<p> This dissertation demonstrates how characteristics and functions of African and Japanese oral narrative traditions make narratives about the ocean in these traditions useful for exploring some of the complex psychological roles the ocean plays in people’s lives. A background of these oral narrative traditions and the main characteristics and functions of African and Japanese oral narratives are identified from the literature, African and Japanese ecopsychological perspectives are outlined, and a hermeneutic methodology applies text analysis to identify connections between humans and the ocean represented in a selection of text versions of ocean oral narratives. African and Japanese oral narratives are transmitted in adaptable yet continuous traditions, reflective of self and group identity, used to serve social and community functions, connected to spiritual traditions, and used as tools for power or resistance to power. Intimate connections between humans and the ocean are represented in the selection of narratives. In African oral narratives, connections are represented including merging identities of the ocean and humans, contrasting of nurturing mother and dangerous mother elements, the ocean bringing children, extreme love, and taking extreme love, connections between the ocean and performance, and representations of the ocean in colonization, slavery, healing, and empowerment. In Japanese oral narratives, intimate connections are represented including magic gifts from the ocean, water deity wives, warnings of fishing, bodily sacrifice, and connections to spiritual traditions, people, and local places.</p><p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:13419400 |
| Date | 05 January 2019 |
| Creators | Fay, Leann |
| Publisher | California Institute of Integral Studies |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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