From the animal and trickster tales told by enslaved Africans in America to current education and performance based storytelling by contemporary African American storytellers, this study traces the aesthetics and epistemologies of the collaborative African diasporic oral expressive traditions. Through systematic analysis based on data derived from bibliographic and archival sources, interviews, and participant observation, it delineates the progression of the repertoire and content of Blackstorytelling through the lives and works of national and internationally known storytellers, Jackie Torrence, Linda Goss and Charlotte Blake Alston. Its theoretical framework is inspired by Kariamu Welsh Asante’s aesthetic senses coupled with pertinent ideas of other scholars in the field. The study demonstrates the existence of significant evidence of cultural preservation and artistic re-interpretation of the African aesthetic in Blackstorytelling. The genre comprises both traditional and contemporary expressions of African American culture. As such, it is a major component of the universal African oral continuum / African American Studies

This study deals with the relationship between culture and national development in Angola. It is self-evident that folktales are integral to the cultural heritage of any people, and the Lunda-Cokwe of Angola are no exception. Folktales pass on their knowledge and general cultural heritage to new generation. However, they are rarely regarded as a useful component on development process of a country. In general the development is largely measured in statistics reflecting material wealth. It maintains that, in order to bring about sustainable development and national unity, a holistic approach to personality building as well as nation building is required. The argumentation will not only take into account economic capital generated through national resources, such as diamonds from the Lunda provinces, but also requires other forms of capital, including social and cultural capital as articulated in Bourdieu’s theory of capital. / African languages / M.A. (African languages)

Text in Afrikaans / Die eerste hoofstuk omskryf die begrip ngano, daarna volg 'n uiteensetting hoe die Venda mondelinge tradisie in die verlede gefunksioneer het en word die huidige aard en posisie van die verskynsel in die lewe van die gemeenskap gedefinieer. Veranderende sosio-ekonomiese en politieke kragte het die tradisionele lewenswyse van die Venda-mense in so 'n mate versteur dat die mondelinge tradisie en die stem van die storieverteller nie meer hoog waardeer word deur die moderne geslag nie. Die teoretiese uitgangspunt van hierdie tesis aanvaar dat religie 'n radikaal integrerend funksie het wat chaos in sinvolle patrone inkorporeer. Dialekties verbind aan die eerste beginsel van religie is die inherente drang van die mens se gees om alle gegewe limiete te transendeer. Vanuit hierdie fokus kan ngano as religieuse artikulasies interpreteer word wat chaos in sinvolle patrone uitdruk, en waarin oak opstand teen bestaande orde en tradisionele aannames uitgespreek word. In bree trekke skets die tweede hoofstuk die historiese agtergrond van die Venda-mense vanaf 800 nC tot en met die resente politieke veranderinge van 1994 in die Noordelike Provinsie. Die tweede deel van die hoofstuk bied 'n uiteensetting van hul religio-filosofiese agtergrond en tesame met die geskiedkundige gebeure dien dit as interpretatiewe konteks vir hierdie oeroue verhale wat van die een geslag na die ander oorgelewer is. In die volgende nege hoofstukke verskyn vyftig volksverhale wat in agt verskillende areas in Venda gedokumenteer is. Elke verhaal is vooraf voorsien van 'n opsomming van die inhoud van die verhaal asook 'n interpretasie van die verhaal deur die verteller self of verduidelikings van haar helpers. Die oorspronklike Venda-teks word gegee in die presiese woorde van die verteller met daarby die Afrikaanse vertaling. 'n Terna wat hehaaldelik voorkom is die opstand van die magteloses (die kind, die vrou of niksseggende persoon) teen magtiges (die koning, die man, dominerende familielede of tradisionele strukture). Ander gewilde temas is die ellende van hongersnood, die aanwending en voorkoms van toorkragte en bonatuurlike transformasies. Ten slotte is daar drie Sankambe-verhale waarin die fantastiese avonture van hasie, die aartbedrieer, wat op grand van blote vernuf oorleef, humoristies vertel word. Ofskoon daar duidelike artikulasies van verset en kritiek teen die tradisionele orde en teen magtiges is, waag ngano dit selde buite die tradisioneel religieus-filosofiese grense. / The first chapter outlines the concept ngano, thereafter the function of the Venda oral tradition in the past is described and the present nature and position of the phenomenon in community living is defined. Changing socio-economic and political forces disturbed traditional Venda life-style to such an extent that the oral tradition and the voice of the storyteller are not highly regarded by the modern generation. The theoretical point of departure of this thesis accepts the radical integrative function of religion ordering chaos into meaningful patterns. Dialectically tied to this first principle of religion is the inherent urgency of the human spirit to transcend all given limits. Viewed thus, ngano can be interpreted as religious utterances in which chaos is expressed in meaningful patterns and where resistance is articulated against existing order and traditional assumptions. Chapter two sketches the historical background of the Venda people from 800 AD up to recent political changes of 1994 in the Northern Province. The second part of this chapter presents an exposition of their religio-philosophic background which, together with the historical events provide an interpretative context for these ancient stories handed down from one generation to the next. Fifty folk tales (ngano) appear in the following nine chapters documented in eight different areas in Venda. Every narrative is introduced by a summary of the content of the story together with an interpretation by narrator and assistants. The Venda text is given first adhering as closely as possible to the original words of the narrator. Every line is followed by an Afrikaans translation. A recurring theme in ngano is the powerless (child, wife or insignificant person) resisting the powerful (king, husband/man, dominating family members or unyielding traditional structures). Other popular themes are the misery of famine, application and occurrence of witchcraft and supernatural transformations. Lastly three Sankambe-stories are documented in which the fantastic antics of the hare, the trickster in Venda folk tales who survives by sheer cunning, are humorously narrated. Although there are distinct expressions of resistance and criticism against the existing order and dominating powers, ngano seldom ventures beyond traditional religious and philosophic boundaries. / Religious Studies & Arabic / D. Litt et Phil. (Religious Studies)

