There is some debate on the veracity of oral traditions
which have been used to explain the character of artifacts.
There is always the question of contamination by the spin
that might exist due to researcher bias or the effect of
later documents coloring early ideas.
I've seen film clips of girls in many parts of the world
playing a kind of clapping game, during which they speak
a rhyme while clapping hands, knees, and the partner's
hands in rhythm. I know of no written source for these
bits of poetry; they are, so far as I can tell, a completely
oral tradition,- even in thoroughly literate cultures.
Being an American male, I never learned any, but I recall
watching girls do now exactly as they did 50 years ago, and
wonder what we might learn by examining the oral tradition,
and seeing if we can, where it comes from. I find it all
the more remarkable in that it was always performed by the
girls between 7 & 14, existing only for a few years among
any particular peer group, instead of being handed down by
the mature elders.
Presumably, this list is global, and members will at one
time or another be found in all parts. Is this tradition
global? Is there a common thread in the poetry? Is the
meter always the same? Is the format as fixed as a sonnet?
Or, are there several different routines? How much
variation is there in a totally oral tradition?
uncopywritten material; do whatever you want with it.
-- Arachne V1.50;beta, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://home.arachne.cz/
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