Orality in Primal Religions Orality

Orality in Primal Religions

Orality in primal religions means that there is no writing and it is extremely important to primal religions. Orality does not mean primitive as it appears to us now, but can even be more complicated and have a deeper impact than written religious practices. The importance of orality to primal religions helps to emphasize the value of religion in primal life. There is no writing and literacy found in primal religions (368). This is because writing down the very important religious ideas will not only limit the religion, but allow it to be available to outsiders. Furthermore, writing was considered to "threaten the virtues" or orality in religion and thus orality was considered to be a cherished value. First of all, orality offers opportunities that written religion does not. For instance, silence can be used for impact, and speech infliction and body language can add to the value. "Speech is a part.... of life," and thus shares an important value with people (368). Everyone is a part of the religion as each tribe member is important for the religion to carry on. Orality therefore adds an increased value to religion within people's lives. Speaking is everywhere and so is religion if oral, and it was oral in primal religions. Orality is also important as it is considered to not only be superior to writing, but writing is considered an adversary to it. Writing is a "foe" to speaking within primal religions (369). This is because orality in religion forces people to memorize the religious aspects, while literacy allows things to be written and thus people do not need to memorize religious values because they are readily available in text. Writing eliminates the need for memorization, and memorization is important to primal religions. Orality makes this possible. As religions were oral, all myths, legends, stories, songs, chants, were passed down from generation to generation through speech. This forced people to learn long, elaborate stories that kept tradition exact. Stories were learned word for word, and natives viewed speaking as not only preferable to writing, but more effective. Even after introduced, literacy was considered a corrupting and less effective form of communication and this shows the incredible importance of orality in primal religions. An example shows the value of orality as according to this example, literacy "caused the decline of English village culture" (370). If literacy causes the decline of village culture, then orality encourages it and helps to maintain traditional values. The Uraon tribe of Africa shows this as orality was used through poems that were integral to tribal life (370). Also it is important to note that orality in primal religions added to people's appreciation of art and nature which were values important to life. Without literacy, religion in Europe relied on art to express spiritual beliefs; literacy changes this as the written word because the source of information. It is less effective in certain areas of communication then orality. Prejudices need to be ignored when understanding the place of orality in primal religions. This is because orality was not a sign of being primitive, but was something that contributed greatly to daily life, traditions, and the experience of religions. Literacy in historical religions as we know in the modern world would be ineffective in transmitting many of the important values of oral religious traditions. Primal religions were thus different, and perhaps more advanced and exact than the literate religions that would follow. Literacy was not a part of primal religions, they were entirely oral, and literacy was even looked down upon. The result was a pure religion that deeply impacted people's lives as memory and verbal communication were powerful tools that were used to reinforce religion. It is also emphasized that orality does not mean "backwards," but "but different" as orality's place in primal religions was that it was a treasured value that was integral to primal religions (391).