What is oral history? എന്താണ് വാമൊഴി ചരിത്രം
Oral history comes from the very distant past, in the form of tales and the sagas of ancient peoples- folk songs or popular rituals. Such evidence also comes, however, from our own day, oral history is to gain first- hand knowledge from people who have lived through different social- historical- political periods and events -passing down memories of the past for centuries and of sharing memories across cultures, predating written history.
oral tradition with group history, in thematic oral history and in autobiographies. Folklores and Proverbs: The folklores which reveal the stories of legendary heroes are also an important source of history. They tell us about the aspirations, superstitions and customs of the people among whom the stories developed.
Oral history provides a fuller, more accurate picture of the past by augmenting the information provided by public records, statistical data, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, and other historical materials. Eyewitnesses to events contribute various viewpoints and perspectives that fill in the gaps in documented history, sometimes correcting or even contradicting the written record.
Paul Thompson a British scholar and one of the world’s foremost oral historians working within sociology and social history, has carried out hundreds of oral histories and historical studies . Paul Thomson’s in his work ‘The Voice of the Past’ clearly analysed the importance of oral sources. He was a leading figure in the oral history movements,- The role of oral sources for the study of history of non- literate societies, the most distinguished exponent of oral history in Africa, Jan Vansina’s work ‘Oral Traditions as history’. Jan Vansina defined as oral testimony transmitted verbally from one generation to the next generation. S In historical research, oral history can be used in three different ways ,
a) As a discipline: oral history inaugurated specific research techniques, singular methodological procedures and a specific set of concepts; this set, in turn, guides the other two instances, granting them meaning and uniting the new field of knowledge.
b) As a technique: Comprises a set of procedures to seek information, the interviews being operation mechanisms that can guide the research .
c) As a method: Resource that indicates an organized and strict research procedure, capable of guaranteeing the abstention of valid results to achieve the objectives of the project. It privileges the interview as an essential point in the studies.
Oral history can be defined as the recording, preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker. It may take the form of eye-witness evidence about the past, but can include folklore, myths, songs and stories passed down over the years by word of mouth.
Oral history in the modern form of audio recordings had its origins in the work of Allan Nevins at the University of Columbia in the USA. He began to record the memories of ‘persons significant in American life’ in 1948. By contrast to this ‘great men’ approach, the pioneer of oral history in England, George Ewart Evans, collected memories of life and work in Suffolk villages, where ‘the old survivors were walking books’. These were first published in Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay in 1956. At much the same time, oral history in Scotland developed within a broader focus on Scottish culture and history. In their different ways, all three reflected the changing political and social climate of the early post-war period - just as more recent oral history work has developed its own distinctive forms in other areas of the world
Oral history is a very subjective and personal form of evidence - but this is also one of its great strengths. In the words of the Italian oral historian Alessandro Portelli, oral sources ‘tell us not just what people did, but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were doing, what they now think they did… Subjectivity is as much the business of history as the more visible “facts”…’
The oral life history expresses the subjects’ narrative on their life experience. Normally, the researcher prepares the interview script to establish a timeline in order to sequence the facts the interviewee reported. Its focus ranges from childhood until the historical time of interest to the researcher, which can be a past or present moment. -Paul Thomson says in the first line of The Voice of Past, all history ultimately depends upon its social purpose-Oral history is not monopolized by any one discipline; research using this methodology can be found in the fields of history, art, literature, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, feminist studies, social work, education and psychology. Furthermore, oral historians working in these different disciplines often borrow from one another, thus adding an interdisciplinary aspect to their studies .