History and Memory

I know, I know, its been done to death.  I was just thinking about oral tradition stories, and whether to classify them as history or memory.  A lot of the old testament is based in oral tradition, and it certainly presents itself as a history of the world in the time before the invention of written documentation, even if we heathens don't believe in the events. I think I would say oral tradition is supposed to be either history or a regular old piece of fiction, but because it is passed from generation to generation, it can't really be a memory.  I was also thinking about the reason memory can change over time, and I think it comes down to emotion. Because the way you feel about something can change over time, the memories of those things are equally distorted.  Like when Amaranta began to hate Rebeca, the memories of her, even the happy ones, would surely be distorted and baddenered, especially as time passed. But if you have a story or a history already written down, its harder to retain the same kind of subjectivity. I don't want to talk about it anymore, I'm sick of it.