A Study on Oral Tradition as a Communication tool

How many mothers can sing a lullaby? How many Fathers do tell bedtime stories to their wards today? The ability of man to speak and communicate distinguishes him from other beings. Human activity to communicate through speech and his intelligence, the cognitive ability to be aware of his surroundings and visualize them in his mind are the two pivotal factors in human society's progression. In it, Oral Tradition is an aspect of human society's evolution. Oral tradition has become a domain of great interest to scholars of different disciplines of knowledge today. It has a huge scope for the discipline of communication too. In the absence of script, it is a complex process of passing on information of a people's culture, custom and behaviour from one generation to the next by word of mouth through stories. This article presents an appraisal of oral tradition as a means of communication. It also discusses whether oral traditions can be taken as valid historical sources.