http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/225223 Sun, 19 May 2013 22:46:53 GMT 2013-05-19T22:46:53Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/244271 Title: Encyclopaedia of Literatures in African Languages Authors: Baumgardt, Ursula; Lorin, Marie Abstract: The Encyclopaedia of Literature in African Languages (ELLAf) project focuses on oral and written literature in African languages. The project proposes the creation of a website presenting and analysing literary texts in African languages, in order to make a wide range of these written or oral texts, in Sub-Saharan African and Malagasy languages, available to enthusiasts, students and specialists from around the world. The project aims to build up a research database based on literary works produced in their original languages, translated into French and/or English and presented in their linguistic, social and cultural contexts. This paper considers the relevance of ELLAf’s technical and archival structure to its impact on improving widespread knowledge of literatures in African languages. Description: Ursula Baumgardt is Professor of Orality and African Literature at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisation Orientales (INALCO) in Paris. She is also a member of the CNRS council UMR 8135 Langage, Langues et Cultures d’Afrique Noire (LLACAN). Baumgardt holds a Phd in African francophone literature and studied Haussa and Fulani at INALCO. She completed her fieldwork in Northern Cameroon, focusing on Fulani Tales. Her Phd on the repository of a Fulani storyteller was published in 2000 (Une conteuse peule et son répertoire, Goggo Addi de Garoua, Cameroun, Paris: Karthala). Her publications include Littératures orales africaines. Perspectives théoriques et méthodologiques (with Jean Derive) and L’expression de l’espace dans les langues africaines I et II (with Paulette Roulon-Doko). Marie Lorin is a Phd student in African Literatures at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris and Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal. Based on many fieldwork seasons in Senegal, specifically in Foûta Tôro (North Senegal), her Phd dissertation focuses on Fulani myths collected around the Senegal River, combining literary and anthropological approaches. Lorin holds a special interest in the part that new media play in the transmission of African oral literatures. She is a founder member and the current webmaster of ELLAf’s website. Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/244271 2013-02-01T00:00:00Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/243434 Title: The UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger: Context and Process Authors: Moseley, Christopher Abstract: As General Editor of the third edition of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, Christopher Moseley came to an already-existing project that had been evolving and expanding over two editions, but had yet to truly encompass the whole world. The opportunity to keep continuously abreast of the threats to the world’s weaker languages was created by providing an additional version of the Atlas, accessible online for the first time through the UNESCO website, with an option for users to submit comments and suggestions for amendments and corrections to the more comprehensive data provided in this third edition. In this paper, Moseley retraces the Atlas back to its origins and explain the process of expanding its coverage and enhancing its accessibility to the interested lay user. Description: Christopher Moseley is General Editor of the third edition of the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (2010). Alongside linguistic geography, his research interests are in newly written languages and the creation of orthographies to suit them. Moseley completed his Master’s degree in Baltic-Finnic linguistics and his doctoral research in linguistics at the University College London (UCL) School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He has held posts at BBC Monitoring (a branch of the World Service); as Teaching Fellow in Latvian at the Language Centre at UCL; as a freelance translator and editor; and as Treasurer for the Foundation of Endangered Languages. Moseley also co-edited the second edition of the Routledge Atlas of the World’s Languages (2007). He completed this fifth Occasional Paper for the World Oral Literature Project in 2012, on the development of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger Thu, 31 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/243434 2012-05-31T23:00:00Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/237322 Title: From Oral Literature to Technauriture: What’s in a Name? Authors: Kaschula, Russell; Mostert, Andre Abstract: Oral traditions and oral literature have long contributed to human communication, yet the advent of arguably the most influential technology—the written word—altered the course of creative ability. Despite its potential and scope, the development of the written word resulted in an insidious dichotomy. As the written word evolved, the oral word became devalued and pushed to the fringes of society. One of the unfortunate consequences of this transition to writing has been a focus on the systems and conventions of