Amhara oral traditions: the urgency of rescuing a cultural heritage

Abstract

All human societies devise ways to filter and preserve memories of their past, since the complementary abilities to forget and remember are essential parts of their heritage and guarantors of their collective identity. The use of oral forms to narrate past events, and to make sense of the society’s position in the world, is widespread; their style, their subject matter, and their relation to other forms (written, painted, built, or otherwise) varies widely. Inasmuch as they tend to be very selective and also prone to transformation reflecting temporal changes, localized perceptions and group sensibilities, oral traditions are therefore both a complex and challenging support for expressing cultural heritage.