Alanna Dailey - Dying Oral Cultures

Dying Oral Cultures: Outside Reading
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973872-1,00.html
In the Time Magazine article “Lost Tribes, Lost Knowledge,” Linden stresses what will be lost when oral cultures absorb into modern society. For, one approximately 3,000 of the world’s 6,000 languages will be lost. Oral cultures also have useful skills and techniques that may be useful for industrialized societies later down the road. Linden fears that global warming will force us into obtaining oral cultures’ techniques, but since this knowledge will be lost, societies will suffer. Sadly, the younger generations of oral cultures voluntarily leave their tribe and are lured into a more Westernized, less labor intensive society. When the young people realize that they are losing valuable knowledge, it is too late to obtain it because the older generation is dying.
Linden also claims that the younger generation is sometimes shamed by their culture. Western societies frown upon oral cultures because they rely on myths, ritual, and religion, and Western societies rely on science and objectivity. I am currently in a Fear and Magic anthropology class here at CNU. We have discussed how our society rejects magic, myths, and ritual because they are not logical in terms of science. However, no one has ever used science to test these magic and ritual. Rejecting without testing completely goes against the concept behind science. To preserve oral cultures we first must erase this stigma and superiority we have over oral traditions.