Oral Tradition
The practice of passing down stories, history, and culture from one generation to another through spoken word rather than written text.
Oral tradition is the oldest form of storytelling and cultural preservation, predating written language by millennia. In oral tradition, stories are transmitted by storytellers, bards, griots, and elders who memorize and perform narratives for their communities. This process inherently involves variation — each telling may be slightly different, adapting to the audience, the occasion, and the teller's style. The Grimm Brothers originally collected German folktales from oral sources, and many of the world's most famous stories — from Homer's epics to the Arabian Nights — were originally oral compositions. Oral tradition remains vibrant in many cultures today.