Unwritten oral traditions can be destroyed more totally than literate cultures
Evidence
This is a particularly poignant case of cultural destruction because the Druidic decision not to write meant that destruction was operationally complete in a way that destruction of literate-culture institutions is not. When the Library of Alexandria burned, much was lost; some manuscripts survived, in copies, in other libraries. When Carthage was destroyed, Carthaginian literature largely vanished, but some material was preserved in Latin translation and citation. When the Druids were destroyed, there was no parallel preservation, because there were no manuscripts to begin with. The non-writing that the Druids had chosen, for cognitive-disciplinary reasons, meant that suppression was, in a uniquely thorough way, final. — , The Rod and the Child, 1479
Categorization
- SEED: Esssay angle: the epistemic fragility of oral pedagogy — a chosen transmission mode can become the very condition of total erasure.
- XREF: connects to: FLN guerrilla conditions and illiteracy destroyed the written historical record; Language can distort as well as transmit human culture; Surviving records bias our picture of ancient child-rearing toward literate cultures. — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 1212 (+10 more)
Related
- FLN guerrilla conditions and illiteracy destroyed the written historical record (similarity 0.92)
- Language can distort as well as transmit human culture (similarity 0.84)
- Surviving records bias our picture of ancient child-rearing toward literate cultures. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Oral culture distributes knowledge more evenly than printed literacy
#contradicts(0.40) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 642 - Loss of cultural belief leads to chaos and conflict.
#expands(0.30) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 84