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Oral Tradition (oral + tradition)
Selected AbstractsNative American Oral Traditions: Collaboration and Interpretation.AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2002Victor Golla Native American Oral Traditions: Collaboration and Interpretation. Larry Evers and Barre Toelken. eds. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2001. 264 pp. [source] A Bridge Too Far?ENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2001Floppy Fail the Apprentice Reader, How Biff, Kipper Abstract This article is the result of a re-examination of reading scheme books. Taking a literary perspective, the implied reader was investigated in the most popular scheme, The Oxford Reading nee, in order to ascertain how the reader is constructed by the text. It is argued that such texts covertly construct a passive, struggling reader. As such, this has important implications for the National Literacy Strategy, particularly in the selection of texts for Guided Reading. Summary Reading scheme books are designed to bridge the gap between the oral language of the child and the literary language of the book. What is considered important is a recognisable primary world. There is little dialogue yet the language is supposed to reflect that of the child. Short simple sentences devoid of cohesive devices are considered easier to read because the apprentice reader is deemed not to have stamina. Key words such as nouns and verbs are emphasised and little attention is paid to rhythm, hence few elisions and much repetition. As such the reading scheme does not reflect the language of the child for there is little colloquial expression and the lack of literary features actually makes the text very difficult to read. Implied is a reader who is going to find the whole process difficult and has little to bring to the text. On the other hand the children's literature analysed enjoys a variety of narratives and subject matter yet all support the apprentice reader. Such literary texts employ cohesive devices, the third person has a sense of telling with echoes of the oral tradition while those in first person offer a sense of a teller close to the reader. Direct speech is used, which acts as a bridge from the oral to the literary world. The reader is being guided and helped and not left to struggle. Ironically, it is the literary text that offers more support than the supposedly carefully constructed reading scheme. Furthermore, it can be seen that the reading scheme examined constructs a passive reader to whom things happen. The construction of childhood itself is without joy, excitement and wonder. There is a dullness in the text and a dullness in the characters and the plot that constructs a negative view of reading and a negative construction of the child. The model in Figure 1 summarises the difference between the two types of text: Clearly this has implications for texts selected for pupils to read in the National Literacy Strategy, particularly for Guided Reading. There is no shortage in the UK of appropriate, well-written and superbly illustrated children's books that challenge, support and create an interest in literature. It remains a mystery why the dull reading scheme still has such a strong place in the primary classroom. [source] Kalevala or Keats: poetic traditions as a model for multidisciplinary miscommunication and team splittingJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 7 2008D. DODWELL Attention is drawn to the oral tradition in poetry and some ways in which it differs from written, literary poetry. Some of these differences mirror differences between the oral communication typical of a psychiatric ward nursing handover and the writing-based communication styles of psychiatrists. In particular, the oral tradition tends to involve an interactive and participatory style, stewardship (rather than authorship) of the message, a less linear approach to time and valuing the use of familiar formulae. Neither style is intrinsically superior or inferior. The two styles have significant differences in context, intent and rules (i.e. in linguistic ,pragmatics'). In mental health practice, the apparently shared vocabulary and setting conceals these differences. The fact that these variations are hidden increases the risks of miscommunication and of team splitting. The use of an analogy from poetry is intended to make the differences more explicit, and thus generate awareness, discussion and problem solving. [source] Books and Bodies, Bound and UnboundORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 2 2009Thomas Pettitt A recent trend in literary history, cultural studies and folkloristics has been a ,corporeal turn', which focuses on how bodies are constructed and understood in texts and other cultural productions. A significant contribution from Guillemette Bolens identifies two distinct corporal constructions in medieval narrative: the contained body (an envelope vulnerable to penetration) and the articulated body (limbs and joints designed for motion). This perception is here extended to include narrative constructions of the environment (enclosures versus avenues and junctions). Furthermore Bolens's suggestion that articulated and contained bodies are mainly to be found, respectively, in oral tradition and textual culture, is elaborated to the thesis that the contained constructions will be particularly at home in the printed book, whose dominance is associated with cultural containment from a variety of perspectives. And a shift from predominantly articulated constructions to predominantly contained is indeed discernible in the wonder tale ,Red Riding Hood', as it modulates from oral tradition to printed fairy tale. Concluding speculations suggest that if the cultural dominance of the printed book has been a (,Gutenberg') parenthesis, the tale should now be reverting to articulated constructions as it escapes from books into the digital media and Internet technology. [source] Social Identity and Culture Change on the Southern Northwest CoastAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 3 2007MARK A. TVESKOV Driven by the participation of Native American people in the contemporary political, cultural, and academic landscape of North America, public and academic discussions have considered the nature of contemporary American Indian identity and the persistence, survival, and (to some) reinvention of Native American cultures and traditions. I use a case study,the historical anthropology of the Native American people of the Oregon coast,to examine the persistence of many American Indian people through the colonial period and the subsequent revitalization of "traditional" cultural practices. Drawing on archaeological data, ethnohistorical accounts, and oral traditions, I offer a reading of how, set against and through an ancestral landscape, traditional social identities and relationships of gender and authority were constructed and contested. I then consider how American Indian people negotiated the new sets of social relationships dictated by the dominant society. [source] Trust in development: some implications of knowing in indigenous knowledgeTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 1 2010Paul Sillitoe The indigenous knowledge (IK) initiative in development has met with limited success. The cultural relativity of knowledge , i.e. what qualifies as justified belief , may partly explain why. Drawing on New Guinea Highlands' ethnography, I explore the implications for dominant capitalist development discourse of constituting and verifying knowledge differently. Trust emerges as a central issue. Highlanders' approach to knowing attends to the subjective nature of understanding and potential for disagreement. The grammar of language , such as that spoken by the Wola of the Southern Highlands Province , reflects these concerns, notably attention to the source/reliability of any professed knowledge. This evidential interest relates to oral traditions, enskilled knowing, and individual knowledge variability, in addition to the trust to be put on any expressed knowledge. It relates also to how stateless political contexts preclude the imposition of views, such as what comprises economic development; albeit what shape an alternative ,acephalous development' might take is currently unclear. Résumé L'initiative sur les savoirs autochtones (indigenous knowledge (IK)) dans le développement n'a connu qu'un succès mitigé. Ce résultat médiocre peut s'expliquer par la relativité culturelle des savoirs, autrement dit de ce qui peut être considéré comme une croyance justifiée. À partir de l'ethnographie des Hautes Terres de Nouvelle-Guinée, l'auteur explore les implications pour le discours capitaliste dominant en matière de développement d'une nouvelle manière de constituer et de valider les connaissances. La confiance s'avère une question centrale dans cette optique. L'approche du savoir par les habitants des Hautes Terres tient compte de la nature subjective de la compréhension et de la possibilité de désaccords. La grammaire de la langue, par exemple de celle des Wolas de la province des Hautes Terres du Sud, reflète ces préoccupations, et notamment l'attention portée à la source et à la fiabilité des connaissances déclarées. Outre la confiance que l'on peut accorder à tout savoir exprimé, cet intérêt pour les preuves est liéà la tradition orale, aux connaissances acquises et à la variabilité des connaissances individuelles. Il est donc aussi corréléà la manière dont des contextes politiques non étatiques empêchent l'imposition d'opinions, telles que celles qui ont trait à ce en quoi consiste le développement économique. Pour autant, la forme que pourrait prendre un mode différent de « développement acéphale » n'est pas nette pour l'instant. [source] | ||||||||||