RE: Inaccurate myths

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 09:34:09 +0100

> I remember an anthropologist doing research on oral
> traditions on the African continent (Ethiopia?) and concluded
> that they were actually very accurate.
>
> I don't remember what the conclusion was based on, as you
> can't just go back a couple of centuries and check. I assume
> he would just compare different clans/tribes, their mutual
> contact in history.

There was a TV program about Troy the other night, where they looked into the possible accuracy of Homer's stories, given that they'd pased through oral tradition for a few centuries before being written down. As a comparison, someone investigated the oral traditions of Eastern Europe, which are *still* being passed down even now. They found a description of a battle several centuries earlier, and compared it with written accounts. It was accurate. And I know they said some of the stories being remembered were considerably longer than the Iliad. I *think* (based on a reminder via Google) that I'm thinking of Serbian oral tradition and the battle of Kosovo in 1389.