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101-687: The Makah ( / m ə ˈ k ɑː / ; Makah : qʷidiččaʔa·tx̌ ) are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast living in Washington , in the northwestern part of the continental United States . They are enrolled in the federally recognized Makah Indian Tribe of the Makah Indian Reservation , commonly known as the Makah Tribe. Linguistically and ethnographically, they are closely related to

202-581: A caste and perform a range of roles, including as a historian or library, musician, poet, mediator of family and tribal disputes, spokesperson, and served in the king's court, not dissimilar from the European bard . They keep records of all births, death, and marriages through the generations of the village or family. When Sundiata Keita founded the Mali Empire , he was offered Balla Fasséké as his griot to advise him during his reign, giving rise to

303-492: A first language since 2002, when its last fluent native speaker died. However, it survives as a second language. The Makah Tribe is also working to revive the language, and has established preschool classes to teach its children. The Makah Tribe owns the Makah Indian Reservation on the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula ; it includes Tatoosh Island . They live in and around the town of Neah Bay, Washington ,

404-588: A gray whale on May 17, 1999. According to federal law, the Makah are entitled to hunt and kill one baleen whale, typically a gray whale, each year. Archaeological records and oral history indicate a significant number of humpback whales were historically hunted as well. The Makah had gone over 70 years without catching a whale. The Makah whaling technique is difficult and labor-intensive. The men hunt from cedar canoes , each seating six to nine people and more recently, from small fishing vessels. They take these into

505-477: A White Man takes place in the late 1950s, describing Neah Bay High School through the eyes of a white home economics teacher. French writer Frédéric Roux's novel L'hiver indien (2007) ( Indian Winter , éditions Grasset & Fasquelle) explores the struggle between tradition and modernity for the Makah in northwestern Washington. In the realm of non-fiction, Voices of a Thousand People (2002) by Patricia Pierce Erikson with Helma Ward & Kirk Wachendorf recounts

606-406: A better understanding of Homeric epics. The long oral tradition that has sustained Albanian epic poetry reinforces the idea that pre-Homeric epic poetry was oral. The theory of oral-formulaic composition was developed also through the scholarly study of Albanian epic verse. The Albanian traditional singing of epic verse from memory is one of the last survivors of its kind in modern Europe , and

707-486: A collapsed state until the 1970s, when they were excavated by the Makah and archaeologists from Washington State University . Over 55,000 artifacts were recovered, representing many activities of the Makah, from whale and seal hunting to salmon and halibut fishing. Artifacts included toys, games, and bows and arrows. Archaeological test pits were excavated at the Ozette site in 1966 and 1967 by Richard Daugherty. However, it

808-503: A collective or tribal memory extending beyond personal experience but nevertheless representing a shared reality. Native languages have in some cases up to twenty words to describe physical features like rain or snow and can describe the spectra of human emotion in very precise ways, allowing storytellers to offer their own personalized take on a story based on their own lived experiences. Fluidity in story deliverance allowed stories to be applied to different social circumstances according to

909-461: A grand parade and street fair as well as canoe races, traditional games, singing, dancing, feasting, and fireworks. Many Makah tribal members derive most of their income from fishing. Makah fish for salmon , halibut , Pacific whiting , and other marine fish. This makes them particularly vulnerable to effects of global warming : ocean acidification disrupts the development of the shells of molluscs (the fishes' main food source) and warming waters

1010-492: A gray whale using a .460 caliber rifle, similar to that used in hunting elephants , despite court-imposed regulations governing the Makah hunt. The whale died within 12 hours, sinking while heading out to sea after being confiscated and cut loose by the United States Coast Guard . The tribal council denounced the killing and announced their intention to try the individuals in tribal court. Makah women chew

1111-470: A great deal of it is consumed during a potlatch . The Makah assert that their right to whaling is guaranteed in the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay, which states in part: "The right of taking fish and of whaling or sealing at usual and accustomed grounds and stations is further secured to said Indians in common with all citizens of the United States." In September 2007, five members of the Makah tribe shot

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1212-545: A heavily rhythmic speech filled with mnemonic devices enhances memory and recall. A few useful mnemonic devices include alliteration , repetition, assonance , and proverbial sayings. In addition, the verse is often metrically composed with an exact number of syllables or morae —such as with Greek and Latin prosody and in Chandas found in Hindu and Buddhist texts. The verses of the epic or text are typically designed wherein

1313-526: A line is thrown from the canoe with seal skin floats attached, to provide drag to weaken the whale. In the past, a series of smaller lances were used to repeatedly strike the whale, gradually weakening and killing it, often over a period of hours, and in some cases, days. Recently, hunters have adopted use of a big-game rifle after the harpoon strike, to ensure a more efficient kill. The International Whaling Commission permits four cartridges in whaling: .458 Winchester Magnum , .460 Weatherby Magnum , .50 BMG , and

