World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009's image
Created: 2010-04-22 14:20
Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Description: This two-day workshop brought together established scholars, early career researchers and graduate students with indigenous researchers, museum curators, archivists and audio-visual experts to discuss strategies for collecting, recording, preserving and disseminating oral literatures and endangered narrative traditions. In view of the diversity of current research initiatives on the oral literatures of the Asia-Pacific, and the geographical strengths of Cambridge-based scholars, the workshop had a broad focus on this region. Specific sessions were held on the Himalayas (India and Nepal), High Asia (China, Mongolia and Tibet) and the Pacific (Vanuatu).

The workshop provided a collaborative environment for scholars to present, discuss and be exposed to new techniques and fieldwork methodologies. Topics included the ethical responsibilities of researchers, their engagements with local communities as partners, the place of western universities as archival repositories of living traditions and sites of interaction for indigenous communities, and the role of local digital archives and community cultural centres in knowledge transfer, teaching and research.
 

Media items

This collection contains 17 media items.

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Media items

Alban von Stockhausen: Reciting Landscape: Documenting Ritual Journeys and Landscape among the Dumi Rai of Eastern Nepal

   318 views

Among the Dumi Rai of eastern Nepal, the notions of ethnic identity and its geographical boundaries and reference points are strongly expressed in oral recitations. In many...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Anne de Sales: Collecting Shamanic Songs in Nepal

   685 views

Shamanic songs describe what the shaman does as he is doing it. The reflexive character of shamanic performances makes it necessary to study the oral tradition within its ritual...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Carole Pegg: Re-sounding the Spirits of Altai-Sayan Oral Epic Performance

   300 views

My paper argues that, when collecting and re-presenting traditions based on orality, we need to consider the challenges of transferring from one medium to another, for instance,...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Christopher Kaplonski: Data, Basically: Computers, Documents and the Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia

   200 views

The international research project 'The Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia' currently has well over 400 interviews in its database. The database encompasses background...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


David Nathan: A New Look at Archiving for Sensitive Community Based Materials: A "web 2.0" Approach to Distribution and...

   320 views

The Endangered Languages Archive at SOAS is creating a new archiving system that takes advantage of developments in web-based social networking in order to address complexities...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Elin Stangeland: DSpace@Cambridge - Ensuring Access to Cultural Heritage Resources

   314 views

DSpace@Cambridge is the institutional repository for the University of Cambridge. It was established to facilitate both dissemination and preservation of digital materials created...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Gerald Roche: Participatory Cultural Preservation on the Sino-Tibetan Fringe

   366 views

This paper discusses the application of participatory methods – developed by Robert Chambers within the context of development studies – to the practice of cultural preservation....

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Judith Pettigrew: Tamu Shamans' Books: The Challenges of Textualising the Pye-ta Lhu-ta

   455 views

In this presentation, I discuss my ongoing work with the Tamu-mai, an ethnolinguistic community of central Nepal with whom I have been working collaboratively for two decades. I...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Katey Blumenthal: Who's Singing Now?: Exploring the Effects of Reframing Lo Monthang's Musical Dialogue

   396 views

This talk concerns the ethical dilemmas presented during 2009 fieldwork that sought to archive and disseminate the folk song repertoire of Lo, an ethnically Tibetan region in the...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Lissant Bolton: Collecting Change in Vanuatu: Oral Traditions and Cultural Change

   569 views

The nations of the Pacific region are faced with a substantial challenge in preserving and promoting their cultural heritage. Vanuatu, for example, is a nation of approximately...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Martin Gaenszle: Documenting Ceremonial Dialogues in East Nepal: An In Vitro Performance and the Problem of ...

   186 views

Among the Rai of eastern Nepal, ritual speech is generally an important part of most ritual behaviour. Even simple formal interactions, like requests for a loan or parting after a...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Michael Oppitz: The Parched Grain Chant: Parallel Verse and Simultaneous Action in Magar Rituals

   762 views

The faith healers of the Magar community are renowned for their elaborate ritual traditions. These combine chanting of numerous oral texts with the performance of nightlong...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Peter K. Austin: Reading the Lontars: Endangered Literary Practices of Lombok, Eastern Indonesia

   318 views

The Sasaks of Lombok island, eastern Indonesia, have a literary tradition of writing manuscripts on palm leaves (lontar) in a manner similar to that of the Balinese (Rubinstein...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Ruth Finnegan: The Rewards and Issues of Studying Oral Literature: Some Personal Reflections

   344 views

The study of oral literature brings many rewards, not just of personal inspiration and service, but also intellectual, humanistic and ethical/political. There are also...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Sara Shneiderman: 'Producing' Thangmi Ritual Texts: Practice, Performance and Collaborative Documentation

   212 views

In the course of my research on Thangmi ethnic identity, many members of this community spread across Himalayan areas of Nepal and India expressed a desire to see the oral...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


William Sutherland: Languages and Species: Threats and Global Patterns

   316 views

Both languages and species are threatened with extinction. This talk will compare patterns of cultural and biological diversity. The aims will be to compare the extinction risk of...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010


Yarjung Kromchai Tamu: Ritual Drumming and Chanting of the Tamu Shamans of Nepal

   490 views

Tamu shamans in Nepal use spiritual healing processes, power and oral texts passed down from their ancestors when performing rituals vital to Tamu life. This power is still as...

Collection: World Oral Literature Project Workshop 2009

Institution: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Created: Thu 22 Apr 2010