Oral Traditions

Closer to Orality

2005-04-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

I was surfing through the web today, perusing through other people's English 337 e-journals, when I came across something interesting. Dustin has on his website some "audio posts". Click on these posts and you will hear literary passages being read to you. How intriguing. It's ironic, really. For in this class of oral traditions, where we discuss memory and attempt to retreat back to the oral world in some way, most of our e-journals are entirely typographic. Dustin's audio-entries, however, display some characteristics of what Ong would secondary orality. The entries are based upon the literate world, but are presented in oral form.

The nature of Dustin's audio posts immediately made me think of Faith. In her presentation last week, Faith explained that her paper posits that books on tape are the modern link to our oral past. Hummm...

Term papers

2005-04-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day presenting our term papers. It seems that people came up with some pretty interesting and varied topics -- from an Ongist analysis of cultures in The Lord of the Rings to a discussion of modern-day orality as books on tape.

My term paper is entitled, "Language Transcription and Cultural Identity". It's about the cultural transition when a society moves from being oral to being literate. Specifically, I examined the role of the alphabet used in the transcription of oral stories in Guinea. As would be expected with this transition, Guineans lose an aspect of their oral tradition as they become a literate culture. However, perhaps part of their cultural identity may be maintained if their stories are transcribed using an alphabet that matches their language. Below is the complete paper... (Note: for some reason, I can't get the spacing to show up correctly on the published version of this blog, no matter how hard I try, so the paragraph divisions are weird. My apologies to the reader.)

Language Transcription and Cultural Identity

Sunlight from the open shutters flood the room as I sit at a wobbly wooden desk in the back, observing a unique class learning their lessons. The students in this classroom are not elementary schoolchildren, as the setting would suggest. In fact, they are adults -- parents of the children that normally fill these rows of table-benches. These dedicated members of the parent organization have come for their weekly lesson in literacy, taught by a USAID-sponsored Guinean teacher, Mamadou Fofana. While Guinean schoolchildren are instructed in the country's official governmental language, French, Mr. Fofana teaches in Pulaar, the language spoken almost universally in this part of the country. Pulaar is a language rich in oral tradition and history, yet it has no real written form. The written Pulaar that these students are learning is based on the Roman alphabet -- a sort of forced fit to the puzzle of literacy in this largely oral culture. Sounds from the Peuhl language don't really match up with Roman letters, even after a few extras (what my Peace Corps trainers referred to as "D-bizarre and B-bizarre") have been added. But without an alphabet of their own, one that accurately represents the unique sounds of their mother tongue, Mr. Fofana and his students are almost obligated to use an existing alphabet -- either Roman or Arabic -- if Pulaar and the stories that its oral tradition carries are to survive in this increasingly literate world.

In another part of this West African nation, some members of the Malinké ethnic group of Haute-Guinée have begun to recognize the importance of an indigenous alphabet. In 1949, Souleymane Kanté created an alphabet specific to the Malinké (a.k.a. Mande) language. His aim was to increase literacy among his people as well to provide the means to accurately record Malinké oral history and traditional knowledge (Oyler Reinventing). Though it is unlikely that this alphabet, called N'ko, will ever be as widely used as the Roman and Arabic alphabets, this written form of Malinké has experienced an unexpected popularity, creating a unity among Malinké speakers that crosses political borders. As oral cultures make the transition from orality to literacy, indigenous alphabets such as N'ko may help to maintain cultural identity by allowing for a more accurate expression of native languages.

Like many of its neighbors, Guinea, a country situated on the western coast of the African continent, became a colony of France in the late1800s. French rule brought many changes to the West African nation -- political, technological, and cultural. Along with forced labor, and the exploitation of Guinea's rich natural resources, colonial rulers also imposed their language on the Guinean people (Hudgens and Trillo 479). French was deemed the official tongue in school and in the government. In an effort to "civilize" the Guinean people, colonial rulers aimed to replace local languages almost entirely with their own (Hudgens and Trillo 479).

While the imposed cultural dominance of the French may suggest that oral stories were lost and forgotten, this is not the case. As Emmanuel Obeichina explains, "The superimposition of alphabetic writing upon the oral cultures of Africa in the nineteenth century did not extinguish the oral traditions upon which African cultures and literatures had long been established." In fact, the result of this new, introduced literacy was that many oral stories were recorded and archived (Obeichina). But did transcripts in French, a language so far from their original tongue, really do the oral traditions of Guinea justice?