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Technology: Education, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / In this study I demonstrate the extent to which I have achieved my original goals to ‘break the silence, address confusion and challenge denial around HIV and AIDS’. As the study progressed I could not ignore the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS infection, and the impact of poverty and (mis)education in the time of HIV and AIDS. I also found myself confronted with the use of the traditional mnemonic oral-style of performance in the form of ‘new wine in old bottles’ where the learners at Mthusi High School used the ‘old bottles’ of gospel songs, isicathamiya and izibongo to compose and relay the ‘new wine’ of their experience and understandings around HIV and AIDS. I could see that the use of the mnemonic oral-style was a natural and powerful way for the learners’ understandings of HIV and AIDS to be shared amongst themselves, within the community, and with a larger public so breaking the silence around HIV and AIDS, and so addressing the confusion, challenging denial, stigma and discrimination around HIV and AIDS. The use of the mnemonic oral style in this way suggested to me that it could also be used effectively in education, and led to my suggesting the use of the traditional mnemonic oral-style relating to HIV and AIDS education in the Grades 10-12 Life Orientation Curriculum. / National Research Foundation

Thesis (MA (African Languages))-- University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / The study on accounts examines how people account for the activities and experiences through our personal stories emanating from how they behave in the community, and because of the past stories they tell. The study thus provides an examination of accounts as well as account-giving. It provides a scientific understanding of the value and impact of personal stories and story-telling in people’s lives. The problem experienced in relation to accounts relates to how accounts impact on people and vice versa. One hypotheses of this study on accounts relates to the nature of the process associated with people’s presentation of personal account to others. The aims and objectives of this study crucially relate to providing an analysis and understanding of accounts. The research method used in this study provides a basis to the analysis and understanding of accounts in the sense that individuals who were interviewed in the process, provided informative accounts of their childhood stories, some of whom were not aware that they have or had an impact on their daily lives. The main findings of the research provide insights into accounts. The findings are informative and contribute to theory development as regard account-giving, including factors relating to deference and respect. The recommendation that given in this work is that personal stories have a scientific merit in terms of a comunication-theoretic approach to narratives, as shown in the study.

