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By Root 2642 0

same, even if the second version were twice as long as the first. They are the same in the ways that matter to the listener: they tell the same story, express the same ideas, and follow the same rhyme and meter. They are the same in all senses that matter to the culture. Lord shows just how the combination of memory for poetics, theme, and style combine with cultural structures into what he calls a formula for producing an appropriate poem, perceived as identical to earlier recitations. The notion that someone should be able to recite word for word is relatively modern. Such a notion can be held only after printed texts become available; otherwise who could judge the accuracy of a recitation? Perhaps more important, who would care? All this is not to detract from the feat. Learning and reciting an epic poem such as Homer’s Odyssey or Iliad is clearly difficult even if the singer is recreating it: there are 27,000 lines of verse in the written version.9

Most of us do not learn epic poems. But we do make use of strong constraints that serve to simplify what must be retained in memory. Consider an example from a completely different domain: taking apart and reassembling a mechanical device. Typical items in the home that an adventuresome person might attempt to repair include a door lock, toaster, and washing machine. The device is apt to have tens of parts. What has to be remembered in order to put the parts together again in proper order? Not as much as might appear from an initial analysis. In the extreme case, if there are ten parts, there are 10! (10 factorial: 10 × 9 × 8 ...) different ways in which to reassemble them—a little over 3.5 million alternatives. But never can all possible orderings be produced: there will be a number of physical constraints on the ordering. Some pieces must be assembled before it is even possible to assemble the others. Some pieces are physically constrained from fitting into the spots reserved for others: bolts must fit into holes of an appropriate diameter and depth; nuts and washers must be paired with bolts and screws of appropriate sizes; and washers must always be put on before nuts. There are even cultural constraints: we turn screws clockwise to tighten, counterclockwise to loosen; the heads of screws tend to go on the visible part (front or top) of a piece, bolts on the less visible part (bottom, side, or interior) of a piece; wood screws and machine screws look different and are inserted into different kinds of materials. In the end, the apparently large number of decisions is reduced to only a few choices that should have been learned or otherwise noted during the disassembly. The constraints by themselves are often not sufficient to determine the proper reassembly of the device—mistakes do get made—but the constraints reduce the amount that must be learned to a reasonable quantity.

Memory Is Knowledge in the Head

Remember the story of ‘Ali Baba and the forty thieves? ‘Ali Baba discovered the secret words that opened the thieves’ cave. His brother-in-law, Kasim, forced him to reveal the secret. Kasim then went to the cave.

“When he reached the entrance of the cavern, he pronounced the words, Open Simsim!

“The door immediately opened, and when he was in, closed on him. In examining the cave he was greatly astonished to find much more riches than he had expected from Ali Baba’s relation. He quickly lade at the door of the cavern as many bags of gold as his ten mules could carry, but his thoughts were now so full of the great riches he should possess, that he could not think of the necessary words to make the door open. Instead of Open Simsim! he said Open Barley! and was much amazed to find that the door remained shut. He named several sorts of grain, but still the door would not open.

“Kasim never expected such an incident, and was so alarmed at the danger he was in that the more he endeavoured to remember the word Simsim the more his memory was confounded, and he had as much forgotten it as if he had never heard it mentioned. ”

Kasim never got out. The