Orality as a Possible Form of Knowledge Construction

Abstract

Orality is the oldest form of communication and the predominant way of exchanging information in which senses and meanings are brought into play. Its only material support is memory and, therefore, it is characterized as volatile and evanescent. It uses the space of sound and, unlike writing, is labile.

In this article, we intend to address orality as an object of study, but above all as a technique and methodology that makes it possible to access certain individual and collective events that would not be accessible by other means. We will review some predominant and hegemonic paradigms, beginning with an examination of the epistemological foundations established by the natural and physical sciences. The purpose will be to critically analyze the models that historically appeared as the only methods capable of guaranteeing objective knowledge, and to question their assumptions.

We believe that there are other ways of accessing the socio-historical world and the diversity of cultural groups. By placing emphasis on orality, we will draw on epistemological, theoretical, and methodological contributions that allow for a repositioning when approaching a research problem that may be addressed from the social sciences.

Some lines of work maintain that orality constitutes a new scientific paradigm, whereas others simply present it as pseudo-scientific, with its own methods and tools. We will attempt to provide elements that help assess these positions, seeking to indicate historically legitimized forms of knowledge construction and to make visible those that are not.