Tradition in Bruce Olson (Class Readings)

April 20, 2022 

Something that stuck out to me in the book "Bruchko" by Bruce Olson was the number of traditions that the Motilone people had. To them, everything has a meaning that is important. For example, when Bruce first met the Motilone people, they shot him with an arrow. The only reason that he lived was because the tribe had a rule against killing injured people. Later in the book Bruce sees Cobaydra's ceremony for reaching manhood, where he is given a G-string to wear. 

 

I think that written cultures are less likely and able to have these same traditions and practices. While there are many practices and traditions that likely occur in my culture that I am not aware of, it seems like these rules are less strict. There are always reasons for the things that we do that are generally grounded in some scientific truth or moral truth that we have taken from texts of the past. The Motilone people, though, have no text to look back to, but only the traditions that they have passed down orally throughout the years. This begs the question of whether oral cultures are more conducive to traditions and practices than written cultures are.

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