1414-405: A means of teaching. Plots often reflect real life situations and may be aimed at particular people known by the story's audience. In this way, social pressure could be exerted without directly causing embarrassment or social exclusion . For example, rather than yelling, Inuit parents might deter their children from wandering too close to the water's edge by telling a story about a sea monster with

1515-488: A phenomenon that is explained by the lack of state formation among Albanians and their ancestors – the Illyrians , being able to preserve their "tribally" organized society . This distinguished them from civilizations such as Ancient Egypt , Minoans and Mycenaeans , who underwent state formation and disrupted their traditional memory practices. Albanian epic poetry has been analysed by Homeric scholars to acquire

1616-629: A physical struggle between a Thunderbird and a Whale. One such story tells of the Thunderbird, which can create thunder by moving just a feather, piercing the Whale's flesh with its talons, causing the Whale to dive to the bottom of the ocean, bringing the Thunderbird with it. Another depicts the Thunderbird lifting the Whale from the Earth then dropping it back down. Regional similarities in themes and characters suggests that these stories mutually describe

1717-540: A position of particular importance, as it was believed to be a more reliable medium for information transmission than prose. This belief stemmed from observations that highly structured language, with its rhythmic and phonetic patterns, tended to undergo fewer alterations during oral transmission. Each genre of rhymed poetry served distinct social and cultural functions. These range from spontaneous compositions at celebrations to carefully crafted historical accounts, political commentaries, and entertainment pieces. Among these,

1818-664: A pouch for children within its reach. One single story could provide dozens of lessons. Stories were also used as a means to assess whether traditional cultural ideas and practices are effective in tackling contemporary circumstances or if they should be revised. Native American storytelling is a collaborative experience between storyteller and listeners. Native American tribes generally have not had professional tribal storytellers marked by social status. Stories could and can be told by anyone, with each storyteller using their own vocal inflections, word choice, content, or form. Storytellers not only draw upon their own memories, but also upon

1919-818: A reason behind indoctrination . Writing systems are not known to exist among Native North Americans before contact with Europeans except among some Mesoamerican cultures, and possibly the South American quipu and North American wampum , although those two are debatable. Oral storytelling traditions flourished in a context without the use of writing to record and preserve history, scientific knowledge, and social practices. While some stories were told for amusement and leisure, most functioned as practical lessons from tribal experience applied to immediate moral, social, psychological, and environmental issues. Stories fuse fictional, supernatural, or otherwise exaggerated characters and circumstances with real emotions and morals as

2020-427: A root (the 'base'), lexical suffixes, and aspectual suffixes. It carries the 'dictionary meaning' of the word, while the clitics represent what can be thought of as 'inflections' for other grammatical categories. The unextended word, The 'expanded unextended' word is formed by the addition of a peripheral suffix, which can change the part of speech while and often contains an aspectual value. These suffixes 'cross-cut'

2121-409: A small fishing village. Tribal census data from 1999 show that the Makah Tribe has 1,214 enrolled members; some 1,079 live on the reservation. The unemployment rate on the reservation is approximately 51%. Several books have explored Makah history, usually from the arrival of white settlers onward. The historical-adventure novel When Wolf Comes (2009) by John Pappas gives a glimpse into the lives of

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2222-427: A society, with the latter much more likely to use oral tradition and oral literature even when a writing system has been developed or when having access to one. The Akan proverbs translated as "Ancient things in the ear" and "Ancient things are today" refer to present-day delivery and the past content, and as such oral traditions are both simultaneously expressions of the past and the present. Vansina says that to ignore

2323-605: A study published in February 2020, new evidence showed that both Budj Bim and Tower Hill volcanoes erupted between 34,000 and 40,000 years ago. Significantly, this is a "minimum age constraint for human presence in Victoria ", and also could be interpreted as evidence for the oral histories of the Gunditjmara people, an Aboriginal Australian people of south-western Victoria, which tell of volcanic eruptions being some of

2424-399: A viable source of evidence for establishing the affiliation between cultural objects and Native Nations. Oral traditions face the challenge of accurate transmission and verifiability of the accurate version, particularly when the culture lacks written language or has limited access to writing tools. Oral cultures have employed various strategies that achieve this without writing. For example,

2525-583: A written intermediate, and they can also be applied to oral governance. Rudyard Kipling 's The Jungle Book provides an excellent demonstration of oral governance in the Law of the Jungle . Not only does grounding rules in oral proverbs allow for simple transmission and understanding, but it also legitimizes new rulings by allowing extrapolation. These stories, traditions, and proverbs are not static, but are often altered upon each transmission, barring any change to