orality and oral tradition. Although of importance, a more appropriate focus would be on ways of supporting and maintaining the oral word, and its innate value to human society, in the face of rampant technological development. Yet it is ironic that technology is also helping to create a fecund environment for the rebirth of orality. This paper offers an overview of the debate about the relationship between oral literature, the written word and technology, and suggests that the term technauriture may offer a suitable encompassing paradigm for further engagement with the oral word and its application to modern society. We discuss the late Bongani Sitole, a poet whose oral works were transformed into public and educational resources through the application of technology, and we consider the utility of the term technauriture for describing the relationship between orality, literature and technology. Description: Russell H. Kaschula is Professor of African Language Studies and Head of the School of Languages at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. His doctoral research focussed on African literature, and his works of creative writing have received a number of prestigious literature and short story prizes. Professor Kaschula is an author of both English and isiXhosa academic and literary works, with novels including The Tsitsa River and Beyond and Mama, I Sing to You. In 2011, his short story Six Teaspoons of Sweetness was included in the International PEN-Studzinski award. Andre M. Mostert is a research associate at the School of Languages at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, where he recently completed a master’s thesis on the literary work of the poet Bongani Sitole. Mostert’s interests focus on entrepreneurship and enterprise in schools, the use of ICT in education and training, and the role of ICT in promoting the capture and dissemination of oral poetry. Mostert is the gaming scientist for the EU Player project to support young entrepreneurs and, together with Professor Kaschula, co-developed the ‘publish and thrive’ model of supporting the research records of emerging academics. Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/237322 2011-04-30T23:00:00Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/226673 Title: The Epic of Pabuji ki par in Performance Authors: Wickett, Elizabeth Abstract: In the spectacular performance tradition of Pabuji ki par, duos known as bhopas and bhopis, members of an indigenous musician caste of Rajasthan, sing the epic of Pabuji to nomadic communities in honour of their patron deity, a fourteenth-century hero, at venues across the Thar desert. Standing in front of a resplendent painted scroll called a phad, the husband bhopa strums his fiddle-like ravanhatta, providing lead rhythm and melody while his wife, the bhopi, veiled and normally silent, dominates the performance with her high-pitched, emotionally charged vocal power. The bhopas' livelihoods are now under threat. Their main patrons, nomadic herders, still believe in Pabuji's divine ability to cure animals and bring rain to Thar desert dwellers, but pasture and water sources have been encroached upon and their survival is in jeopardy. This study comprises two distinct parts. The first explores the aesthetic, religious and historical roots to this pictorial narrative tradition, how the phad functions as a sacred temple to its devotees for healing rituals and considers how the performance of Pabuji's epic had become a vehicle for social critique by the disempowered. The significant role of the bhopi in articulating the woman's voice, the reincarnation and incorporation of famous revered characters from the Ramayana in the epic of Pabuji and its socio-cultural transformations post Indian independence are considered in the wider context of Indian epics. The second part provides summaries of four live performances of the epic, illustrating its stylistic and textual diversity. Description: Dr Wickett is an independent scholar and filmmaker specialising in the study of oral traditions, folk epics and belief systems in Upper Egypt from the perspective of the ethnography of speaking, poetics and gender. A fervent advocate of the importance of visual documentation for the analysis of oral text, Dr Wickett has produced several 'anthro docs', including For Those Who Sail to Heaven, a film that examines cultural legacy, beliefs and tradition at the festival of Luxor's patron saint, also accompanied by a monograph, published by the American Research Centre in Egypt. Dr Wickett's doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania on funerary lamentation is published by IB Tauris with the title For the Living and the Dead: The Funerary Laments of Upper Egypt, Ancient and Modern (2010), and future projects include a new compendium of Luxor legends and oral epics that will examine the enduring influence of ancient motifs on Egyptian folk memory. Mon, 18 Oct 2010 23:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/226673 2010-10-18T23:00:00Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/226585 Title: The Sabah Oral Literature Project Authors: Appell, George Abstract: George and Laura Appell were prevented by the Sabah government from continuing their research among the