Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices (Asa Research Methods in Social Anthropologists)

Book Cover......Page 1
Half-Title......Page 2
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Dedication......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Figures......Page 10
Series editor’s foreword......Page 11
Preface......Page 13
Acknowledgements......Page 16
1.1 PREVIEW......Page 18
1.2 ‘LANGUAGE’, ‘SPEECH’ AND ‘TEXT’: SOME INITIAL QUESTIONS......Page 20
1.3 SOME CENTRAL TERMS—ACCEPTED AND DISPUTED......Page 21
1.3.1 Oral and orality......Page 22
1.3.2 Tradition(s)......Page 23
1.3.3 Oral literature......Page 25
1.3.4 Verbal art......Page 26
1.3.5 Folklore, folk art etc.......Page 27
1.3.7 Narrative and narration......Page 29
1.3.8 Discourse......Page 30
1.3.9 Popular arts/popular culture......Page 31
1.3.10 Other terms......Page 32
1.4 ‘TEXT(S)’: A SPECIAL CASE......Page 33
1.5 THE INTEREST OF THE PROBLEMS......Page 37
2.2 CONTINUING METHODOLOGICAL TENSIONS......Page 40
2.3 BACKGROUND TO STUDIES OF ORAL TRADITION AND VERBAL ART......Page 41
2.4 INFLUENTIAL METHODOLOGIES AND THEORIES......Page 43
2.4.1 Some nineteenth-and early twentieth-century theories......Page 44
2.4.2 ‘Finnish’ historical-geographical method......Page 45
2.4.4 Psychological analyses......Page 46
2.4.5 Functionalist and ‘reflection’ approaches......Page 47
2.4.6 Marxist perspectives......Page 49
2.4.7 Structuralism and post-structuralism......Page 51
2.4.8 Narratology......Page 53
2.4.9 The ‘oral theory’......Page 55
2.4.10 The ‘ethnography of speaking’: discourse analysis, performance theory and ethnopoetics......Page 56
2.4.11 Feminist approaches......Page 59
2.4.12 The rise of oral history......Page 61
2.5 CURRENT TRENDS......Page 63
3.1.1 Who?......Page 67
3.1.2 Where: own or other culture?......Page 68
3.1.3 How?......Page 69
3.1.5 Some ethical questions......Page 71
3.2 BACKGROUND PREPARATION......Page 72
3.3.1 What equipment—if any?......Page 75
3.3.2 Some issues to consider......Page 78
3.3.3 Specific forms of recording devices......Page 80
3.4 RELEVANCE FOR ARCHIVE RESEARCH......Page 83
4.1 SOME INITIAL TECHNIQUES AND PROVISOS......Page 85
4.2 THE SETTINGS FOR COLLECTING AND RECORDING......Page 88
4.2.1 ‘Natural’ settings......Page 89
4.2.2 ‘Artificial’ settings......Page 90
4.2.3 ‘Induced natural’ settings and similar contexts......Page 92
4.2.5 Implications for archive materials......Page 94
4.3 MAKING AND KEEPING RECORDS......Page 95
4.3.1 Different forms of recording......Page 96
4.3.2 Documenting specific recordings......Page 97
4.3.3 Permissions and releases......Page 99
4.4 PRELIMINARY PROCESSING......Page 100
5.1 CONCEPTS OF ‘PERFORMANCE’ AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE......Page 103
5.2.1 Performers......Page 106
5.2.2 Audiences and participants......Page 108
5.2.3 Some other classifications of audiences......Page 110
5.3 OTHER COMPONENTS OF PERFORMANCES......Page 111
5.3.1 Situation, ‘framing’ and organisation of performance......Page 112
5.3.3 Performance media......Page 114
5.3.4 Performance skills and conventions......Page 118
5.3.5 Performance as the interaction of many participants......Page 120
6.1.1 Transmission and circulation......Page 123
6.1.2 Memory and remembering......Page 125
6.1.3 Composition......Page 127
6.1.4 Repertoire, composition and individual creators......Page 131
6.2 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION OF PARTICIPANTS......Page 132
6.3 VERBAL ART, ORAL TRADITION AND FUNCTIONS......Page 135
6.4 LOCAL AESTHETICS AND THOUGHT......Page 140
7.1 APPROACHES TO CLASSIFICATION......Page 144
7.2.1 Speech and song......Page 148
7.2.3 Oral and written......Page 149
7.3 DIFFERENTIATING AND STUDYING GENRES......Page 150
7.4.1 Myth......Page 154
7.4.2 Legend, folktale, and other narrative forms......Page 156
7.4.3 Epic......Page 157
7.4.5 Other terms......Page 159
7.5.1 Drama, rhetoric and performance......Page 160
7.5.3 Narrative......Page 161
7.5.4 Other possible schemes......Page 162
7.6 FINAL POINTS......Page 164
8.1 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES......Page 165
8.2.1 Working with variants: some methods and questions......Page 167
8.2.2 Indexing tale types and motifs......Page 170
8.3.1 Structure as organisational principles within texts......Page 172
8.3.2 Morphology and structure......Page 173
8.3.3 Lévi-Strauss and structuralist analyses......Page 175
8.3.4 Narrative and narratology: an extension of structuralist methods......Page 178
8.4 STYLISTIC FEATURES AND PROBLEMS......Page 179
8.4.1 Some specific stylistic features......Page 180
8.5 RELEVANCE OF LITERARY ANALYSIS AND WRITTEN LITERATURE......Page 183
8.6.1 ‘Content analysis’......Page 185
8.6.3 Computers......Page 186
8.7 THE QUEST FOR ‘MEANING’......Page 188
9.1 TRANSLATING......Page 191
9.1.1 What is translation?......Page 192
9.1.2 Can translation be ‘accurate’?......Page 193
9.1.3 What is left out in translation?… And in written translation?......Page 195
9.1.4 The interest of translation......Page 197
9.2.1 Basic issues in transcribing......Page 199
9.2.2 Some practical problems......Page 200
9.3 THE PRESENTATION AND DISSEMINATION OF TEXTS AND PERFORMANCES......Page 203
9.3.2 In what units and with what labels?......Page 204
9.3.3 What media?......Page 205
9.3.4 Deposit of records......Page 213
9.4 CONCLUSION......Page 215
10 Ethics......Page 217
10.1.1 Purposes of research......Page 218
10.1.2 Attitudes and values......Page 221
10.2 RESPONSIBILITIES TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE RESEARCH......Page 223
10.2.1 Those participating as ‘informants’, ‘interviewees’ ‘performers’, etc.......Page 224
10.2.2 Assistants and co-workers......Page 225
10.2.5 Follow-up......Page 226
10.3.2 Intellectual property rights......Page 228
10.4 ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES IN TEXT PROCESSING......Page 231
10.5 CONCLUSION......Page 234
References......Page 236
Name index......Page 271
Subject index......Page 276