abstract: This dissertation explores complex representations of spiritual, social and cultural ways of knowing embedded within engraved ivory drill bows from the Bering Strait. During the nineteenth century, multi-faceted ivory drill bows formed an ideal surface on which to recount life events and indigenous epistemologies reflective of distinct environmental and socio-cultural relationships. Carvers added motifs over time and the presence of multiple hands suggests a passing down of these objects as a form of familial history and cultural patrimony. Explorers, traders and field collectors to the Bering Strait eagerly acquired engraved drill bows as aesthetic manifestations of Arctic mores but recorded few details about the carvings resulting in a disconnect between the objects and their multi-layered stories. However, continued practices of ivory carving and storytelling within Bering Strait communities holds potential for engraved drill bows to animate oral histories and foster discourse between researchers and communities. Thus, this collaborative project integrates stylistic analyses and ethno-historical accounts on drill bows with knowledge shared by Alaska Native community members and is based on the understanding that oral narratives can bring life and meaning to objects within museum collections. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Art 2013

Com esta análise, procuro investigar a presença da oralidade nos documentos municipais da cidade de São Paulo do século XIX (1820-1870), de modo a se enxergar a constituição e preservação de tradições orais na sociedade, e de que maneira os poderes advindos desses saberes populares conseguiam se verticalizar, entrando também nas esferas políticas. Para isso, trabalhei com conjuntos documentais camerários, tais como as Atas da Câmara, os Papéis Avulsos e os Maços de População, buscando neles os deslizes no estilo mais oficial do registro, nos quais a palavra falada, livre da censura, pudesse se manifestar. Esse detalhamento analítico de cada palavra, e da própria natureza do documento, juntamente com a investigação de seu conteúdo, busca expandir o escopo teórico-metodológico da historiografia que trabalha com grupos menos favorecidos e menos letrados, cujos conhecimentos, mais orais do que escritos, podem ficar escondidos atrás do estilo mais formal e burocrático dos documentos oficiais. A cidade de São Paulo da época, de reduzidas dimensões, além de ser objeto do estudo, também serviu de palco para se aprofundar as questões teóricas levantadas acerca das tradições oral e escrita. Para se trabalhar a aproximação entre essas duas culturas, foi preciso entender também os arranjos sociais da população entre as mais diferentes classes e grupos, contemplando seus desejos mais particulares e suas necessidades. / The purpose of this study was to evaluate oral evidences found in the municipal documents of the city of São Paulo corresponding to a 19th-century period (1820-1870) as a means to determine the features and preservation of oral traditions in society, as well as the way by which these popular knowledge could reach a political scope. For that reason, official documents were analyzed with a focus on the absence of the official writing style, so that uncensored speech evidences could be identified. The detailed word-by-word analysis and the investigation of its contents have the purpose of spreading the theoretical and methodological scope of historiography that studies lower and less educated social classes whose knowledge is shared orally rather than by written. This knowledge may be concealed by the writing style of official documents, which is formal and standardized. Geographically smaller by then, São Paulo was not only the subject of study, but also promoted a deeper understanding of theoretical matters that were raised from oral and written traditions. A comprehension of social arrangements among different classes and groups was also necessary to study the proximity between both cultures, observing their particular aspirations and needs.

Né en Guadeloupe au XVIIe siècle avec l’esclavage transatlantique, le Gwoka se fit à l’origine musique de résistance à une acculturation forcée violente et occasion de préserver un héritage culturel. Accordant une large place à la voix, cette pratique musicale – qui s’appuie sur le triptyque tambour-chant-danse et dont le socle est la langue créole – a été transmise de génération en génération. Quelques familles ont su préserver ce genre musical. Parmi celles-ci, les Geoffroy – originaires de la région des Grands Fonds et spécialisés dans les chants de veillées et le bouladjèl. Cette recherche doctorale s’intéresse aux modalités de transmission du santiman et de la lokans, deux valeurs esthétiques propres à cette tradition orale. Nous examinons ces propriétés expressives en nous appuyant sur des observations ethnographiques et sur des enregistrements sonores réalisés in situ – ces derniers faisant l’objet d’analyses comparatives réalisées notamment à l’aide de sonogrammes. Nous avons choisi comme étude de cas la famille Geoffroy, autrement dit un processus de transmission en contexte endoculturel. Nous explorons en outre la question de la filiation entre Gwoka et musiques traditionnelles africaines. Sont également examinés les enjeux identitaires sous-jacents à cette tradition orale – terreau pour la communauté Gwoka d’une affirmation de son africanité et / ou de sa « guadeloupéanité ». Nous nous intéressons à cette esthétique sonore en tant que pratique d’appartenance associée à une mémoire collective. / Beginning in Guadeloupe in the 17th century with the transatlantic slave trade, Gwoka developed as music of resistance to the violence of forced acculturation and a means of preserving cultural heritage. Granting a large importance to voice, this musical practice – which relies on the triptych drum-song-dance and whose base is the Creole language – has been transmitted from generation to generation. Some families have been able to preserve this musical genre. Amongst them, the Geoffroys – originating from the “Grands Fonds” region and specialized in wake songs and bouladjèl. This doctoral research aims to study the methods of transmitting santiman and lokans, two aesthetical values characterizing this oral tradition. We examine these expressive qualities by means of ethnographical observations and also voice recordings obtained in situ – these being the object of comparative analysis making use in particular of sonograms. We chose as a case study the Geoffroy family, in other words a transmission process in an endocultural context. Our research also explores the question of filiation between Gwoka and African traditional music, as well as the identity issues at stake that underlie this oral tradition – which, for the Gwoka community, represents a support for claiming its Africanity and/or its “Guadeloupeanity”. Our interest in this sound aesthetics questions the fact that it is a practice of belonging associated to a collective memory.

