Chinese Ethnic Minorities and their Oral Poetry: A Perspective from Ethnopoetics

Ethnopoetics involves in the conducting of translation experiments on oral poems of native ethnic groups, converting its relevant oral texts into written forms. The theory of ethnographic poetry begins in the 1970s and was translated and introduced to China in the early 21st century. However, most ethnic minorities in China do not have textual writings. Their oral creations from primitive society to modern society such as epics, long poems, narrative poems, ballads, and folk songs are mostly in form of oral poetry. The collection and translation of oral poems of ethnic minorities in China began in the late 1950s, that demarcated the beginning of ethnopoetics in China. In this article, the reasons behind the collection and translation of Chinese ethnic minority oral poems will be analysed. The restoration process of ethnopoetics and the connections between the collections and the translations, and the issues on whether translation is consistent to Chinese ethnic minority oral poems will also be further elaborated. The history of Chinese ethnic minorities oral poetry traces back to a long history and consists of a variety of themes and contents. Therefore, the restoration process of ethnopoetic research on the relationship between oral culture and written culture not only have gained the attention from the Chinese academic community, but also shown strong interests by the Western academic research community and worldwide.

Code switching in contemporary isiZulu performance poetry

Recent developments in isiZulu poetry have been marked by an emergence of performance poets whose poems have gained popularity with younger audiences. A constant feature in contemporary isiZulu poetry is a conscious deviation from adherence to rigid structural and formal linguistic requirements. Contemporary isiZulu poetry is also characterised by a shift from textual to performance-specific conventions that cater for radio, theatre, social-media platforms and so forth, and is more accommodative of linguistic dynamics that shape the current generation of artists and audiences. While contemporary isiZulu performance is a rather more recent innovation, it still owes its roots to oral poetry traditions and has evolved from literary art forms that were committed to memory and performed during family gatherings and communal events. This article explores code switching in contemporary isiZulu performance poetry and argues for appreciation of this phenomenon for its aesthetic appeal rather than as infringement on long-held attitudes about purity of artistic linguistic expressions. Hyme’s Ethno-poetic Theory will inform analysis of selected poems in this article. Ethno-poetic Theory focuses, amongst others, on how a performance displays literary qualities.

SEMANTICS OF POEM IN «DIV TICS OF POEM IN «DIVANI LUGATI-T-TURK»

Lyric songs depict how rich is the aesthetic taste of the Turkic peoples and their special love for verbal art for a long period, and the fact that they possessed artistic resources capable of competing with the most agile peoples of their time. Moreover, these songs illustrate the artistic views of the Turks. Pure lyrical experiences, with their novelty, the richness of images, and unique pathos, have always engaged the reader. The poetry of the Turkic peoples is studied as a separate phenomenon in the history of world literature. Mahmud Kashgari’s Divani lugat at-Turk provides extensive information about the foundations of Turkish poetry and its scope. We can see the first paradigms of lyric poetry in the oral poetry of the Turkic peoples in the Divani lugat at-Turk. As a great linguist of his time and an advanced thinker – Kashgari proves each word with its specific expression or a piece of poetry. Each poem in his work is unique regarding its artistic value and semantics. We can see this, especially in these lyrical poems. Even simple episodes in lyrical songs demonstrate the ability of our ancestors to express thoughts beautifully. The lyrical passages in the Divani lugat at-Turk consist of the description of the mistress, the sad moments of the separation of beloved ones, and the poems addressed to his beloved one. The issue of fine art and its location is noteworthy in them. The devices used in them play an essential role as the initial version in the context of the literature of the Turkic peoples. The author cites some examples of such poetic art: tashbih, oxymoron, metaphor, tajnis, repetition, hyperbole (mubalaga), irsali masal, etc. These devices were actively reflected in all types of poetry of the later period. This article discusses the semantics of lyrical poems in the Divani lugat at-Turk and reveals their fine art.

