JUDICIAL VOICES PROJECT
Capturing Histories of the South Dakota Supreme Court on its 125th Anniversary
HISTORIES, ACCOUNTS AND COMMENTARIES ON THE SUPREME COURT AND LEGAL PRACTICE IN THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
What Oral History?
In every community . . . there are people who have knowledge and skills to share . . . ways of knowing and doing that often come from years of experience and have been preserved and passed down across generations. As active participants in community life, these bearers of tradition are primary sources of culture and history. [They are] “living links in the historical chain, eye witnesses to history . . . They are unparalleled in the vividness and authenticity they can bring to the study of local history and culture.” –Folklorist Marjorie Hunt, Ph.D.
With the advent of writing came “history” – an author’s written account of past events. As these “histories” emerged, so too developed the rules, methods, and conventions commonly accepted for producing such work. This methodology or “historiography” reemphasized the importance of written accounts often determining that “true history” comes from primary physical sources such as original documents, creative works, or artifacts. Although it would be wrong to deny the critical value of primary written sources, accounts of past events had long been in existence before these writings. As long as humans have communicated, these oral accounts – “oral traditions,” “oral histories,” “orature,” – have in their own right accumulated, preserved, and passed along knowledge of the past.
"A recorded oral history is more than just a quote on a page in a book. It is a meaningful story expressed by the person who owns that story."
~ Doug Boyd
Though the value historians and other academics have assigned to such oral accounts have changed over time, more and more contemporary scholars are revisiting and reexamining the nature, content, and role of oral histories in attempts to craft a more thorough understanding of the past. As Hunt explained, oral histories can provide a unique perspective that comes from “years of experience” and living within the historical context an interviewer is seeking to illuminate. Oral histories can provide a more well-rounded approach to the historical record. Italian oral historian Alessandro Portelli has argued that oral sources provide a great deal more substance than the visible, bare bones facts in written records. Oral sources, according to Portelli,
“tell us not just what people did, but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were doing, what they now think they did.”
This information contributes to better understanding historical events, time periods, and institutions.