2626-429: Is 16–18 feet long, composed of two pieces of yew wood spliced together. Historically, hunters used a mussel shell tip, in conjunction with barbs from elk horns. Since the late 20th century, hunters have used a steel "yankee style" head, but they have retained the yew wood shaft because of its flexibility, water resistance, and strength. Held fast to the whale, the harpoon shaft comes loose, to be recovered later, and

2727-692: Is a medium of communication for a society to transmit oral history , oral literature , oral law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system , or in parallel to a writing system. It is the most widespread medium of human communication. They often remain in use in the modern era throughout for cultural preservation . Religions such as Buddhism , Hinduism , Catholicism , and Jainism have used oral tradition, in parallel to writing, to transmit their canonical scriptures , rituals , hymns and mythologies. African societies have broadly been labelled oral civilisations , contrasted with literate civilisations , due to their reverence for

2828-429: Is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales , ballads , chants , prose or poetry . The information is mentally recorded by oral repositories , sometimes termed "walking libraries", who are usually also performers. Oral tradition

2929-457: Is also a key socio-cultural component in the practice of their traditional spiritualities , as well as mainstream Abrahamic religions . The prioritisation of the spoken word is evidenced by African societies having chosen to record history orally whilst some had developed or had access to a writing script . Jan Vansina differentiates between oral and literate civilisations, stating: "The attitude of members of an oral society toward speech

3030-493: Is distinct from oral history , which is the recording of personal testimony of those who experienced historical eras or events. Oral tradition is also distinct from the study of orality , defined as thought and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (writing and print) are unfamiliar. Folklore is one albeit not the only type of oral tradition. According to John Foley, oral tradition has been an ancient human tradition found in "all corners of

3131-513: Is performed. Furthermore, the climate in which traditions are told influences its content. In Burundi , traditions were short because most of them were told at informal gatherings and everyone had to have his say during the evening; in neighbouring Rwanda , many narratives were spun-out because a one-man professional had to entertain his patron for a whole evening, with every production checked by fellow specialists and errors punishable. Frequently, glosses or commentaries were presented parallel to

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3232-536: Is similar to the reverence members of a literate society attach to the written word . If it is hallowed by authority or antiquity, the word will be treasured." For centuries in Europe, all data felt to be important were written down, with the most important texts prioritised, such as Bible , and only trivia, such as song, legend, anecdote, and proverbs remained unrecorded. In Africa, all the principal political, legal, social, and religious texts were transmitted orally. When

3333-493: Is testified to by the preservation of the most ancient Indian religious text, the Ṛgveda ( c.  1500 BCE ). Research by Milman Parry and Albert Lord indicates that the verse of the Greek poet Homer has been passed down not by rote memorization but by " oral-formulaic composition ". In this process, extempore composition is aided by use of stock phrases or "formulas" (expressions that are used regularly "under

3434-421: The .577 Tyrannosaur , which the Makah fired in the 1999 hunt. Once the whale has been killed, a crew member called the "diver" jumps into the water and cuts a hole through the bottom and top of the whale's jaw, to which a tow line and float are attached. This holds the whale's mouth shut and prevents the carcass from filling with water and sinking. Hunters tow the whale to shore, where it is received by members of

3535-528: The Bamums in Cameroon invented a script , the first to be written down was the royal chronicle and the code of customary law . Most African courts had archivists who learnt by heart the royal genealogy and history of the state, and served as its unwritten constitution . The performance of a tradition is accentuated and rendered alive by various gesture, social conventions and the unique occasion in which it

3636-776: The First Nations of the west coast of Vancouver Island on the north side of the strait, in the Canadian province of British Columbia . Makah is the only member of the Wakashan language family in the United States, with the other members spoken in British Columbia , from Vancouver Island to the Central Coast region. Makah, Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht belong to the Southern Nootkan branch of

3737-756: The Kouyate line of griots . Griots often accompany their telling of oral tradition with a musical instrument, as the Epic of Sundiata is accompanied by the balafon , or as the kora accompanies other traditions. In modern times, some griots and descendants of griots have dropped their historian role and focus on music, with many finding success, however many still maintain their traditional roles. Albanian traditions have been handed down orally across generations. They have been preserved through traditional memory systems that have survived intact into modern times in Albania ,

3838-479: The Makah Cultural and Research Center . Opened in 1979, the museum displays replicas of cedar long houses as well as whaling, fishing, and sealing canoes. Much of what is known about the traditional way of life of the Makah is derived from their oral traditions . Abundant archeological evidence excavated at the Ozette village site has also provided great insight into traditional Makah life. Historically,

3939-593: The Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht peoples of the West Coast of Vancouver Island , who live across the Strait of Juan de Fuca in British Columbia , Canada. The Makah people refer to themselves as the qʷidiččaʔa·tx̌ , which translates to somewhere near to "the people who live by the rocks and seagulls". Other thought translations include "the people who live on the cape by the seagulls", and "people of

