Question

what is the strengths and weakness of oral history

Answer 1

Oral histories are stories that living individuals tell about their past, or about the past of other people. Oral tradition can be defined as testimony transmitted by word of mouth from one generation to another. Here the information is obtained by talking and listening to people with historical information especially elders. The message transmitted orally, were preserved by memory.

Strengths:

• It can be given anywhere and any time by adult who have some historical facts
• It is less expensive compared to other source of historical information such as books and museums. This is because it does not need selling and buying of information
• It does not need a person to know how to read and write.
• It is possible to ask questions to the oral informant so as to in-depth information and hear them in raw emotions.

Weaknesses:

• Oral tradition does not go very far in the past. The transmission of information depend on the power of memories of successive generations
• Oral tradition does not maintain the same value of the oral history; instead the values keeps on changing as time goes
• Oral tradition may be biased. This is possible because of nature of transmission itself. oral transmission is full of exaggeration, creativity and sometimes the informant may talk of good things only.