Souleymane Kanté thought not. In 1944, he took the critical statement of a Lebanese journalist, who claimed that African languages could never be written down and were thus inferior, as a challenge (Oyler Reinventing). With his creation of the N'ko alphabet, Kanté aimed to increase literacy among his Malinké counterparts, making Western knowledge available to them with translations in their own language. In addition, he sought to preserve Malinké cultural heritage, including oral stories and knowledge such as that from traditional healers. (Oyler Reinventing). His took inspiration from a Malinké proverb: "If one takes the roof of one villager's house to cover the house of another villager and it does not fit, then one must build a roof that will fit" (personal interview 59 in Oyler Reinventing).

After Guinea gained its independence in 1958, the new ruler, Sekou Touré, came to agree with Kanté that learning in maternal languages may be the most efficient way to teach the nation's people. However, in instituting his "National Language Program" from 1968-1984, whereby schoolchildren were taught in local languages rather than in French, Touré did not go so far as to adopt N'ko as a standard alphabet for the Malinké language (Oyler Cultural Rev.).

Despite this setback, Kanté continued to promote N'ko on his own. Even without government funding or support, he attracted a large following that continues to this day. As Dianne Oyler points out, "Adults and children voluntarily learned the alphabet because it became culturally important to them." (Cultural Rev.). Kanté and his supporters translated document after document into Malinké using N'ko, making such texts as the Qu'ran accessible to the Malinké lay audience. In addition, N'ko allowed Malinké scholars to transcribe traditional stories and oral knowledge using an alphabet consistent with their own language, thus making the written versions more accurate and complete (Oyler Cultural Rev.)

The widespread embrace of N'ko in Guinea and beyond created a sort of cultural unity among speakers of Malinké and related languages. As Deborah Oyler posits, "Being literate in N'ko has become an important part of the current cultural Mande revival because the possession of N'ko means the repossession of the area's cultural integrity." (Cultural Rev.).

T he composition process of oral literature may be now be slightly different because of the introduction of this new culturally sensitive alphabet (Oyler Reinventing) and the influences of the chirographic world. However, N'Ko has preserved Malinké cultural heritage in a way that no other alphabet could. Oral stories and traditional knowledge can now be transcribed in a linguistically appropriate way, helping to maintain their accuracy and cultural nuances.

Few traditional African languages are as fortunate as Malinké to have an alphabet all their own. Regrettably, this means that local languages are being written as Roman or Arabic scripts. And as I witnessed that sunny morning in the classroom of adults, part of the language, and thus part of the culture, is lost even in these determined efforts to preserve it and educate its people. Alphabets like N'ko, which have been created with a specific native language in mind, mean that oral stories are translated more fully and accurately. It is with these truer representations of oral traditions that the cultural identities of oral peoples may be retained.

Works Cited

Hudgens, Jim, and Richard Trillo. West Africa: The Rough Guide. London: Rough Guides, Ltd, 1999.

Obiechina, Emmanuel. Narrative proverbs in the African novel. Research in African Literatures 64(4): 123-141. MSU Libraries. Genl Reference Ctr Gold. Montana State U Libraries, Bozeman, MT. 9 Apr. 2005 http://proxybz.lib.montana.edu:2082/itw/infomark

Oyler, Diane. Re-inventing oral tradition: the modern epic of Souleymane Kante. (transcribing African stories in Nko language). Research in African Literatures 33(i1): 75-95. MSU Libraries. Genl Reference Ctr Gold. Montana State U Libraries, Bozeman, MT. 9 Apr. 2005 http://proxybz.lib.montana.edu:2082/itw/infomark

Oyler, Dianne. A Cultural Revolution in Africa: The Role of Literacy in the Republic of Guinea since Independence. 10 Apr. 2005. <http://www.kanjamadi.com/n>