4040-481: The Pacific Ocean adjacent to their reservation territory. Various traditional criteria are used to determine the best whale to harvest. By counting the whale's exhalations, the hunters determine when the whale is about to dive, and determine from this the best time to strike. Approaching the whale's left side, the hunter strikes when the whale is 3–4 feet deep, to avoid the force of the whale's tail. The harpoon

4141-500: The Wakashan family. The Northern Wakashan languages, which are Kwak'wala , Heiltsuk-Oowekyala and Haisla , are spoken farther north, beyond the territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth . The phonemes (distinctive sounds) of Makah are presented below in the Makah alphabet; if the symbol in the native alphabet differs from the IPA symbol, the IPA equivalent will be given in brackets. Rare among

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4242-510: The attributes of Allah —all-mighty, all-wise, all-knowing, all-high, etc.—often found as doublets at the end of a verse. Among the other repeated phrases are "Allah created the heavens and the earth" (found 19 times in the Quran). As much as one third of the Quran is made up of "oral formulas", according to Dundes' estimates. Bannister, using a computer database of (the original Arabic) words of

4343-643: The oral word and widespread use of oral tradition. Oral tradition is memories, knowledge, and expression held in common by a group over many generations: it is the long preservation of immediate or contemporaneous testimony . It may be defined as the recall and transmission of specific, preserved textual and cultural knowledge through vocal utterance. Oral tradition is usually popular, and can be exoteric or esoteric . It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes. As an academic discipline , oral tradition refers both to objects and methods of study. It

4444-629: The salmon run . In response, the Makah tribe is drawing on traditional knowledge to create action plans for climate resilience that center tribal socioeconomic priorities. With the Hoh , Quileute , and Quinault Indian Nation , as well as the scientific community, the Makah conduct climate research at and monitor the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary . The Makah language is the Indigenous language spoken by

4545-606: The Makah people of 1801. Young adult book Ghost Canoe (1998) by Will Hobbs takes place on and near the reservation, while Indian Days at Neah Bay by James G. McCurdy details life in Neah Bay in the early days of mandatory schooling from the perspective of the schoolteacher's son. The children's book Written in Stone (2014) by Rosanne Parry takes place in the 1920s, featuring an orphaned Makah girl who works to preserve her people's culture. Meanwhile, Arlyn Conly's memoir Never Trust

4646-489: The Makah people. The endonym for the language is qʷi·qʷi·diččaq . Makah linguistically belongs to the Southern Nootkan branch of the Wakashan family of languages. It is also the only Wakashan language in the United States. Other tribes speaking Wakashan are located in British Columbia , Canada, immediately across the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the west coast of Vancouver Island , and northwards as far as that province's Central Coast region. Makah has been extinct as

4747-573: The Qur'anic text was generated." Dundes argues oral-formulaic composition is consistent with "the cultural context of Arabic oral tradition", quoting researchers who have found poetry reciters in the Najd (the region next to where the Quran was revealed) using "a common store of themes, motives, stock images, phraseology and prosodical options", and "a discursive and loosely structured" style "with no fixed beginning or end" and "no established sequence in which

4848-490: The Quran and of their "grammatical role, root, number, person, gender and so forth", estimates that depending on the length of the phrase searched, somewhere between 52% (three word phrases) and 23% (five word phrases) are oral formulas. Dundes reckons his estimates confirm "that the Quran was orally transmitted from its very beginnings". Bannister believes his estimates "provide strong corroborative evidence that oral composition should be seriously considered as we reflect upon how

4949-573: The Quran from memory, not reading, the predominant mode of teaching it to others. To this day the Quran is memorized by millions and its recitation can be heard throughout the Muslim world from recordings and mosque loudspeakers (during Ramadan ). Muslims state that some who teach memorization/recitation of the Quran constitute the end of an "un-broken chain" whose original teacher was Muhammad himself. It has been argued that "the Qur'an's rhythmic style and eloquent expression make it easy to memorize," and

5050-610: The Treaty of Neah Bay with the U.S. federal government , ceding much of their traditional lands. The treaty required the Makah to be restricted to the Makah Reservation (at 48°19′20″N 124°37′57″W  /  48.32222°N 124.63250°W  / 48.32222; -124.63250 in Clallam County), banned slavery, and preserved the Makah people's rights to hunt whales and seals in the region. The Makah language

5151-518: The Vedangas. Each text was recited in a number of ways, to ensure that the different methods of recitation acted as a cross check on the other. Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat summarizes this as: These extraordinary retention techniques guaranteed an accurate Śruti, fixed across the generations, not just in terms of unaltered word order but also in terms of sound. That these methods have been effective,

