• Read article \"Culture and Memory\" • Answer the following questions 1,2,3 and
ID: 400213 • Letter: #
Question
• Read article "Culture and Memory"
• Answer the following questions 1,2,3 and make sure to read pages 1,3,4,6,8,10 by writing and using short statements; 3-5 sentences to answer following question.
1. What is oral tradition? Give examples of groups that relied on oral tradition.
2. What are cultural memory systems? Give examples.
3. Besides the written and oral tradition, how was Hindus and Buddhists able to preserve and transmit their culture to other places? Give examples of ways this was done.
READING1 Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in World History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), selections from chapter 9, "Culture and Memory. Abstract: This essay explores the many ways t and All people remember and tell about the past. However, there are many ways to go about it Some societies remember the past through oral traditions, and some have emphasized written traditions. Some express collective memories in architecture, and some in religious cosmologies. But all societies- including our own-negotiate, produce, and reproduce culture in the very process of expressing and transmitting it. hat human cultures remember t, as well as the meanings of those remembrances. commemorate the pas Introduction Memory is not passive. Changes in cultures are responses to material conditions-eher natural or human in origin-such as environmental and climatic shifts or war and conquest, and the memory of change is preserved in cultural memory systems. Memory is a dynamic social process. Memory systems do not preserve or reproduce cultural knowledge without sometimes altering, shaping, or even inventing it, either consciously or unconsciously Agents of the changes they record and preserve, memory systems exert powerful influence over the communities whose cultural experiences they record. History is but one of the memory systems by which community is defined and cultural knowledge transmitted. These memory systems share with history the processes of shaping, defining, and perpetuating community cultural memory. Transmitters of community cultural knowledge, such as teachers and preachers, historians and dramatists, entrepreneurs and artists, help define the identity of the community whose cultural memory they shape. Historians, artists, scientists, religious leaders, and philosophers all share responsibility for the cultural memory systems of their communities, creating, propagating, and perpetuating communal culture over time and across spatial boundaries. Their role in transmitting and transforming cultural memory can either sustain nd support or challenge institutions of power and the authority of rulers and elites. Cultural Memory Systems: Oral Traditions The oldest system of cultural memory may be the spoken word. Written systems of cultural transmission are less than 6000 years old, but ora traditions, orally transmitted cultural knowledge, date from the time the Used by permission for Bridging Worid History The Annenberg Foundation copyright2004
Explanation / Answer
1. Oral traditions are systems of cultural transmissions that transmitted cultural knowledge on an oral basis and not on a written basis. Examples of groups that relied on oral traditions are Incas (in South America). The Incan oral tradition made use of mnemonic devices to transmit knowledge. The cultural memory system was quintessentially oral but still made use of a knotted cord to record important numbers. Other examples are the Luba cultural memory system and the Yoruba cultural memory system.
2. Cultural memory system is a system by which culture knowledge is transmitted. Cultural memory systems are involved in the process of defining, structuring and shaping the cultural memory of a community. Take the example of the Luba cultural memory system. The system is based on a wide vocabulary of images as well as words that are used to describe the history and culture of the group.
3. Hindus and Buddhists were able to preserve and transmit their culture to other places through their art and architecture. The art and architecture were used to showcase life of Buddha and his teachings. Examples of ways it was done can be seen from stupas (or Indian Buddhist temples). These stupas or temples showed scenes from the life of Buddha and were covered with relief carvings and sculptured patterns. The temples were made in other parts of the world as well besides India. For instance two large temple complexes outside India are Borobudur in Java and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.