Women in Mount Tengger Folklores: Their Presence, Position and Environmental Knowledge of Disaster Mitigation

Tenggerese people in East Java are one of Indonesia’s ethnic communities endowed with a unique folklore. This ethnographic research aimed to find out 1) how women are presented in Mount Tengger folklore; 2) the position of women in Tengger folkore; and 3) Tenggerese women’s environmental knowledge in relation to nature and disaster mitigation. Data analysis used multi perspective dimensions by employing theories of ecofeminism, ecocriticism, and folkloristic views. Human instruments, observations, interviews, and documentation were used in this study. The findings revealed that 1) women are presented both in Tengger folktales and oral poetry (spells), and are characterized as being mentally strong, respected, and having the proclivity to protect the environment. 2) In Tenggerese folklore, women enjoy equal position with men. The equality between men and women has become a social value and practice within Tenggerese traditions. Women work side-by-side with men in their domestic lives and beyond. 3) Tenggerese women have extensive environmental knowledge, in both the physical and psychological sense. They have in-depth and detailed knowledge of the vitality of nature for human living.

REFLECTION OF KORANIC MOTIVES IN KUMYK AND LESGIN PAREMIES

В статье рассматривается вопрос воздействия религии на этнокультуру и фольклор, исследуются различные формы интерпретации и заимствования коранических текстов, их трансформация и использование в устно-поэтическом творчестве. Религия находится в тесной взаимосвязи с национальной культурой и фольклором. Она проникает во все сферы жизни: социально-бытовую, общественную, политическую, культурную, психологическую и др. Соответственно, она занимает главенствующее место в жизни человека, чем можно объяснить и широкое применение паремий на религиозную тематику. Пословицы и поговорки - это подлинное афористическое творчество, в котором в лаконичной форме содержатся основы народной философии, провозглашаются нормы морали, раскрываются черты всеобщей эстетики и мировосприятие, находит отражение мудрость этносоциума. Данное исследование выполнено на материале мусульманских религиозных текстов, под влиянием которых с установкой на идеологию и национально-специфическое религиозное мышление складываются самобытные пословицы и поговорки. Единицы, указывающие на религию, и их философское и смысловое содержание в репрезентации вербальной картины мира анализируются на материале фольклорных текстов, главным образом, народных пословиц и поговорок. Сложность объекта исследования состоит в том, что в этнофольклоре кумыков и лезгин этот аспект изучен слабо. The article discusses the issue of the interaction of religion on ethnoculture and folklore, explores various forms of interpretation and borrowing of the Koran texts, their transformation and use in oral poetry. Religion is closely related to national culture and folklore. It occupies a dominant place in human life, which can explain the widespread use of paremias on religious topics. This study was carried out on the basis of Muslim religious texts, under the influence of which original proverbs and sayings are formed. Substantial pictures of folk life, socio-historical experience, religious beliefs, national culture - all this is reflected in folk proverbs and sayings. The purpose of our study is to examine the influence of the scriptures on the people’s consciousness, on oral and poetic creativity, to identify generally accepted moral and ethical rules of behavior, integrated in wise sayings, which are akin to the Koran moral principles. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the implementation of a comparative analysis of the Kumyk and Lezgin folk proverbs and sayings in comparison with the Koran translations. The units indicating religion and their philosophical and semantic content in the representation of the verbal picture of the world are analyzed on the basis of folk proverbs and sayings. The complexity of the object of the research lies in the fact that this aspect is poorly studied in the ethnofolklore of the Kumyks and Lezghins.

Voice in a narrative: A trialogue with Ruth Finnegan

Ruth Finnegan FBA OBE (1933, Derry, Northern Ireland) took a DPhil in Anthropology at Oxford, then joined the Open University of which she is now an Emeritus Professor. Her publications include Oral Literature in Africa (1970), Oral Poetry (1977), The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town (1989), and Why Do We Quote? The Culture and History of Quotation (2011). Ruth Finnegan was interviewed by Sarali Gintsburg (ICS, University of Navarra) and Luis Galván Moreno (University of Navarra) on the occasion of an online lecture delivered at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra. In this trialogue-like interview, Ruth tells about the childhood experiences that were decisive for her interest in orality and storytelling, about her education and training as a Classicist in Oxford, the beginnings of her fieldwork in Africa among the Limba of Sierra Leone, and her recent activity as a novelist. She stresses the importance of voice, of its physical, bodily dimensions, its pitch and cadence; and then affirms the essential role of audience in communication. The discussion then touches upon several features of African languages, classical Arabic and Greek, and authoritative texts of Western culture, from Homer and the Bible to the 19th century novel. Through discussing her childhood memories, her assessment of the development and challenges of anthropology, and her views on the digital transformation of the world, Ruth concludes that the notion of narrative, communication, and multimodality are inseparably linked.

