An oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history , literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system , by telling stories and talking . An example that combined aspects of oral literature and oral history , before being written down , is the Homeric poetry of the Iliad and the Odyssey . In this way , it is possible for a society to transmit oral history , oral literature , oral law and other knowledges across generations without a writing system .