Sharing Tradition

Frank LaPena
Summary
Frank LaPena talks about the importance of oral tradition. In this essay, he keeps on telling all his readers
about his experiences and thoughts related to oral tradition. According to him, the oral tradition refers to a
form of art of human communication where knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received,
preserved and transmitted orally from generation to generation. In other words, oral tradition is about
passing on information related to cultures and values from generation to generation through oral means.
This transmission is made through speech or song, folktales, ballads, chants, prose or verses etc. Oral
tradition helps to maintain the values of the culture. The task of sharing tradition isn't minor. The task of
sharing tradition through oral means seems easy to talk and write but quite hard to practise. Here, both the
elders and young people play a very vital role to maintain and preserve the values of the culture The role
of speakers (elders) and listeners (young people or followers) is very important. The knowledge of elders
related to cultures, traditions, religions, and values must be listened and followed properly by young
people. The elders share the traditions and various concepts related to cultures and values to the young
people. After the death of elderly people, young people have to fill up their places being responsible. They
have to take responsibility of sharing tradition after elders through oral tradition to maintain cultures and
values in their community. In this way, the oral tradition keeps on moving generation to generation
preserving cultures and values. Young people are able to make elders alive maintaining their concepts of
tradition and knowledge of life in the community. The concepts of elders move on generation to
generation being immortal. Tradition keeps on moving ahead properly if we are aware of our culture. The
lifestyle of elders, their concepts related to life, belief, religion, culture, values etc made them capable to
acquire the ideal position in their life. They kept on sharing their tradition orally from generation to
generation for the welfare of humanity. They showed the righteous paths to survive ahead. Their acts of
sharing tradition were for the future of the coming generation and their life. Oral tradition is the
educational tool for understanding this natural world. It is the proper way to secure the cultures and values
of the people. According to the writer, there are some problems on the way of maintaining oral tradition
from generation to generation. These problems are as follows: Tradition keeps on moving ahead properly
if we are aware of our culture. The lifestyle of elders, their concepts related to life, belief, religion, culture,
values etc made them capable to acquire the ideal position in their life. They kept on sharing their tradition
orally from generation to generation for the welfare of humanity. They showed the righteous paths to
survive ahead. Their acts of sharing tradition were for the future of the coming generation and their life.
Oral tradition is the educational tool for understanding this natural world. It is the proper way to secure
the cultures and values of the people. According to the writer, there are some problems on the way of
maintaining oral tradition from generation to generation. These problems are as follows:

1. Difficulty in filling up the 'niche' of elders: To maintain our culture, it is necessary to pass on the oral
tradition from generation to generation. The young people have to listen and follow their elders and fill
their ideal position (niche). But, the task of filling elders' places is very difficult. The young people and
their interests toward their culture seem weak because the elders' religious obligations as religions,
ceremonies, dance etc are related to their culture. In modern time, young people don't prefer to listen to
them and maintain culture and tradition. The niche of elders has become hard to fill up. Due to this, a
problem has been seen in passing oral tradition from generation to generation to maintain culture and
values.

2. Impacts of modern technology over people: Every generation faces new and modern technology
which replaces the old things and concepts. The modern world and its people are moving on with drastic
changes ahead along with modern technology. In the name of development, various changes are being
made in this natural world. Traditional things are replaced with new things. The change in climate and the
natural world has been seen due to modern technology. People are seen very busy in modern technology.
Modern technology and their loneliness have separated them from each other. In this situation, it is
difficult to maintain traditional and cultural values through oral means due to the lack of active listeners or
followers.

3. Modern Educational System and its impacts: The modern educational system and the way of
perceiving it diverts people's mind. The knowledge in the present time is perceived through making
researches and collecting data. The oral materials which researchers get in the field related to tradition
may not be correct. The information related to oral tradition is even modified while printing. But, the
information of oral tradition can be modified or even corrected through oral means. The educational
process forces people to accept the information from the printed pages which are full of errors and very
difficult to correct. The published information related to cultures and values creates a kind of problem in
passing on cultures and values from generation to generation through oral means.

