Final answer:
Oral history is essential for preserving individual stories, supplementing written records with diverse perspectives, understanding cultural nuances, documenting the experiences of common individuals, and fostering a sense of community and shared heritage.
Step-by-step explanation:
Studying and doing oral history are important for a multitude of reasons. Among these are preservation of personal experiences and narratives, which ensures that individual stories and viewpoints are retained for future generations. This contributes to supplementing written historical records with diverse perspectives, providing a more complete picture of the past. It is also key in understanding cultural traditions, customs, and social practices, as oral histories often capture the nuances of cultural life not always evident in written sources.
Through oral history, we can document historical events from the sometimes overlooked viewpoint of common people, giving voice to those who may not have been heard in traditional historical narratives. Moreover, oral history fosters a sense of community and shared heritage, cementing the bonds between individuals and groups across time by sharing and recognizing common experiences and stories. Personal writing, including narratives and memoirs, becomes a gateway to explore these cultural contexts, giving readers a deeper emotional connection to the subjects discussed. Origin stories, a form of oral history, serve to not only explain a group's origins but also to promote a common cultural identity and establish their relationship with the world.