In their own words : a study of the history, nature, and function of oral tradition in Gilbertese society

Abstract

This is a study of Gilbertese historiography through oral tradition. It originated from my desire to seek for the true identity of the Gilbertese people. This study, then, is but one of the preliminary stages necessary to make such a search possible and successful because one cannot search for a people and their identity outside their own history. History is vital for the understanding of a people, who they were that makes them what they are today. For any history or reconstruction of the past to be possible, one has to have sources that provide the best possible access to ‘historic* significant incidents that determine the identity of the people. This is where the oral traditions of the elders are important. My argument in this thesis is that the oral traditions contain a close approximation of the past as lived, experienced and understood in the people’s own words long before the coming of the Europeans to our shores. Gilbertese oral tradition is a collection of stories about the ancestors as remembered and understood by the chroniclers and the people. These stories, for generations, have been transmitted through word of mouth. Although their verbal nature makes them intangible and conceivably therefore unreliable, many are authentic when tested and compared with written or other ‘hard’ facts. Show more