.<\/p>\n
The binary analysis not only enforces ethnocentric ideologies, but also misses the mark entirely. Chamberlain identifies so-called oral cultures as being rich in \u201cnon-syllabic\u201d and \u201cnon-alphabetical\u201d literacy. Instead, culturally specific objects<\/a> make up a form of literacy. According to Chamberlain, the cultures which we identify as \u201coral\u201d actually use an alternative literacy for the exact same function as our own \u201cliterate\u201d cultures. Likewise, Chamberlain identifies the many institutions of literate culture (courts, schools, etc) as depending greatly on oral communication.<\/p>\n MacNeil further expands on the problems of dichotomizing oral and literate cultures by exploring the fluid nature of our own forms of communication, due to the technological advancements of recent years. Our so-called \u201cliterate culture,\u201d through participating in text messaging, twitter, snapchat, etc. is actually engaging in communication which is just as temporary as that of so called \u201coral cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n