Effortlessly known?  I suspect the cultural background of these people is the
product of a great deal of effort.  I agree, however, that the point is that
oral tradition/cultural tradition can be very valuable and should be included.
We must be aware not to trap ourselves into another round of "freezing" people
in some sort of ethnographic present or past, or attributing to them a
concept of so-called racial memory.
Staeck at Luther