M.A. (Linguistics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

(in English): This thesis focuses on the first book of Historia Langobardorum (History of the Lombards), a historiographical work written by Paulus Diaconus (Paul the Deacon), a Benedictine monk and Lombard historian. The thesis consists of three parts - an introductory essay, a translation of the book and a commentary. An edition of the Latin text is attached as an appendix. In the introductory essay, having given the necessary facts, I summarise previous research on Historia Langobarorum and discuss Paul's use of sources with focus on some of the questions connected to this topic (especially the question of Paul's knowledge of the Lombard oral tradition). In the following part of the essay, the book is analysed within the conventions of so-called origo gentis-genre. The emphasis is laid especially on the legendary elements that are dominant in the initial passages of the narrative. The translation is accompanied with a commentary in which the information provided by the text are set in a broader cultural and historical context.

This thesis takes a fresh, character-based approach to the Íslendingasögur. It is inspired by a narratological study that unites the functional and structural role of characters with their human, individualistic portrayal. My major objective is to demonstrate the important connection between characterisation and structure in the sagas. By drawing attention to characters that I term narrative triggers, I offer a way of reading the sagas that relies both on the narrative conventions of tradition and on the less predictable, personal interactions between the cast of any given saga. In the case of both major and minor figures in the Íslendingasögur a certain type of character is often present to perform necessary motivational functions, allowing the plot to develop. In Part I I emphasise the functional aspect of these characters, before exploring unusual examples that emphasise their individuality in Part II.The motivation of the plot is linked throughout to the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr. A secondary objective is to provide a clearer understanding of the nature and function of this commonly occurring character type. The ójafnaðarmaðr is frequently alluded to in scholarship,but this thesis provides the first in-depth study of the portrayal of these characters. The quality that informs them (ójafnaðr,‘inequity’, lit. ‘unevenness’) is a threat to one of the core values of saga society and hints at an ‘unbalancing’ of social interactions and of the narrative equilibrium itself. That this unbalance leads to changes in the social structure of the setting is a key factor in driving the plots of the sagas along. For this reason, a detailed examination of the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr is long overdue: they can be observed to perform a specific narrative function but are always fitted to suit their particular context. Focussing on the structural conventions of character introduction, Part I establishes my methodology and catalogues the examples of characters introduced as ójafnaðarmenn. The scope is limited to those introduced as such because it allows me to establish for the first time the full corpus and conventions of these characters and their introductions. Following developments in our understanding of the oral background to the sagas, my approach to these narratives is built upon the evidence of their shared origins in pre-literate storytelling [...]. The intersection between functionality and individuality in character brings certain aspects of the Íslendingasögur to the fore. Part II of this thesis shows that in combination with the structural markers explored in Part I, the sagas employ the collective perspective of the general public, other characters and ‘irrational’ motivators such as fate to contribute to their techniques of characterisation. Because disruptive qualities speak inherently of a difference in the way an individual sees themselves and in the way the public sees them, or we as an audience are meant to see them, figures termed ójafnaðarmaðr are an ideal focal point for the development of this study.

