Oral cultures offer a way out of the seclusion-versus-dilution binary

Evidence

Nations could have only one linguistic or cultural futureeither this seclusion within a restrictive particularity or, conversely, dilution within a generalizing universal. This is a formidable construction, and the “oral genius” of peoples of the wodd urges us to burst our way out of it. The words of griots and storytellers washed up on the edges of large cities, and eroded by second-rate fôrms of progress, stilI endure. — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 535

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘oral genius’ bursting through the either/or parallels Glissant’s creolization and rhizome identity — the reader’s candidate mechanism for loosening fixed identity without collapse. — connects to: Oral culture distributes knowledge more evenly than printed literacy — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 642; Orally delivered theory tends toward superficiality and uncritical habits; Unwritten oral traditions can be destroyed more totally than literate cultures — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 1479
• DEFINE: Names the two poles (restrictive particularity vs. generalizing universal) that creolization is defined against.

Broader Connections

• Orally delivered theory tends toward superficiality and uncritical habits #complicates (0.78)
• Oral culture distributes knowledge more evenly than printed literacy #expands (0.72) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 642
• Unwritten oral traditions can be destroyed more totally than literate cultures #complicates (0.72) — , The Rod and the Child, 1479