This research examines Native Performance Culture (NPC), a unique practice in Native theatre that returns Aboriginal people to the sources of Aboriginal knowledge, and interrupts the colonial fragmenting processes. By looking at the experiences of six collaborators involved in a specific art project, the artist-researcher shares her journey of healing through the arts, while interweaving the voices of artistic collaborators Monique Mojica, Floyd Favel, and Erika Iserhoff. This study takes a decolonizing framework, and places NPC as a form of Indigenous research while illuminating the methodological discourses of NPC, which are rooted in an inter-dialogue between self-in-relation to family, community, land, and embodied legacies. Finally, this research looks at the ways that artists work with Aboriginal communities and with Aboriginal knowledge, and makes recommendations to improve collaborative approaches.

This study deals with the relationship between culture and national development in Angola. It is self-evident that folktales are integral to the cultural heritage of any people, and the Lunda-Cokwe of Angola are no exception. Folktales pass on their knowledge and general cultural heritage to new generation. However, they are rarely regarded as a useful component on development process of a country. In general the development is largely measured in statistics reflecting material wealth. It maintains that, in order to bring about sustainable development and national unity, a holistic approach to personality building as well as nation building is required. The argumentation will not only take into account economic capital generated through national resources, such as diamonds from the Lunda provinces, but also requires other forms of capital, including social and cultural capital as articulated in Bourdieu’s theory of capital. / African languages / M.A. (African languages)

The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of historic Cowichan perception and utilization of wetlands in their traditional territory. The Cowichan live on the south east coast of Vancouver Island on the Northwest Coast of North America, in an area with many wetland features. The story of Cowichan culture history is currently characterized, through archaeological work, as marine oriented. However, archaeological research to date does not represent the full history of the Cowichan people. This research sets out to re-balance the cultural history of the Cowichan, through the qualitative and quantitative analysis of all available sources that identify economic and social orientation in Cowichan culture history, in particular those coming from archaeology, ethnography and oral tradition. As a way of integrating these diverse sources, a ‘Native archaeology’ is developed. This is an approach, which places equal value on etic (cultural outsider) and emic (cultural insider) created sources, and seeks to identify areas of similarity and difference in order that a fuller understanding of the culture may be reached. By applying the Native archaeological approach to Cowichan culture history, the marine orientation is placed in the context of the role of riverine wetlands, which was important both in terms of subsistence and of the symbolic significance that these places have in the self-reflected identity of the Cowichan. In this way, a story is to

