Langscape, Volume II, Issue 10 2012-05 Breaking the Language Barrier: a Biocultural Approach to Documenting Oral Literature.
This issue was created by Langscape Editor, Ortixia Dilts, Terralingua, and Dr. George Appell, from the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Reasearch as our guest editor.
The issue is set in two parts. In part one, we present articles and stories submitted by Terralingua members from Africa, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Pacific and Canada. Part two, is based on a case study by Dr. Appell on the methods he has developed over 50 years in documenting oral literature.
Below is an excerpt from Dr. Appell’s Editorial:
Oral literature is the repository of the critical knowledge and philosophy for non-literate societies and serves as a vehicle for artistic creativity of great value and beauty. This literature through narrative, poetry, song, dance, myths and fables, and texts for religious rituals provides a portrait of the meaning of life as experienced by the society at its particular time and place with their existential challenges. It encapsulates the traditional knowledge, beliefs and values about the environment and the nature of the society itself. It arises in response to the universal aesthetic impulse to provide narratives that explain the nature of life and human response to challenges. It retains knowledge to be passed on to succeeding generations. It contains the history of the society and its experiences. Thus in various forms this oral literature portrays the society’s belief systems and makes sense of life. It provides a guide to human behavior and how to live one’s life. With the arrival of literacy, the core of this literature and its art rapidly disappears.
Oral Literature is also the repository of the artistic expression in a society. And thus its beauty resonates across cultural boundaries. As such this literature is a response to the universal human instinct to find balance, harmony, and beauty in the world and the need to understand pain, suffering, and evil. It functions to fulfill the need for religious belief and spiritual fulfillment necessary for human existence. Through stories, tales, songs, it recounts the works of the gods and the frailty of humankind. It explains how the world and human existence came about. It serves to communicate ideas, emotions, beliefs and appreciation of existence. Oral literature defines, interprets, and elaborates on the society’s vision of reality and the dangers in the world. It explains the causes of human suffering, justifies them, and suggests ways of mediation and the healing of suffering. Oral literature deals with the human adventure and achievements against odds. It is also a form of entertainment and fosters the feelings of solidarity with others who have had similar experiences. Thus oral literature may encompass many genres of linguistic expression.
photo source: University of Minnisota/David Harrison
Winona LaDuke is a Native American activist, environmentalist, and writer, with books including The Militarization of Indian Country (2011), Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming (2005), All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999), and a novel – Last Standing Woman (1997). K. David Harrison is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Linguistics at Swarthmore University and author of The Last Speakers: The Quest to Save the World’s Most Endangered Languages. Linguist, anthropologist, and ethnobiologist Luisa Maffi is cofounder and director of Terralingua, an international non-governmental organization founded in 1996 by a group of committed individuals from different backgrounds who shared a fundamental set of beliefs in biocultural diversity. The panel was chaired by Mary Hermes, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota.. Part of the University Symposium on Abundance & Scarcity.
Excerpt: Should we care about biological and cultural diversity even if its decline does not affect us? Martin Eiermann talked with the anthropologist and linguist Luisa Maffi about the value of diversity, ecological resilience and an environmentalist’s commitment to humanism.
The European: Anthropologists warn that up to half of the world’s languages might disappear within the next generation. But that doesn’t mean that we will become speechless: Other languages and cultural contexts will take their place. So why should we care?
Maffi: That question is often asked by people whose culture and language are not threatened. It is difficult to understand the significance of the decline of cultural diversity unless you are affected by it. When your culture carries prestige and is widespread, it is easy to assume that others would want to join it. So we have to turn things on their head and look at cultural diversity from the perspective of minorities: What does it mean for them to lose their culture and their language? And what does it mean for us globally?
The European: Most of our lives will be completely undisturbed by the loss of languages or cultural heritage elsewhere. What are the global consequences?
Maffi: As humans, we have evolved to differentiate ourselves culturally and linguistically from each other. The role of cultural diversification is similar to the evolution of complex ecosystems in nature: It gives resilience to human society as a whole, just as biodiversity gives resilience to ecosystems. Today, we are converging more and more as diverse cultures assimilate into the dominant model of Western society. As a consequence, the pool of perspectives on human life is being drained. In the past, new solutions to societal and environmental problems could come from non-Western cultures, but that opportunity is diminishing. In the words of the linguist Peter Mühlhäusler, we are developing cultural blind spots. That reality is staring us in the face but we are caught in denial.
Excerpt: Should we care about biological and cultural diversity even if its decline does not affect us? Martin Eiermann talked with the anthropologist and linguist Luisa Maffi about the value of diversity, ecological resilience and an environmentalist’s commitment to humanism.
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