Technology, Literacy, and the Evolution of Society

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Not by Words Alone: Reclothing the “Oral”

Ruth Finnegan

Open University

Among Jack Goody’s manifold contributions are his fertile publications on literacy and orality. Enormously influential but (equally valuable) never uncontroversial, Goody’s insights and claims have released a flood of publications from the 1960s to the present, supporting, challenging, and interacting with his positions. Much of the discussion has revolved around issues about literacy. This chapter focuses on the other end, the concept of “oral.”

UNCOVERING THE ORAL

Here Goody’s works have been seminal. Many others before him had of course concerned themselves with verbal art, oral tradition, or vocal communication, and there was already extensive scholarly research within, ...