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5252-480: The ancient Greek and Roman civilizations were an exclusive product of an oral tradition. An Irish seanchaí (plural: seanchaithe ), meaning bearer of "old lore" , was a traditional Irish language storyteller (the Scottish Gaelic equivalent being the seanchaidh, anglicised as shanachie). The job of a seanchaí was to serve the head of a lineage by passing information orally from one generation to

5353-549: The core/nuclear distinction. The order of the clitic sequence is as follows: =Diminutive=Temporal=Causative=Possessive=Passive-Inverse=Tense=Mood=Pronominal=Habitual=3rd Person Plural=Responsive='again' The modal-pronominal clitics are often combined, creating a separate set of pronominal clitics for each mood. Makah marks for the indicative, purposive, quotative, subordinate, inferential, mirative, conditional, relative, content interrogative and polar interrogative moods. Oral tradition Oral tradition , or oral lore ,

5454-464: The corrupt and uncorrupted hadith, this other source of revelation is not nearly so free of corruption because of the hadith's great political and theological influence.) At least two non-Muslim scholars ( Alan Dundes and Andrew G. Bannister) have examined the possibility that the Quran was not just "recited orally, but actually composed orally". Bannister postulates that some parts of the Quran—such as

5555-444: The episodes must follow".{{ref|group=Note|Scholar Saad Sowayan referring to the genre of "Saudi Arabian historical oral narrative genre called suwalif ". The Catholic Church upholds that its teaching contained in its deposit of faith is transmitted not only through scripture , but as well as through sacred tradition . The Second Vatican Council affirmed in Dei verbum that

5656-778: The first by comparing inconsistencies in the transmitted versions of literature from various oral societies such as the Greek, Serbia and other cultures, then noting that the Vedic literature is too consistent and vast to have been composed and transmitted orally across generations, without being written down. In the Middle East, Arabic oral tradition has significantly influenced literary and cultural practices. Arabic oral tradition encompassed various forms of expression, including metrical poetry , unrhymed prose , rhymed prose ( saj' ), and prosimetrum —a combination of prose and poetry often employed in historical narratives. Poetry held

5757-630: The folk epics known as siyar (singular: sīra) were considered the most intricate. These prosimetric narratives, combining prose and verse, emerged in the early Middle Ages. While many such epics circulated historically, only one has survived as a sung oral poetic tradition: Sīrat Banī Hilāl . This epic recounts the westward migration and conquests of the Banu Hilal Bedouin tribe from the 10th to 12th centuries, culminating in their rule over parts of North Africa before their eventual defeat. The historical roots of Sīrat Banī Hilāl are evident in

5858-409: The founding of The Makah Cultural and Research Center and the work to preserve their heritage. Beyond books, the final scene of Jim Jarmusch 's 1995 film Dead Man takes place in a reconstructed Makah village. Many of the actors featured in the scene are Makah tribal members; dialogue is in the Makah language. Additionally, the song "The Renegade" by Ian and Sylvia recounts conflict in the life of

5959-584: The generations. Many forms of recitation or pathas were designed to aid accuracy in recitation and the transmission of the Vedas and other knowledge texts from one generation to the next. All hymns in each Veda were recited in this way; for example, all 1,028 hymns with 10,600 verses of the Rigveda was preserved in this way; as were all other Vedas including the Principal Upanishads , as well as

6060-868: The help of elaborate mnemonic techniques : According to Goody, the Vedic texts likely involved both a written and oral tradition, calling it a "parallel products of a literate society". Mostly recently, research shows that oral performance of (written) texts could be a philosophical activity in early China . It is a common knowledge in India that the primary Hindu books called Vedas are great example of Oral tradition. Pundits who memorized three Vedas were called Trivedis. Pundits who memorized four vedas were called Chaturvedis. By transferring knowledge from generation to generation Hindus protected their ancient Mantras in Vedas, which are basically Prose. The early Buddhist texts are also generally believed to be of oral tradition, with

6161-535: The human intellect, and the memory to retain information and sharpen imagination. Perhaps the most famous repository of oral tradition is the west African griot (named differently in different languages). The griot is a hereditary position and exists in Dyula , Soninke , Fula , Hausa , Songhai , Wolof , Serer , and Mossi societies among many others, although more famously in Mandinka society . They constitute

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6262-467: The importance of storytelling in preserving Roman history . Valerius Maximus also references oral tradition in Memorable Doings and Sayings (2.1.10). Wiseman argues that celebratory performances served as a vital medium for transmitting Roman history and that such traditions evolved into written forms by the third century CE. He asserts that the history of figures like the house of Tarquin

