Summation
- Volume 25, Number 1
- William Graham
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- http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/25i/graham
Abstract
My response to the conference focuses on five issues: (1) the importance of the reciprocity and interdependence of orality and writtenness; (2) the importance of socio-political-economic facets of textual uses; (3) the recitative, performative dimensions of the texts treated; (4) the largely Mediterranean provenance of the texts treated; and (5) the authority of texts, both written and oral. Finally, I make a tentative suggestion about the importance of the perceived authority rather than writtenness of major religious texts as the locus of sacrality, since the papers demonstrate how much both orality and writtenness are involved in the life of these texts.
