Pre-literacy and Modern Vestiges - 1250 Words

Pre-literacy and Modern Vestiges For many years, the conventions and existence of epic poetry from the pre-literate age were explained as repositories for information. A well-known story, usually involving a hero that embodied the virtues of the society who told the story, engages in battles, quests, etc. As the epic is spoken to an audience, the hero’s actions and the way they are described impart the audience with information and teachings. The information the listeners received is thought by some to be analogous to a modern day textbook lesson, in which students learn mathematics, grammar, and law, all by the written word. So is the contention of Homeric scholar Eric A. Havelock. As Hobart and Schiffman state in Orality and the†¦show more content†¦The specific words sung are more attuned to the metrical nature of the music than they are apt tools for imparting the singer with specific knowledge about a single battle. â€Å"The Star-Spangled Banner† is an example of modern commemoratio n. If we were to read it as it was originally written, as a poem, then we would probably think of it as a series of images describing a naval assault on an American fort, and as a singular, historical event. The poem’s lines would become information. Yet in song form this is not the case. The point of the song is not for each individual to remember a certain night in American history; the point is for a group of singers to remember the notion of a nation, more specifically, the United States. Hobart and Schiffman theorize that each oral presentation of the Iliad was a different for its audiences as the situations in which we might hear the national anthem. For instance, we sing the national anthem at baseball games, but we also heard it after the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001; besides being group events, these cases have little in common. The type of memory that we use when sing the song together is the commemorative type. Another example describing the differences in the concept of memory that Hobart and Schiffman refer to can be found in computers. Memory on a computer describes how many tasks a computer can do atShow MoreRelatedIs Australia an Inclusive Society?2888 Words   |  12 PagesNorthern part of the country (DFAT, 2008) . The policy was gradually abolished after the Second World War, but the emphasis on European immigration remained until 1966, when the government allowed the migration of ‘distinguished’ non-Europeans. The last vestiges of the policy were discarded in 1973. From 1901 to the early 1970s, policies towards newcomers were based on assimilation. 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