6363-479: The introduction of text , oral tradition remained the only means of communication in order to establish societies as well as its institutions. Despite widespread comprehension of literacy in the recent century, oral tradition remains the dominant communicative means within the world. All indigenous African societies use oral tradition to learn their origin and history , civic and religious duties, crafts and skills, as well as traditional myths and legends . It

6464-455: The last survivor of the Balkan traditions. "All ancient Greek literature", states Steve Reece, "was to some degree oral in nature, and the earliest literature was completely so". Homer 's epic poetry, states Michael Gagarin, "was largely composed, performed and transmitted orally". As folklores and legends were performed in front of distant audiences, the singers would substitute the names in

6565-458: The level and source of the speaker's knowledge about a statement. Some examples are shown in the following table:[8] Alongside those examples, compare corresponding sentences without the evidentials: hi·dawʔal, "he found it"; č̓apac̓, "it's a canoe"; haʔuk̓alic, "you're eating"; dudu·k̓al, "he's singing"." The Makah word encodes much information; Davidson (2002) outlines the formal word structure below (pg. 160), The 'unextended word' consists of

6666-671: The lived experience of earthquakes and floods within tribal memory. According to one story from the Suquamish Tribe , Agate Pass was created when an earthquake expanded the channel as a result of an underwater battle between a serpent and bird. Other stories in the region depict the formation of glacial valleys and moraines and the occurrence of landslides, with stories being used in at least one case to identify and date earthquakes that occurred in 900 CE and 1700. Further examples include Arikara origin stories of emergence from an "underworld" of persistent darkness, which may represent

6767-492: The long and short syllables are repeated by certain rules, so that if an error or inadvertent change is made, an internal examination of the verse reveals the problem. Oral traditions can be passed on through plays and acting, as shown in modern-day Cameroon by the Graffis or Grasslanders who perform and deliver speeches to teach their history through oral tradition. Such strategies facilitate transmission of information without

6868-418: The millennium have taught us anything, it must be that oral tradition never was the other we accused it of being; it never was the primitive, preliminary technology of communication we thought it to be. Rather, if the whole truth is told, oral tradition stands out as the single most dominant communicative technology of our species as both a historical fact and, in many areas still, a contemporary reality. Before

6969-494: The narrative, sometimes answering questions from the audience to ensure understanding, although often someone would learn a tradition without asking their master questions and not really understand the meaning of its content, leading them to speculate in the commentary. Oral traditions only exist when they are told, except for in people's minds, and so the frequency of telling a tradition aids its preservation. These African ethnic groups also utilize oral tradition to develop and train

7070-416: The next about Irish folklore and history, particularly in medieval times. The potential for oral transmission of history in ancient Rome is evidenced primarily by Cicero , who discusses the significance of oral tradition in works such as Brutus , Tusculan Disputations , and On The Orator . While Cicero ’s reliance on Cato’s Origines may limit the breadth of his argument, he nonetheless highlights

7171-468: The oldest oral traditions in existence. A basalt stone axe found underneath volcanic ash in 1947 had already proven that humans inhabited the region before the eruption of Tower Hill. Native American society was always reliant upon oral tradition, if not storytelling , in order to convey knowledge, morals and traditions amongst others, a trait Western settlers deemed as representing an inferior race without neither culture nor history, often cited as

7272-405: The oral passing of what had been revealed through Christ through their preaching as teachers. Jan Vansina , who specialised in the history of Central Africa , pioneered the study of oral tradition in his book Oral tradition as history (1985). Vansina differentiates between oral and literate civilisations, depending on whether emphasis is placed on the sanctity of the written or oral word in

7373-534: The overall meaning. In this way, the rules that govern the people are modified by the whole and not authored by a single entity. Ancient texts of Hinduism , Buddhism and Jainism were preserved and transmitted by an oral tradition. For example, the śrutis of Hinduism called the Vedas , the oldest of which trace back to the second millennium BCE. Michael Witzel explains this oral tradition as follows: The Vedic texts were orally composed and transmitted, without

7474-599: The point", as well as several others. This has sometimes been anglicized as Kwih-dich-chuh-ahtx . The English name, "Makah," is an exonym derived from the S'Klallam language name for the Makah, màq̓áʔa . It means "generous with food". Archaeological research suggests that Makah people have inhabited the area now known as Neah Bay for more than 3,800 years. Traditionally, the Makah lived in villages consisting of large longhouses made from western red cedar . These longhouses had cedar-plank walls which could be tilted or removed to provide ventilation or light. The cedar tree

7575-419: The present-day distribution of groups claiming descent from the tribe across North Africa and parts of the Middle East. The epic's development into a cohesive narrative was first documented by the historian Ibn Khaldūn in the 14th century. In his writings, Ibn Khaldūn describes collecting stories and poems from nomadic Arabs, using these oral sources to discuss the merits of colloquial versus classical poetry and