La présente étude questionne les rapports complexes de la fiction et de l’histoire, les retentissements du contexte, le poids des enjeux historiques, idéologiques, axiologiques dans l’épopée orale. Dans l’Épopée du Foûta-Djalon, la fiction narrative relie les faits réels et les faits fictifs dans un élan de construction d’une histoire mémorable où la vérité épique élève au premier plan la figure héroïque (Abdoul Rahmâne) au détriment de la figure historique (Almâmy Oumar) et où certains faits, réaménagés et réactualisés font émerger les mythes fondateurs investis de nouveaux sens. Le conflit qui opposa en 1867 Peuls et Mandingues rejaillit dans le récit sous forme d’une opposition de valeurs, que la vision épique, ambivalente, accentue au moyen d’une dualité contrastée : Peuls vs Mandingues, Musulmans vs Animistes. Du fait de sa vocation d’exaltation des valeurs fondatrices, l’épopée se distingue de l’Histoire dont elle se nourrit mais qu’elle infléchit dans le sens d’un drame qui flatte et réveille la conscience collective sans cesse invitée à relever les défis du présent. Outre le ton idyllique ou encomiastique, l’épopée prend aussi des allures satiriques en faisant une critique sans complaisance des vicissitudes et des drames de l’Afrique contemporaine (L’enfant prodige). L’analyse de la composition, de la structure et de la performance narrative révèle une esthétique fondée sur le « style formulaire », la narration épisodique et une forte « épicisation » rhétorique, couronnée par les effets de l’accompagnement musical qui agrémente l’écoute et traduit en sons les thèmes essentiels. / : This work questions the complex relationships between fiction and history, the effects of contextual background, the weight of historical, ideological, and axiological issues in oral epic. In Épopée du Foûta-Djalon, the narrative fiction links real and fictional facts in a dynamic momentum to construct a memorable story, one in which epic truth enhances the heroic figure – Abdul Rahmane – at the expense of the historical figure – Almâmy Oumar -, and one in which some facts have been rearranged and updated, and thus bring forth the founding myths which are endowed with whole new meanings in the process. The conflict which opposed Fulah and the Mandinka people in 1867 is represented in the story in the form of adversary values which the bivalent, epic vision reinforces in a set of contrasting dualities: Fulah versus the Mandinka people, Muslims versus Animists. Because it aims to exalt founding values, the epic story differs from, though is inspired by, History, the essence of which is shifted to fit a drama meant to flatter and awaken the collective conscience endlessly urged to meet today’s challenges. Apart from its idyllic and eulogistical tone, the epic also takes on satirical airs through a thorough criticism of the vicissitudes and dramas of contemporary Africa (L’enfant prodige). The analysis of the narrative composition, structure and performance reveals an aesthetics based on what is called “the formulaic style”, the episodic narrative structure and a strong rhetorics of “epicisation”. This aesthetics culminates in the effects of the musical accompaniment which embellishes the listening of this oral epic and translates the main themes into sounds.

of the dissertation thesis Ondřej Srba History and Oral tradition of Altain Uriankhais The object of this dissertation thesis is the Western Mongolian ethnic subgroup of Altain Uriankhais and its subject is their oral tradition as a source of history. The objective of the work is a structured description of the living oral tradition concerning the history of Altain Uriankhais based on my own fieldwork. The processing of the recorded oral tradition includes a partial transcription and translation of the recordings and an attempt to systematically describe the content of the oral tradition, its formal features and the meaning for the tradition bearers. As a main criterium to describe the content of the oral tradition I chose personalities of the local history, secondarily genealogies and the issue of migrations. On the example of partial case studies, I assess the information provided by the oral tradition in comparison with preserved archive sources. Keywords: Altain Uriankhais, Oirats, oral tradition, oral history, Mongolian studies

This thesis explores how contemporary Appalachian women’s gendered experiences influence their choices of ballad repertoire. This inquiry is pursued through a feminist analysis of interviews with six women ballad singers from Madison County, North Carolina. In evaluating the women’s choices of ballads and their commentary on the songs, this thesis draws upon narratological theories as well as concepts from Appalachian traditional music studies. This study finds that women’s repertoire preferences reveal contemporary female concerns for physical safety and political agency. The singers also extract hidden transcripts from ballad texts and use ballads to educate audiences about women’s historic oppression. However, some singers find other factors, such as a song’s tune, or its significance as a part of regional heritage, to be more significant than the narrative content of the songs. This work affirms the contemporary influences of gendered concerns in ballad singing communities.

This study presents a theory of melodic creation, transmission, memory, and recall within the Anglo- and Celtic-American culture of lower Appalachia, from the time of the earliest European settlers until the present. This theory and its attendant hypotheses draw upon earlier published ideas, current theories of memory and recall, and the results of applying a computer-supported analytical system developed by the author. Sources include previous studies of folksong melody, song collections, and earlier investigations of the psychology of memory. Also important are portions of an anonymous treatise on traditional Celtic musical scales and an authoritative, modern interpretation of this document. A final body of sources is a small group of sound-recordings.