compare and contrast scriptural and an oral traditions

“What are the differences between a scriptural and an oral tradition?”

The first and most obvious answer to this question is that an oral tradition passes down their knowledge within the community from mouth to mouth. The knowledge of creation, the performance of scared rituals as well as sacred knowledge of the land and its uses has been passed down within the families of cultures that follow an oral tradition. However in a scriptural tradition, the knowledge of the past is recorded in books and available to those with an understanding of how to read.
Another difference in oral traditions and scriptural traditions is that the later is not as flexible. It is set in stone so to speak. Once the information has been written down it cannot be changed as easily to facilitate the change of the times and new ideas. This differs in comparison to oral traditions, as Mary Fisher points out that when she says,
“In most native cultures, spiritual life ways are shared orally. This characteristic helps to keep the indigenous sacred ways dynamic and flexible rather than fossilized. It also keeps the sacred experience fresh in the present. These oral accounts are often rich in symbols, metaphors, and humor which are not easily understood by outsiders but which are central to a peoples understanding of how life works (Fisher, p.34).”
The symbols and metaphors that are contained within an oral tradition generally develop with certain aspects pertaining to the geography of the area. For a tribe in the Amazon a certain mountain might be the birth place of a specific god. There would then be a story that encompassed the relationship of that god to that particular mountain. But to someone who is removed from the oral culture, the mountain is just a mountain and the story is only a story, not something which should be seriously considered as a reality.
Another difference between scriptural traditions and oral traditions is that for scriptural traditions once the information has been written down it can easily be replicated into another book. For oral traditions the stories must be memorized by individuals who are responsible for remembering the entirety of tribe’s myths, rituals and other sacred knowledge. To further the point, Mary Fisher says in her book,
“Because the traditions are oral rather than written, these people must memorize long and complex stories and songs so that the groups sacred traditions can be remembered and taught, generation after generation. The orally transmitted epics of the indigenous Ainu of Japan are up to 10,000 “lines” long. Chants of the Yoruba orisa comprise 256 “volumes” of 800 long verses each (Fisher. p,48).”
The lengthy material preserved by oral tradition shows great dedication of those responsible for passing down the knowledge from generation to generation. Whereas scriptural traditions allow for information to be preserved with much less effort than it down within an oral tradition.