7676-662: The remembrance of life in the Arctic Circle during the last ice age, and stories involving a "deep crevice", which may refer to the Grand Canyon. Despite such examples of agreement between geological and archeological records on one hand and Native oral records on the other, some scholars have cautioned against the historical validity of oral traditions because of their susceptibility to detail alteration over time and lack of precise dates. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act considers oral traditions as

7777-706: The roots and leaves of Viola adunca while giving birth. In 1936, the Makah Tribe signed the Makah Constitution, accepting the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and establishing an elected tribal government. The constitution provided for a five-member Tribal Council. Each year the council elects a Tribal Chairperson. The Council develops and passes laws for the Makah Reservation. The Makah Tribe hosts its annual major public gathering, Makah Days , in late August. It features

7878-586: The same metrical conditions, to express a particular essential idea"). In the case of the work of Homer, formulas included eos rhododaktylos ("rosy fingered dawn") and oinops pontos ("winedark sea") which fit in a modular fashion into the poetic form (in this case six-colon Greek hexameter). Since the development of this theory, of oral-formulaic composition has been "found in many different time periods and many different cultures", and according to another source (John Miles Foley) "touch[ed] on" over 100 "ancient, medieval and modern traditions." The most recent of

7979-508: The seven re-tellings of the story of the Iblis and Adam , and the repeated phrases "which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?" in sura 55—make more sense addressed to listeners than readers. Banister, Dundes and other scholars (Shabbir Akhtar, Angelika Neuwirth, Islam Dayeh) have also noted the large amount of "formulaic" phraseology in the Quran consistent with " oral-formulaic composition " mentioned above. The most common formulas are

8080-560: The son of a "Makah mother who marries a white man" though the original lyric is " klahowya ", a greeting in Chinook Wawa , a widely-used trade language of the Pacific Northwest Makah language The Makah reside in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca . It is closely related to Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht , which are languages of

8181-408: The stories with local characters or rulers to give the stories a local flavor and thus connect with the audience, but making the historicity embedded in the oral tradition unreliable. The lack of surviving texts about the Greek and Roman religious traditions have led scholars to presume that these were ritualistic and transmitted as oral traditions, but some scholars disagree that the complex rituals in

8282-419: The storyteller's objective at the time. One's rendition of a story was often considered a response to another's rendition, with plot alterations suggesting alternative ways of applying traditional ideas to present conditions. Listeners might have heard the story told many times, or even may have told the same story themselves. This does not take away from a story's meaning, as curiosity about what happens next

8383-405: The structure of Makah society is a class system; people in the middle or lower classes could gain better social status by marrying into the upper levels. The community was in mostly a cognatic descent structure. The Makah traditional family consisted of parents and children living in a particular area. Members of Makah families were ranked in society according to their relationship to the chief of

8484-538: The surrounding forests. Women also gathered a wide variety of nuts, berries and edible plants and roots for their foods. In 1834, a dismasted, rudderless ship from Japan ran aground near Cape Flattery . The Makah took the three survivors of the broken ship and held them as slaves for several months before taking them to Fort Vancouver . From there, the United States transported them by ship to London and eventually China, but they never reached Japan again. On January 31, 1855, government-selected Makah representatives signed

8585-481: The teachings of Jesus Christ were initially passed on to early Christians by "the Apostles who, by their oral preaching, by example, and by observance handed on what they had received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did". The Catholic Church asserts that this mode of transmission of the faith persists through current-day bishops , who by right of apostolic succession , have continued

8686-411: The tribe. There were no stratifications in gender roles; all genders were equal, participating in the hunting of whales and other livestock. Although men were more fishermen and hunters, women's activities centered on gathering resources for the family. Makah oral history relates that their tradition of aboriginal whaling has been suspended and re-established several times. Most recently, the practice

8787-655: The use of script, in an unbroken line of transmission from teacher to student that was formalized early on. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the classical texts of other cultures; it is, in fact, something like a tape-recording ... Not just the actual words, but even the long-lost musical (tonal) accent (as in old Greek or in Japanese) has been preserved up to the present. Ancient Indians developed techniques for listening, memorization and recitation of their knowledge, in schools called Gurukul , while maintaining exceptional accuracy of their knowledge across

8888-674: The value of oral histories in written historical works. The Torah and other ancient Jewish literature, the Judeo-Christian Bible and texts of early centuries of Christianity are rooted in an oral tradition, and the term "People of the Book" is a medieval construct. This is evidenced, for example, by the multiple scriptural statements by Paul admitting "previously remembered tradition which he received" orally. Australian Aboriginal culture has thrived on oral traditions and oral histories passed down through thousands of years. In