Formula in Tuja'i Molo'opu Custom Speech Procession of Leaders Acceptance in Gorontalo Community

One of the oral literature which is still used in Gorontalo custom event is Tuja'i Molo'opu. Oral literature is uttered at the ceremonial officials' reception in Gorontalo. As other traditions are changing, Tuja'i Molo'opu also along with the changes of the society. Therefore, it needs to be held as the foundation for the preservation of the study of oral literature of Tuja'i Molo'opu. Thus, the Tuja'i Molo'opu ceremony does not complement the Molo'opu ceremony but contains moral messages, which as ancestors, messages to the man who will lead in Gorontalo. The theory used in this research is the theory of orality Albert Bates Lord and Ruth Finnegan. To apply this theory used two approaches, namely, structural and Ethnographic approaches. The structural approach is used to examine the formula composition of the tuja'I Molo'opu text as oral poetry. While the ethnographic approach is used to explore data on leadership the cultural aspects in the Gorontalo community. The results of this research show that formula tuja'i Molo'opu has the formula (1) repetition of a sentence, (2) repetition of the word group/phrase, (3) formula of word repetition, (4) formula of suffix, (5) formula of varied repetition, (6) parallelism.

Hare in Folklore and Religious Mystical Views of the Bashkirs

The article is devoted to the analysis of the remnants of the cult of the hare among the Bashkirs, which was one of the revered animals in their ancient religious and mystical views. In oral stories, the Bashkir hare is endowed with human qualities — it has feelings, the gift of thinking and speech. In the fairy tale and children's play folklore, traces of the belief of the ancestors of the Bashkirs in the mutual transformation of a person and a hare into each other appear. In the tribal ethnonymy of the Bashkirs, motives have been preserved about the origin of certain groups of people from a hare, totem and totemic ancestor. In oral poetry, customs and rituals of the Bashkir hare acts as a totemic ancestor, patron saint of family and marriage relations, women in labor and children. In the folk calendar and signs of the Bashkir, the hare symbolizes fertility and fertility. In the mythological tradition, the Bashkir hare acts as a benefactor of heroes — it creates favorable conditions for them, brings wealth, and protects their lives. In religious and magical practice, the Bashkir hare appears as a healer of people. The protective functions of a hare are revealed in attributing protective properties to images of a hare and in the practice of sewing hare ears and tails on children's hats, as amulets against evil spirits and the evil eye. In the oral works of the Bashkirs there are remnants of ancient cosmogonic myths about the participation of a hare — a totemic ancestor in the creation of the earth and keeping it in the Universe.

“Kox Kwai Kauv Kox Kwai “:1 Ecopoetic Symbolisation in Pgaz K’nyau Oral Poetry

This article* presents the transcription, translation, and annotation of an original performance of hta, a traditional form of oral poetry in Sgaw, the language of the Pgaz K’Nyau (Karen) people of northern Thailand. This performance was recorded during ethnopoetic fieldwork carried out in two villages in the province of Chiang Rai.2 The hta is then analysed to understand the operations of ecopoetic symbolisation that bring particular nonhumans into the domain of human language. This analysis reveals that a metaphorical mode of symbolisation is extensively used throughout the hta to overcome human/nonhuman allotopies by means of implicit or explicit semic transformations. This seems to indicate that a naturalistic mode of identification underlies the whole poem, a conclusion that calls into question the essentialising and mythifying portrayal of the Pgaz K’Nyau as pre-modern and animistic indigenous stewards.