N'Ko

2005-04-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

One of the cool things about this e-journal is the ability to hypertext things. I am in the process of writing my term paper about a Guinean alphabet, N'ko, and have found some interesting websites on the subject, listed below. N'ko is an alphabet created in 1949 specifically for the Malinke language -- a language that has been, until recently, completely oral. Its creator, Souleymane Kante, wanted to prove that his language could be written down (contrary to the claim made by a snooty Lebanese journalist) and to promote literacy among his people. Kante realized that neither the Arabic nor the Roman alphabets were a good fit for writing Malinke because their letters did not fit the unique sounds of his language. In creating N'ko, Kante himself has become an epic hero.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/nko.htm
http://www.nkoinstitute.com/
http://www.friendsofguinea.org/languages.shtml
http://www.kanjamadi.com/n'koliteracy&guinea.html

Hotel Rwanda

2005-04-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

I saw an incredible movie this weekend. And though this entry is not entirely related to oral traditions, I was so affected that I thought it merited an e-journal entry. This is a movie that everyone should see. It was tough to watch, sickening at times. I spent half the movie crying in anguish and in anger.

One of the parts of the movie that hurt the most was when an American journalist was talking to a Rwandan man about the horrifying footage that he shot that day. The Rwandan thanked the journalist because with footage like that, it was certain that international forces would intervene, that someone would come and help them. The journalist replied that people in the States would watch the terror on their TV screens and think to themselves how horrible it was. Then they would go on eating their dinners. That's exactly what we did. Almost one million Rwandans were murdered during the genocide.

http://www.hotelrwanda.com/intro.html

"African time"

2005-04-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

Towards the beginning of my two year tour with the Peace Corps in Guinea, I organized a girls soccer match at the village middle school. The teams were slated to practice at 4:00 pm on a Tuesday. I've never been a very punctual person, but I figured that since I was the coach, I should be a good example -- I made it over to the field with five minutes to spare. I was the first one there, so I found a shady spot to wait. I waited... and I waited... After about 45 minutes had passed, I gave up and trudged back up the hill towards my tin-roofed shack. Had I misunderstood? I saw the principal of the school on my way up the hill and stopped him, "Monsieur Diawara, jiwobe araali tew, ko hondun waadi?". ("Mr. Diawara, the girls haven't come for practice yet. Is something wrong?"). The principal laughed. "Saffi," he told me, "there are only three times in Africa -- morning, afternoon, and evening." The girls had told me 4:00 meaning "evening". That could mean that they would show up anytime between then and around 8. And sure enough, practice was held later that evening. The girls all knew when to show up, of course...

Many people have asked me about the pace of life in Guinea. It is slower. It is a live-in-the-moment kind of culture. Instead of focusing so much on the future, Guineans live almost completely in the present. They do what they want to do right now, even if that means being late to the next event. The next event will wait.

As Western influences grow stronger in African nations like Guinea, native peoples do everything they can to be more like Americans. Guineans are obsessed with the movie,"Titanic". They listen to the likes of J. Lo and Emenem. They wear baseball caps and tennis shoes if they can afford them. And likewise, many of them wear wristwatches. When I leaned over to my friend Boubacar one day and asked for the time, pointing to the watch on his wrist, he confessed that his watch didn't actually keep time. It's just for decoration. It seems like our sort of industrialized concept of time just hasn't taken hold in Guinea. And I think that is a beautiful thing.

When I go to bed at night back here in the states, turning out the light is like turning off my senses. From that moment on, I try to block out any more stimuli -- the cars on the street, the lights outside my window -- lest they disrupt my slumber. But in Guinea, I took the time to listen. Blowing out my candle at night was not the end of my senses for the day. Outside my window, crickets rubbed their wings and bullfrogs croaked in a cacophonous song. My neighbor's goats shifted their weight. During the rainy season, drops pelted my tin roof in a boisterous effort for my attention. It was its own sort of polyphony.

Polyphony

2005-04-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today, the second day of group presentations, one of the groups challenged us to break free of univocal thinking and to feel the polyphony of oral tradition. I was most impressed by this creative approach of this group, who had us all wear blindfolds for the duration of their presentation. Taking away one of our senses, the sense that is so closely linked to the chirographic world, allowed our other senses to take over. The group worked hard at non-visual sensory stimulation, bringing in smells such as Lysol(?) and pipe tobacco as well as auditory clues like clanking glasses, flicking lighters, and vocal inflexion.