8989-460: The village. Traditional ceremonies and songs are performed to welcome the whale's spirit. Following this, the whale is divided in a precise and traditional fashion, with certain families having ownership of particular cuts. The "saddle piece" located midway between the center of the back and the tail is the property of the harpooner. It is taken to his home where a special ceremony is performed. The meat and oil are distributed to community members, and

9090-440: The world". Modern archaeology has been unveiling evidence of the human efforts to preserve and transmit arts and knowledge that depended completely or partially on an oral tradition, across various cultures: The Judeo-Christian Bible reveals its oral traditional roots; medieval European manuscripts are penned by performing scribes; geometric vases from archaic Greece mirror Homer's oral style. (...) Indeed, if these final decades of

9191-571: The world's languages, Makah has no nasal phonemes , a trait it shares with the neighboring Quileute language . There are five phonologically short vowels (written ⟨a e i o u ⟩ and pronounced [ə] , [ɛ] , [ɪ] , [ɔ] , and [ʊ] ) and five phonologically long vowels (written ⟨a· e· i· o· u·⟩ and pronounced [a] , [æ] , [i] , [o] , and [u] ). There are also six diphthongs (written ⟨aw ay ey iy oy uy⟩, pronounced [aw] , [aj] , [e] , [iː] , [ɔj] , and [uːj] ). "Like other Wakashan languages, Makah inflects verbs for evidentiality , indicating

9292-457: The world's major religions, Islam claims two major sources of divine revelation—the Quran and hadith —compiled in written form relatively shortly after being revealed: The oral milieu in which the sources were revealed, and their oral form in general are important. The Arab poetry that preceded the Quran and the hadith were orally transmitted. Few Arabs were literate at the time and paper

9393-480: Was known for his justification of the oral tradition and criticism of the written word. Stories are used to preserve and transmit both tribal history and environmental history, which are often closely linked. Native oral traditions in the Pacific Northwest, for example, describe natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis. Various cultures from Vancouver Island and Washington have stories describing

9494-434: Was less of a priority than hearing fresh perspectives on well-known themes and plots. Elder storytellers generally were not concerned with discrepancies between their version of historical events and neighboring tribes' version of similar events, such as in origin stories. Tribal stories are considered valid within the tribe's own frame of reference and tribal experience. The 19th century Oglala Lakota tribal member Four Guns

9595-451: Was likely passed down through oral storytelling for centuries before being recorded in literature. Although Flower critiques the lack of ancient evidence supporting Wiseman's broader claims, Wiseman maintains that dramatic narratives fundamentally shaped historiography. In Asia, the transmission of folklore, mythologies as well as scriptures in ancient India, in different Indian religions, was by oral tradition, preserved with precision with

9696-475: Was made so to facilitate the "preservation and remembrance" of the work. Islamic doctrine holds that from the time it was revealed to the present day, the Quran has not been altered, its continuity from divine revelation to its current written form insured by the large numbers of Muhammad's supporters who had reverently memorized the work, a careful compiling process and divine intervention. (Muslim scholars agree that although scholars have worked hard to separate

9797-487: Was not available in the Middle East. The written Quran is said to have been created in part through memorization by Muhammad's companions , and the decision to create a standard written work is said to have come after the death in battle ( Yamama ) of a large number of Muslims who had memorized the work. For centuries, copies of the Qurans were transcribed by hand, not printed, and their scarcity and expense made reciting

9898-477: Was not until 1970 that it became apparent what was buried there. After a storm in February 1970, tidal erosion exposed hundreds of well-preserved wooden artifacts. The excavation of the Ozette site began shortly after. University students worked with the Makah under the direction of archaeologists using pressurized water to remove mud from six buried long houses. The excavation went on for 11 years. It produced more than 55,000 artifacts, many of which are on display in

9999-484: Was not used during the negotiation of the treaty, and the government used the S'Klallam-language name to refer to the tribe, rather than the Makah-language endoynm. In the early 17th century, a mudslide engulfed part of a Makah village near Lake Ozette . The oral history of the Makah mentions a "great slide" which engulfed a portion of Ozette long ago. The mudslide preserved several houses and their contents in

10100-407: Was of great value to Makah, who also used its bark to make water-resistant clothing and hats. Cedar roots were used in basket making. Whole trees were carved out to make canoes to hunt seals , gray whales and humpback whales . Makah acquired much of their food from the ocean. Their diet consisted of whale, seal, fish, and a wide variety of shellfish . They would also hunt deer, elk, and bear from

10201-566: Was suspended in the 1920s because the commercial whaling industry had depleted the stocks of humpback and gray whales ; all hunting was called off. After the gray whale was removed from the Endangered Species List , the Makah re-asserted their whaling rights. With the support and guidance of the United States government and the International Whaling Commission , the Makah successfully hunted

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