Culture, Language and Education

• Investigation about the oral cultural traditions of the chosen countries 

Mind Map

Cultures and traditions

United States: 

In the United States, oral tradition is used to talk about stories based on biblical stories. Some hip-hop and rap artists engage in improvising poetry to tell stories of their ancestors. Between 1870, love and attachment for folklore was born in the USA. Artists such as Daniel Garrison, Robert H. Lowie, and Paul Radin began writing myths and traditions in the 1980s by looking at American museums and taking American mythology into account in order to reconstruct the history and culture of Native Americans through traditions. oral.

Some Native American tales that have been collected over time speak about myths of the origin of the world and of humans, some are etiological myths that explain peculiarities of animals such as wolves, birds and sometimes plants, some others tell stories of heroes and their trips to other worlds or also to heaven and stories of animal-human marriages are also told.

African American folklore was discovered until after the civil war in the 21st century. Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908), is a regional writer who through his songs and his sayings shows his interest in African American folklore. Harris published six collections of animal stories inspired by African American folklore in the United States. During 1860, interest in another genre of African American folklore was stimulated, despite the fact that some African American folk songs were somewhat functional. During this time, slaves created new work songs to collect cotton, plow, shed corn, and other work done in the fields.

At that time, oral cultural traditions in the USA were governed by rules. Special languages and scenarios with flexible structures used to be used to aid composition, retention and performance. Oral traditions were characterized by their expressive power that varies within limitations that respond to different environments and performance circumstances.

 

Australia:

From generation to generation The Tjapwurung, an Aboriginal people in South Australia, shared the story of this bird hunt. The story of the Tjapwurung tradition of birds conveys how people used to chase giant animals while volcanoes in the area were erupting at the same time. In societies like the Klamath Aboriginal Australians and people as well, created the conditions necessary for the preservation of oral histories for millennia in the past 200 years: specialized storytellers and relative cultural isolation. It should be noted that the stories between them were transmitted verbally from generation to generation.

Australia is also characterized by telling some orals of the oldest stories in the world that were told for more than seven millennia. Some of them are memories of the time when sea levels rose after the last great ice age, a process that ended about 7,000 years ago in Australia. On the other hand, in pre-literary societies, oral histories transmitted a variety of human knowledge and experiences as survival aspects of how to find water and shelter, or what to eat and where to find food in order to survive.

Their dances, songs, songs, legends, stories and presentations are characteristic of their transmitted knowledge, and they were diverse creations since the aboriginal people did not have a common language. Some of their stories were accompanied by diagrams drawn in the sand and then erased. Through their songs they expressed who they were, where they came from and their relationship with history.

 

New Zeland:

Their laments, love poems, war songs and prayers developed a mythology to explain their past and the legends of her gods and tribal heroes. Many Europeans collected some of these poems and stories and copied them in the Maori language. The most picturesque myths and legends were translated into English, published and read by children of Pakeha (Europeans), in such a way that they became known among the general population.

For Maori culture, it was difficult to distinguish written literature between text and interpretation, since its oratory involved voice, facial expression, and gestures. They transmitted legends that are known today, making the events described contemporary. Their traditional music is still known and they are characterized by the importance of their words in poetry and music. McLean and Orbell specified three types of waiata (songs): waiata tangi (mourning, for the dead and other types of loss or misfortune), waiata aroha (songs about love, both sexual and place or kinship), and waiata whaiaaipo ( songs of courtship or praise of the beloved). In addition, there are pao (gossip songs), poi (songs with balls attached to linen strings, rhythmically balanced), oriori (songs for young children to help them learn their heritage after the war), and karanga (performed by women for welcoming or bidding farewell to visitors at the marae). Some songs are recited instead of sung. These include karakia (enchantment invoking a power to protect), paatere (chants of women in rebuttal of slander to threaten detractors), kaioraora (expressions of hatred and revenge), and haka (song of rhythmic movements, patterns, and gestures fierce).

Reflection

Culture and its traditions are not only important in certain countries, but they are important for the whole world. It is the way in which people express their feelings, the way of perceiving the world, nature and its significant moments during their lives. It is beautiful how many traditions remain interacted through the years and how people have passed them on from generation to generation. There are beautiful songs, very beautiful writings, which despite being many times translated from one language to another, leave a clear message and convey to the reader the fact that at a certain time they were real and significant.

I consider important the fact that values, beliefs, customs and tastes continue to be transmitted through traditions depending on the place, since this creates an identity for people and their loved ones. This is demonstrated by Gkonou in his article Interwoven: Culture, language, and learning strategies says, “Culture is often seen as the human-made part of our environment (Oxford, 2014) or the software of the mind (Hofstede, 2001) - the shared attributes (ie, common history, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, and artifacts) of a group ”(Gkonou, 405). As the passage mentions, sometimes despite the fact that people are far from their home cities, friends and families, they continue to keep their traditions far from home through the cooking of their typical meals, songs that belong to their country. or celebrations that take place in their places of origin and that is precisely what leads to having a sense of belonging despite the distance or hours that separate them.

Moreover, it is very important that families continue teaching these kinds of traditions to prevent them from ending due to lack of interest, since the strength of the traditions depends on the frequency in which people continue practicing them. It is beautiful that from a young age people adapt this type of things and grow without forgetting their roots. Also, that they express their thoughts, feelings, the Menara in which they see the world, the language they speak and the art of appreciating what surrounds us. That people together preserve the historical legacy and feel proud where they come from. Culture is self-love and love for our loved ones as it allows us to learn from what our ancestors had to live through both difficult times and those that represented great happiness for them. 

• Conclusions about Unit 2 

Culture is a legacy and that is why it must transmit the teachings for the following generations, which allow us to transmit for the care of the mental and bodily health of all people. Culture is strength, power, identity and love because it is what defines us as people and as a community. Culture allows us to remember who we are, the proper way to express ourselves and love each other. We are linked to it because it is this that allows us to maintain a balance and move forward through the years and the problems we have at some point.