South Pacific Oral Traditions

by Finnegan, Ruth Hilary; Orbell, Margaret Rose

• ISBN13: 9780253209580
• ISBN10: 0253209587
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-11-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"This collection of articles touches upon some important issues in humanistic anthropology.... Folklorists, students of comparative literature, and anthropologists can all find something of interest in these essays." -- American Anthropologist"Superbly edited, impeccably researched, and discriminatingly tied together as a coherent gathering of insight, the volume is a welcome addition to a significant field of study that is only now beginning to appreciate the finer achievements of the South Pacific's unique contribution." -- Rongorongo Studies"... the defining collection on contemporary verbal arts in Oceania.... of real value to scholars concerned with the relationships between verbal art, social change, gender, power, [and] social organization." -- Don Brenneis"... it will be welcome to historians of the South Pacific and useful to others grappling with problems of oral tradition." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History"The volume abundantly illustrates the continuing vitality of oral traditions in the South Pacific, as well as the continuing wealth these traditions provide for researchers." -- Pacific Affairs

Author Biography

RUTH FINNEGAN is Professor in Comparative Social Institutions at the Open University and author of Oral Poetry and Oral Literature in Africa. MARGARET ORBELL, Reader in the Department of Maori at the University of Canterbury, is the author of The Natural World of the Maori and Hawaiki: A New Approach to Maori Tradition.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 1
Introduction; or, Why the Comparativist Should Take Account of the South Pacific	p. 6
"My Summit Where I Sit": Form and Content in Maori Women's Love Songs	p. 30
Wry Comment from the Outback: Songs of Protest from the Niua Islands, Tonga	p. 49
Sex and Slander in Tikopia Song: Public Antagonism and Private Intrigue	p. 64
Wept Thoughts: The Voicing of Kaluli Memories	p. 85
Profile of a Composer: Ihaia Puka, A Pulotu of the Tokelau Islands	p. 109
Fiction, Fact, and Imagination: A Tokelau Narrative	p. 124
"That Isn't Really a Pig": Spirit Traditions in the Southern Cook Islands	p. 161
"Head" and "Tail": The Shaping of Oral Traditions among the Binandere in Papua New Guinea	p. 177
Every Picture Tells a Story: Visual Alternatives to Oral Tradition in Ponam Society	p. 195
Winged Tangi'ia: A Mangaian Dramatic Performance	p. 215
Contributors	p. 256
Index	p. 258
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