Some of the most recent articles from open access anthropology journals (beta)
A widespread kind of parallelism is a relation between sections of text such that each resembles the other in linguistic form, or in lexical meaning, or in both form and meaning. In poetry, this kind of parallelism can be systematic, and when it is, it holds between two adjacent sections. The new claim of this […]
The post Poetic Parallelism and Working Memory appeared first on Oral Tradition.
A widespread kind of parallelism is a relation between sections of text such that each resembles the other in linguistic form, or in lexical meaning, or in both form and meaning. In poetry, this kind of parallelism can be systematic, and when it is, it holds between two adjacent sections. The new claim of this […]
The post Poetic Parallelism and Working Memory appeared first on Oral Tradition.
Listening to historical oral poetry usually means listening to archival sound recordings with no possibility to ask questions or compare performances by one singer in different performance arenas. Yet, when a greater number of recordings from different singers and by different collectors is available, the comparison of these performances has the potential to reveal some […]
The post Parallelism and Musical Structures in Ingrian and Karelian Oral Poetry appeared first on Oral Tradition.
Listening to historical oral poetry usually means listening to archival sound recordings with no possibility to ask questions or compare performances by one singer in different performance arenas. Yet, when a greater number of recordings from different singers and by different collectors is available, the comparison of these performances has the potential to reveal some […]
The post Parallelism and Musical Structures in Ingrian and Karelian Oral Poetry appeared first on Oral Tradition.
In this essay Drout and Smith use new “lexomic” methods of computer-assisted statistical analysis to identify a concentration of unusual lexical, metrical, grammatical, and formulaic features in lines 607-61 of Beowulf, a scene in which Queen Wealhtheow passes the cup of friendship to the assembled warriors. Although the passage contains a number of proper names, […]
The post A Pebble Smoothed by Tradition: Lines 607-61 of <em>Beowulf</em> as a Formulaic Set-piece appeared first on Oral Tradition.
This essay examines textual features of the Qur’ān that may emerge more prominently as a result of listening to it, features that might enhance insight gained during slow or silent reading sessions. Comparison with ancient Greek oral works, such as Homer, and an examination of Classical memory methodologies provide support for some of the oral […]
The post Oral Features of the Qur’ān Detected in Public Recitation appeared first on Oral Tradition.
The fairy-seers of Southeastern Europe are generally women who are able to communicate with the invisible world. They claim to see women-like creatures and transmit messages from them. Sometimes they fell into a trance-like state in order to establish a communication. During this process the fairy-seers can prophesy future events. They bring messages to the […]
The post The Fairy-Seers of Eastern Serbia: Seeing Fairies—Speaking through Trance appeared first on Oral Tradition.
This essay considers the orality of ritual texts written in the Naxi dongba script from southwest China. Historically, the inherent orality of these texts has been largely ignored in favor of seeing them as a kind of visual “hieroglyphics.” Here, a case will be made that the Naxi texts represent an intermediary stage between the […]
The post Between the Oral and the Literary: The Case of the Naxi Dongba Texts appeared first on Oral Tradition.
This essay identifies “The Scop’s Repertoire” as an Old English traditional theme. The theme associates the making of verse with three motifs: copiousness, orality, and antiquity. With close analogues in Old Saxon, Old and Middle High German, and Old Norse poetry, “The Scop’s Repertoire” originates in an oral Germanic tradition of versification. The theme thus […]
The post <em>Eall-feala Ealde Sæge</em>: Poetic Performance and “The Scop’s Repertoire” in Old English Verse appeared first on Oral Tradition.
n/a
In this commentary we map the recently burgeoning interest of anthropologists in mobilizing visual and multimodal methods to explore issues related to aging, care, and the life course. We demonstrate how within the anthropology of aging, visuality, mul…
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
In this article, we explore the particularities of belonging in old age for older adults living in Uummannaq in Northern Greenland. Through analysis of in-depth interviews and conversations, we investigate older adults’ relations to others and to place…
Wild animals were once thought not to age, as their deaths were viewed as the consequences of constant exposure to the perennial risks of nature. Studies of non-human aging were largely confined to biological investigations, focusing upon short-lived s…
Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, sees a significant increase in its aging population each year. This demographic shift is reflected in the country’s public higher-education sector, where the number of older academics has been growin…
The United States resettled over 70,000 ethnic Karen refugees between 2006 and 2019 due to a protracted civil war in Burma. The vast majority of these refugees have been resettled in urban areas despite the fact that most of them are from rural village…
n/a
n/a
n/a
The post Parallelism in Verbal Art and Performance: An Introduction appeared first on Oral Tradition.