Homer as an Oral Tradition

The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle, Jonathan

The Ninja: An Invented Tradition?

The Forager Oral Tradition and the Evolution of Prolonged Juvenility

The foraging niche is characterized by the exploitation of nutrient-rich resources using complex extraction techniques that take a long time to acquire. This costly period of development is supported by intensive parental investment. Although human life history theory tends to characterize this investment in terms of food and care, ethnographic research on foraging skill transmission suggests t...

Narrative Tradition In Early Greek Oral Poetry And Vase-Painting

Archaic Athenian vase-painting of the sixth century BC exhibits visual narrative phenomena that are very similar to the verbal narrative patterns of traditional, orally composed poetry: in the poetry these are the familiar formulaic phrases and themes analyzed by Milman Parry and the ensuing train of oral theorists; in the art they take the form of repetitious iconography and recurrent composit...

Recycling Music, Answering Back: Toward an Oral Tradition of Electronic Music

This essay outlines a framework for understanding new musical compositions and performances that utilize pre-existing sound recordings. In attempting to articulate why musicians are increasingly using sound recordings in their creative work, the author calls for and shows examples of new performance tools that enable the dynamic use of pre-recorded music.