Essays on the Marshallese Past Oral Traditions and History

Oral Traditions

In the pre-European times the body of knowledge the Marshallese society possessed was handed down orally, that is by word of mouth. Such oral traditions contain a wealth of information, information on the social system, custom practices, as well as belief structures, habits and general ways of life. Oral traditions are handed down from generation to generation, gradually modified in the process, according to the social and political demands of the times. Still, these traditions offer us a window into the past, as accurate, and as subjective as written accounts.These traditions have been preserved as chants, songs, stories, proverbs and the like. The following story about Lijebake has a bearing on how Marshallese perceived their origin and why there are turtles found among the northern atolls.

Oral History

While oral traditions cover all stories handed on by word of mouth, oral history covers the experiences of the person re-telling the tale, the person being and eye-witness to the event. Only rarely, such as in the event retold below, is the oral history retold by someone else, having obtained the story from persons being eye-witnesses themselves. In the example, the story shows well the bewilderment the Marshallese felt when Europeans took one of the own along on a voyage. The text is an almost literal transcription of the Marshallese.