Originally Posted by irateplatypus

i don't think comparing the ancient oral tradition with a game of telephone is fair to the historical reality. when the oral tradition was the primary means of transmitting sacred texts from one generation to another, it was a scholarly discipline to commit huge tracts of knowledge to memory with perfect accuracy.

surely there were some changes and mistaken recollections... but the system they used, and the seriousness and care they took in using it really has no parallel today. we can record our knowledge in many different formats for the ages unchanged, we don't need to.