On the Translation of Style in Oral Narrative

Tedlock, Dennis

doi:10.2307/539739

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Anthropology is an especially important partner; anthropological linguistics, developed from the work of Franz Boas and his students and their efforts to describe and document the endangered languages of North America, and linguistic anthropology, tied to the programmatic statements of Dell Hymes (1974), constitute important tributaries to this intellectual stream. Especially attractive to folklorists are such works in this anthropological vein as Dennis Tedlock's program for attending to the acoustic textures of oral communication (Tedlock 1971(Tedlock , 1972 and Keith Basso's treatment of joking imitations among the Western Apache (Basso 1979).…”

Section: A Mid-century Crossroads Of Ideasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folklore and Sociolinguistics

McDowell

2018

Humanities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Folklore and sociolinguistics exist in a symbiotic relationship; more than that, at points-in the ethnography of communication and in ethnopoetics, for example-they overlap and become indistinguishable. As part of a reaction to the formal rigor and social detachment of Chomsky's theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics emerges in the mid-twentieth century to assess the role of language in social life. Folklorists join the cause and bring to it a commitment to in-depth ethnography and a longstanding engagement with artistic communication. In this essay, I trace key phases in the development of this interdisciplinary movement, revolutionary in its reorientation of language study to the messy but fascinating realm of speech usage. I offer the concept of performative efficacy, the notion that expressive culture performances have the capacity to shape attitude and action and thereby transform perceived realities, as a means of capturing the continuing promise of a sociolinguistically informed folkloristics.

show abstract

Section: A Mid-century Crossroads Of Ideasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folklore and Sociolinguistics

McDowell

2018

Humanities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The voice may be lowered to a whisper or raised to a shout. For example, Zuñi oral narrative alternates between loud and soft sentences (Tedlock, 1971), and among the Dena, “the story-teller speaks slowly, in a sort of mysterious undertone, which contributes… to cast a sort of awe on the audience” (Jetté, 1908–1909, p. 298). The pace of narration may increase, slow down, or even pause momentarily.…”

Section: Use Of Ostension In Oral Storytellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral Storytelling as Evidence of Pedagogy in Forager Societies

Sugiyama

2017

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Teaching is reportedly rare in hunter-gatherer societies, raising the question of whether it is a species-typical trait in humans. A problem with past studies is that they tend to conceptualize teaching in terms of Western pedagogical practices. In contrast, this study proceeds from the premise that teaching requires the ostensive manifestation of generalizable knowledge: the teacher must signal intent to share information, indicate the intended recipient, and transmit knowledge that is applicable beyond the present context. Certain features of human communication appear to be ostensive in function (e.g., eye contact, pointing, contingency, prosodic variation), and collectively serve as “natural pedagogy.” Tellingly, oral storytelling in forager societies typically employs these and other ostensive behaviors, and is widely reported to be an important source of generalizable ecological and social knowledge. Despite this, oral storytelling has been conspicuously overlooked in studies of teaching in preliterate societies. Accordingly, this study presents evidence that oral storytelling involves the use of ostension and the transmission of generic knowledge, thereby meeting the criteria of pedagogy.

show abstract

“…Por ejemplo, casi siempre se publican los cuentos con una oración tras otra, y la puntuación es la de un idioma escrito. Pero, como ha notado Tedlock (1971), estos cuentos se parecen más al drama que a la novela o al cuento del mundo occidental.…”

Section: Bibliografíaunclassified

How Hummingbird and Vulture Mediate Between Life and Death In Latin America

Sault¹

2016

Journal of Ethnobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Certain birds enable people to comprehend the inexplicable because they embody contrasts and resolve oppositions, and some birds have particular attributes that make them especially adept at expressing these symbolic meanings. This analysis focuses on two bird families that are central to the social organization of many societies in the Americas for their relationship to both life and death, and considers how these birds are able to mediate cultural oppositions expressed through the myths, rituals, art, and architecture portrayed in both ancient and contemporary cultures. Having features associated with both life and death, hummingbirds and vultures embody a duality that enables them to fly symbolically higher into the heavens and lower into the underworld than many other birds. Ethnographic examples from Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru are used to illustrate the ways these particular birds are seen as transforming life and death by leading to a more profound understanding of reality as an ongoing cycle of rebirth and renewal.

show abstract

On the Translation of Style in Oral Narrative

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

Folklore and Sociolinguistics

Folklore and Sociolinguistics

Oral Storytelling as Evidence of Pedagogy in Forager Societies

How Hummingbird and Vulture Mediate Between Life and Death In Latin America

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About