Memory in Oral Traditions: The Cognitive Psychology of Epic, Ballads, and Counting-out Rhymes

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, Mar 30, 1995 - Psychology - 400 pages
Long studied by anthropologists, historians, and linguists, oral traditions have provided a wealth of fascinating insights into unique cultural customs that span the history of humankind. In this groundbreaking work, cognitive psychologist David C. Rubin offers for the first time an accessible, comprehensive examination of what such traditions can tell us about the complex inner workings of human memory. Focusing in particular on their three major forms of organization--theme, imagery, and sound pattern--Rubin proposes a model of recall, and uses it to uncover the mechanisms of memory that underlie genres such as counting-out rhymes, ballads, and epics. The book concludes with an engaging discussion of how conversions from oral to written communication modes can predict how cutting-edge computer technologies will affect the conventions of future transmissions. Throughout, Rubin presents the results of important original research as well as new perspectives on classical subjects. Splendidly written and farsighted, Memory in Oral Traditions will be eagerly read by students and researchers in areas as diverse as cognitive psychology, literary studies, classics, and cultural anthropology.

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Contents

1 Introduction
3
2 The Representation of Themes in Memory
15
3 Imagery
39
4 Sound
65
5 Combining Constraints
90
6 The Transmission of Oral Traditions
122
7 Basic Observations on Remembering
146
8 A Theory of Remembering for Oral Traditions
175
10 Countingout Rhymes
227
11 North Carolina Ballads
257
12 Discussion
299
A Note on the Future
308
References
329
Author Index
367
Subject Index
377
Copyright

9 Epic and Formulaic Theory
194

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Page 21 - Schema" refers to an active organisation of past reactions, or of past experiences, which must always be supposed to be operating in any well-adapted organic response.
Page 122 - THE METHOD OF SERIAL REPRODUCTION Methods for studying remembering often deal with factors influencing individual observers. They help to show what occurs when a person makes use of some new material which he meets, assimilating it and later reproducing it in his own characteristic manner. Already it is clear, however, that several of the factors influencing the individual observer are social in origin and character. For example, many of the transformations which took place as a result of the repeated...
Page 4 - Eeny, meeny, miney, mo, Catch a tiger by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, Eeny, meeny, miney, mo.
Page 90 - A System, Economy, or Constitution, is a one or a whole, made up of several parts, but yet that the several parts even considered as a whole do
Page 312 - In the far north, where there is snow, all bears are white. Novaya Zemlya is in the far north, and there is always snow there. What color are the bears there?
Page 139 - For example, if you heard me sing a song, let's say, could you pick it up right away? S: Yes, I could sing it for you right away the next day.
Page 90 - secret of a good memory ' is thus the secret of forming diverse and multiple associations with every fact we care to retain. But this forming of associations with a fact, what is it but thinking about the fact as much as possible...
Page 61 - Oral information is likely to be unfriendly to such a statement as "The angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles.

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