oral transmission
Speech-based transfer method
Oral transmission is the passing of knowledge, stories, or traditions by spoken word rather than writing.
Folklore, religious texts, and cultural practices survived for millennia through oral transmission before being written down.
The term also appears in medicine, where oral transmission refers to disease spread through the mouth—by kissing, sharing utensils, or ingesting contaminated material.
- griotAfrican oral tradition keeper
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- campfire storiesTales shared around outdoor flames
- bedtime storiesNarratives read before sleep
ancestral knowledge · passing down · tradition · spoken tradition · recitation · call and response · myth · mnemonic devices · lecture · language preservation · communal singing · legend · old wives' tales · conversation · bard · spoken word poetry · skald · Socratic method
- folklorefairy tales, fairytales, folktales, folk tales, folk tale
- Tibetan BuddhismBuddha, Tibet, Dalai Lama, lama, lamas
- ethnomusicologyethnomusicology, fieldwork, folk revival, field recordings, traditional music
- Guru Traditionsparampara, disciples, master, spiritual lineage, darshan
- Bon
- Kagyu Buddhism
oral transmissionwritten record
documentation · inscription · written communication · writing · written word