Oral Culture
Oral culture (orality) is a natural state in which we are highly attuned to our senses (touch, smell, sight, sound, and taste) and devote a great deal of attention to sensory information. Orality emphasizes our interconnection with the environment and the people in it. Some characteristics of orality are spontaneity, connectedness, present orientation, comfort with emotions, able to see "the big picture," and holistic.
Characteristics of Oral Culture
- Relationships
- Relationships are at the heart of everything and are first priority
- Spontaneous
- Strong desire for variety - Great abilities to "go with the flow" or jump from subject to subject with ease
- Repetitive
- Repetitive Storytelling and repeating the same thing over and over are important for maintaining the knowledge
- Holistic
- Focus on the "BIG picture" - tendency to take in everything that is going on around them
- Emotional
- Comfort with Emotions. Shows emotion readily in most any situation and is open to self-disclosing private details.
- Present Oriented
- Highly in-tune with the here-and-now
- Agonistic
- More physical
Print Culture
Print Culture (literacy) is a learned way of relating to the world where people learn to process and analyze (breaking things down according to parts) information collected through sight, sound, hearing, touch, and smell according to categories, classifications, and styles of reasoning developed by reading. Some characteristics of print culture are: self-discipline (ability to not pay attention to everything that is going on around you, but rather to focus on a single idea), separation and disconnection, ability to delay gratification, ability to strategize and plan ahead, ability to set goals, ability to develop technology, ability to break things down into parts, and ability to organize efforts according to predetermined goals.