4. Source of information and way of perceiving and sharing it: Oral tradition is fully dependent on oral
means. It doesn't have any writing records as a literary tradition. The provided information by the speakers
is transmitted mistakenly sometimes. Sometimes, the information is even perceived mistakenly by the
listeners. Due to the gap between generations, the truth of the elders' historical information might turn into
fantasy for the listeners. In this situation, it becomes quite difficult to validate oral tradition or traditional
stories. There must be a proper understanding between the speakers and the listeners. The listeners must
have belief on what they are listening to. The way of perceiving and transmitting information must be
made keeping trust on our traditions and elders.

a. According to LaPena, what is the importance of the oral tradition? To what extent do you agree with his
opinions and why?

According to LaPena, the importance of the oral tradition is to preserve and maintain the culture and
values of our tradition from generation to generation through oral means. I fully agree with his opinions
because the culture and values of tradition should be maintained and preserved from generation to
generation for the welfare of the people and their life. Cultural and traditional values play very important
roles in people's life.

b. Who preserve and pass on the oral tradition?

An oral tradition is an art form where information related to culture and values are transmitted from
generation to generation through oral means. Both the elders and young people play a vital role in
preserving and passing on the oral tradition. Firstly, the task of preserving and passing on oral tradition
is done by elders. Next, young people get this task. This task keeps on moving from generation to
generation. The most important aspect is that both the elders and young people must be responsible for
this task of preserving and passing on oral tradition.

c. What is the danger of not passing on information from generation to generation?

The danger of not passing information from generation to generation is that the culture and values of
our tradition may extinct. People will have to survive a meaningless life without their cultural and
traditional values.

d. What is the difference between oral tradition and literary tradition?

An oral tradition is an art form where information related to culture and values are transmitted from
generation to generation through oral means. The errors in oral tradition can be modified and corrected
 anytime through oral means. Next, literary tradition refers to written as well as a printed tradition
where the information is transmitted through written means. Here in this literary tradition, the errors
are quite hard to modify and correct.

1. The accurate concept of sharing tradition.

Following are the four major problems developed by LaPena with regard to maintaining the oral
tradition:

1. Difficulty in filling up the niche of elders in the matter of sharing tradition through oral tradition.
2. The impacts of modern technology.
3. Modern educational system and its impacts.
4. Source of information and way of perceiving and sharing it.
All these problems are used in persuasive style to structure the essay. All these problems have been
presented with examples along with their solutions too. These problems have been presented giving
much preferences to oral tradition. Reference beyond the Text a. Write a paragraph or two explaining
your attitude toward the oral tradition of passing along information. I think oral tradition is one of the
effective practices for all the people of this world to maintain and preserve the culture and values of
tradition. Just as the writer, I also accept oral tradition as an art form where both the elders and young
people perform their vital roles in maintaining and preserving culture and values of tradition through
passing authentic information from generation to generation. The practice of oral tradition is very
important for all. Through oral tradition, we are able to preserve and maintain our cultural and
traditional values. By the help of oral tradition, we can secure our cultural and traditional identity.
b. Our culture is our identity. Write a few paragraphs explaining how you intend to preserve your culture,
values and norms. Answer: Our culture is our identity. Our culture, values and norms play a very
important role in our life. Our entire life depends on our culture. We are culturally linked with our
civilization. Due to our culture, norms and values, we can do good with our life. These aspects teach us
to choose right paths, thoughts and decisions in our life. I intend to preserve my culture, values and
norms doing the following activities:
1. Celebrating every ceremony related to my culture.
2. Making people aware about the importance of our culture, values and norms.
3. Promoting cultural and traditional events in my community.
4. Forming an organization related to cultural heritage.
5. Sharing information related to culture and values of my tradition