O fandango caiçara é uma expressão musical intimamente ligada ao modo de vida que se desenvolveu nas comunidades tradicionais do litoral sul de São Paulo e norte do Paraná. Partindo da unidade entre dança, música e poesia e entre trabalho, lazer e universo simbólico - unidades que historicamente caracterizam a prática do fandango - o objetivo desta pesquisa é buscar possíveis caminhos para uma compreensão crítica da modernização capitalista do território brasileiro no interior das formas musicais e narrativas populares. O trabalho articula as características e a trajetória do fandango para chegar à relação que a forma estabelece com os conteúdos sociais, procurando revelar contradições e rupturas de um processo estruturalmente desigual e violento, que altera, por completo, as condições de existência de transmissão das tradições orais. Ao mesmo tempo, procura-se inserir a temática da cultura popular no contexto histórico de formação do Brasil como um país periférico na divisão internacional do trabalho, onde a coexistência entre formas tradicionais e modernas implica numa série de questões contemporâneas, por exemplo, o meio-ambiente, o patrimônio imaterial, a relação campo-cidade, apenas para citar alguns. Espera-se, com isso, construir uma visão dialética entre modernidade e tradição, na qual resistência e hegemonia são entendidas como partes de uma mesma totalidade. / \'Fandango\' is a musical expression intimately connected to the ways of life developed by traditional communities on the southeastern Brazilian coast. Beginning with the unity between dance, music, poetry and between labour, leisure and symbolic life - unities that have historically characterized this practice - the research aims to discover ways towards a critical comprehension of capitalist modernization of Brazilian territory within folk music. The paper draws upon the characteristics and the history of \'fandango\' in order to establish relations between social elements with musical forms and narratives, unveiling contradictions and disjunctions of a structurally uneven and violent process that completely alters the conditions of existence of oral traditions. At the same time, the theme of folk culture is inserted into the historical context of the formation of Brazil as a peripheral country within the international division of labour, where the coexistence of ancient and modern forms leads to a number of contemporary issues- i.e. environmental degradation, cultural heritage, the urban-rural relation, to name a few. The main objective is to build a dialectical approach towards the study of modernity and tradition, in which resistance and hegemony are seen as parts of the same totality.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:58:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Natalia Gaubeur Rosinholi.pdf: 5854505 bytes, checksum: 6a7da29ad1d00ba664215e2f8fc8b7e7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of this dissertation is to give some thought to the representations of the Devil as a character in literature within Brazilian oral tradition. In order to discover what elements connected to the actions of this personality either remain the same and/or vary in such representatives, we have applied Propp s function theory, which has been especially developed in Morphology of the marvellous tale, with possible alterations, to a corpus made up of 31 tales taken from eight classical anthologies of our popular culture, as follows: Histórias da avozinha and Histórias da baratinha, by Figueiredo Pimentel, Contos tradicionais do Brasil and Literatura oral no Brasil by Luís da Câmara Cascudo; Estórias do diabo, by Altimar Pimentel; Folclore brasileiro: contos populares do Brasil, by Sílvio Romero; Contos populares brasileiros by Lindolfo Gomes; and Território da danação, by Mário Souto Maior. During this investigation, special attention has been given to the way in which the character concerned carries out his role in the narrative pieces studied, particularly in regard to his role as an antagonist and a false hero: the standards as defined by Propp are followed with regard to functions; such standards suffer radical transgression; or there is an indication of a certain ambivalence between good and evil, normally associated to certain popular representations of popular culture. For this purpose, this work has been divided into three chapters: the first seeks a better understanding of the universe which includes the Devil as a literary character in Brazil, therefore being subdivided into: popular culture; literature from the oral tradition; the myth, the tale and the brief story. The second chapter is dedicated to the methodology adopted, including the identification, within the literary corpus, of the excerpts in which the Devil takes on the role of an antagonist or a false hero, showing such a survey through a series of comparative tables, each of which is dedicated to one of the Propp functions selected for the study considered. The second chapter also tries to discuss and analyse the data collected and presented in the tables, with the reference for this discussion being the work of the Russian formalist. Finally, the third chapter presents the conclusions obtained from these analyses / Esta dissertação tem por finalidade refletir sobre as representações do diabopersonagem na literatura de tradição oral do Brasil. A fim de descobrir que elementos ligados às ações dessa personagem se mantêm e/ou variam em tais representações, aplica-se, com as possíveis adequações, a teoria das funções de Propp, especialmente desenvolvida em Morfologia do conto maravilhoso, a um corpus constituído por 31 contos extraídos de oito antologias clássicas da cultura popular brasileira: Histórias da avozinha e Histórias da baratinha, de Figueiredo Pimentel, Contos tradicionais do Brasil e Literatura oral no Brasil, de Luís da Câmara Cascudo; Estórias do diabo, de Altimar Pimentel; Folclore brasileiro: contos populares do Brasil, de Sílvio Romero; Contos populares brasileiros, de Lindolfo Gomes; e Território da danação, de Mário Souto Maior. No decorrer desta investigação, atenta-se especialmente para o modo como a personagem em questão desempenha seu papel nas narrativas estudadas, especialmente no que toca às funções do antagonista e do falso herói: se segue os padrões definidos por Propp em relação às funções; se transgride radicalmente tais padrões; ou se aponta para certa ambivalência entre bem e mal, geralmente vinculada a certas representações próprias da cultura popular. Para tanto, este trabalho divide-se em três capítulos: o primeiro destina-se à melhor compreensão do universo que abarca o diabopersonagem no Brasil, subdividindo-se assim em: cultura popular; literatura de tradição oral; o mito, o conto e o causo. O segundo capítulo, por sua vez, se dedica à metodologia adotada, qual seja, a identificação, no corpus literário, das passagens em que o diabo assume os papéis de antagonista ou falso herói, demonstrando tal levantamento por meio de tabelas comparativas, cada qual dedicada a uma das funções de Propp selecionadas para o estudo em questão. O segundo capítulo procura ainda discutir e analisar os dados levantados e apresentados nas tabelas, tendo como referencial dessa discussão o trabalho do formalista russo. Finalmente, o terceiro capítulo oferece as conclusões dessas análises