Rungus, which had begun in 1959-1963. But in 1986 they were permitted to return to the Rungus and visit their friends. By then little of the traditional Rungus social organization and culture remained unchanged, except for their oral literature. Consequently, George and Laura Appell formed the Sabah Oral Literature Project to collect the various genre from the Rungus and related ethnic groups. The project was so constructed as to be run by the Rungus for the Rungus, with the Appells providing equipment, direction and training. It was hoped that this project would form a model for ethnic groups in other areas of Sabah and in other regions of the world to begin collecting their own oral literature. This article covers the various genre of Rungus oral literature from the extensive religious poems performed by priestesses to cure illness and promote fertility, to the prayers for the rice spirits, to historical narratives, songs, and word play. It discusses the selection of personnel to collect texts, their training, the equipment used, the payment of performers, the transcription of texts, the archiving of the recordings and problems in translating the texts. Translation and exegesis requires a detailed knowledge of the culture, which may necessitate study and analysis by scholars outside the society. Description: George N. Appell, M.B.A., A.M. (Harvard), Ph.D. (Australian National University) is a social anthropologist. He has done fieldwork, assisted by his wife Laura W.R. Appell, among the Dogrib Indians of the Northwest Territories of Canada, the Rungus of Sabah, Malaysia, and the Bulusu’ of Indonesian Borneo. They began working with the Rungus in 1959 to record their social organization, language, religion and cultural ecology. They continue to work with the Rungus and are compiling ‘The Rungus Cultural Dictionary’ as well as managing the Sabah Oral Literature Project. This project continues to collect the oral literature of the Rungus and other peoples of the Kudat Peninsula. Dr Appell is cofounder and president of the Borneo Research Council, founder and president of the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research, founder of the Anthropologists’ Fund for Urgent Anthropological Research, and is Senior Visiting Scholar in the Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University. He is currently finishing a monograph on culture-free methods to determine rights over resource tenure and other property interests that are faithful to the local distinctions. Other information on the publications of the Appells can be found at: www.gnappell.org Tue, 28 Sep 2010 23:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/226585 2010-09-28T23:00:00Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/225600 Title: Faroese skjaldur Authors: Leonard, Stephen Pax Abstract: Faroese skjaldur are a genre of oral literature and music comprising rhymes, lullabies and short tales that have existed for centuries and played a part in the transmission — and survival — of the Faroese language. Rich in content, skjaldur illustrate how folklore, language and local knowledge were passed down the generations.While the origins of the genre remain opaque, they were part of a wider tradition of oral literature that included ballads, kvæ ir (poems, tales) and tættir (satirical ballads, often rude and insulting). The nineteenth century, when the Faroese language was most threatened by the colonial language, Danish, saw the flourishing of verbal arts, ethnic music and ballads.The influence of skjaldur and other forms of oral literature on the vernacular language has been disproportionately significant, as Faroese did not develop a written tradition until the nineteenth century. Faroese was never a minority language as such and survived the onslaught of Danish through its position as an oral form in a bilingual environment, with its use restricted to the homestead where oral literature continued to thrive. The contribution of skjaldur to the development of the Faroese language is thus beyond doubt. At present, however, in the increasingly urbanised society of the Faroe Isles, the custom of parents narrating nursery rhymes, counting games, lullabies and folktales to their children is rapidly giving way to more mainstream entertainment media, transmitted in either English and Danish. Description: Dr Leonard is a Research Fellow at Trinity Hall College, the Department of Linguistics and the Scott Polar Research Institute, all at the University of Cambridge. He is an anthropological linguist with research interests in the role of language in the establishment of social and linguistic identities in small speech communities, the ethnography of speaking, endangered languages and cultures, linguistic diversity and language revitalisation. His doctoral research at the University of Oxford focused on the construction of social and linguistic identity in early Iceland, and he has conducted sociolinguistic and ethnographic research in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. In 2010, Dr Leonard embarked on a new project to document the endangered oral traditions and communicative practices of the Inughuit people in northwest Greenland. Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/225600 2010-06-16T23:00:00Z