Justify oral literature as literature.

Literature is a written story of the human condition.  It
tells of the best and worst of who we are, how we react when we're grieving or in love,
and what we think--good and evil--in the deep recesses of our hearts.  It is
storytelling.

I'd make the case that oral literature is, in
fact, true literature.  A case in point is Beowulf.  This is an
epic poem which was sung/performed orally for hundreds of years before it was finally
transcribed into written word.  Over the course of time it grew and changed--as most
stories do.  We read it today, in a variety of both poem and prose translations, as
literature.  How about The Iliad and The
Odyssey?  Same kind of thing. 

I would only make
this distinction: all storytelling is not oral literature, just as all writing is not
literature.  It must rise above the mundane and silly; if it captures and relates the
richness of human nature and experience, it has a valid place in the world of
literature.