At first it was difficult for me to give in to this new, blind, world. I tried to focus on one voice, to pick out the vocal timbre of someone whose voice I recognized. I tried to hone in on one conversation, to block out the other "noise". But the longer we sat there and listened, the more clear it became that opposing conversations were not noise but part of the polyphonic song. And though it did become cacophonous at times, that seemed to add to the antagonistic tone that is characteristic of the oral tradition.

It is interesting to me that in this American world where we pride ourselves in our ability to multitask, we are forgetting to really stop and listen to the world. We are involved in a million different activities and push ourselves to fit more and more into the day. This go-go-go mentality is causing us to lose touch with our traditions, with nature, and with ourselves.

Group Presentations

2005-04-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of group presentations, starting with Kane's chapters on Maps, Boundaries, and Dreams. Each group presentation was unique and fascinating in its own way. Jeremiah and the Maps people intrigued us with their oral map treasure hunt while the Dreams group wowed us with special effects and a dramatic renactment of a Celtic myth. It's interesting to see how all of these chapters from Kane come together.

I belong to the Boundaries group, which also presented today. Each of us acted in the myth-turned into theatrical production (thanks to Allison for writing it out), and each of us presented a sub-section of the chapter. (Note: the notes from my sub-section are posted on my class notes blog). I would like to thank and congratulate all my fellow group members for this presentation. I was really impressed that everyone pulled their weight and contributed to this project -- it doesn't always turn out that way.

Memory Presentations

2005-04-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

We were reminded today in class that our last memory feats will be performed on April 19 -- a memorized list of 50 items of our choice. I have decided to kill two birds with one stone on this one and memorize something that I have to memorize for another class: Parts of the brain. My memory theater this time will be inside the body instead of a room, as I think it may be easy to remember brain anatomy using the actual brain as a map. We'll see how it goes...

Class notes link

2005-04-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

I have created another blog for English 337 class notes. Feel free to check it out: http://classnotesmsuot.blogspot.com/

Quiz #2

2005-03-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

Today was our second quiz, complete with a question on the mad, stuttering grandmother and an essay about the difference between "Medieval Man" and the "renaissance Hermetic man" according to Frances Yates. The questions that really surprised me were the ones about the top 100 book titles -- I thought that we were done with that after our memory presentations! Luckily, though, my memory theater came through for me and I made it past those questions without too many lost points...

Ode to Wayne

2005-03-28T18:53:00.000-08:00

On Thursday in class, we started presenting our oral poems, epic tales of our classmates. I've been really impressed with the poems so far -- they have been both humorous and creative. This assignment is truly in the spirit of oral tradition.

My assigned "soul mate" was Wayne, and I wrote the following beat-style poem about him. My aim was to really heroicize Wayne, who told me that his greatest achievement was getting through college in only six years. I figured he must be pretty smart, so I used a little poetic license and played with that trait. Also, I made it easy to memorize by making it a poem in chronological order, by using a rhyme scheme, and by making the presentation rhythmic. It's a little silly, but that made it easier to memorize, too...

Wayne!
Wayne the brain,
I s-i-i-i-ing of Wayne.

Back in his family,
Daddy and Mammy
Begat little Wayne in Ronan.

At only six months old,
As the prophets had foretold,
Lil' Wayne taught his own self to read.

Wayne!
Wayne the brain,
I s-i-i-i-ing of Wayne.

At five and a half years,
He published his last year's
Research on monkey brain spasms.

When he was eleven,
His theories on heaven
Cleared up religious debate.

Wayne!
Wayne the brain,
I s-i-i-i-ing of Wayne.

He dabbled in music,
And boy, did he use it,
He wrote a symphony at twelve.

Wayne as a teen
Took out his own spleen
The procedure he learned from a book.

Wayne!
Wayne the brain,
I s-i-i-i-ing of Wayne.

When he got to college,
His passion for knowledge
Allowed him to major in... everything?

He earned all of his degrees,
Chemistry, Art and Chinese,
In a matter of only six years.

Wayne!
Wayne, the brain,
I s-i-i-i-ing of Wayne.

All know-ing
Hard work-ing
Over achieve -ed?

Muse, get me off this train called... Wayne.

Oral Wisdom

2005-03-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

Some of my favorite passages in Sean Kane's Wisdom of the Mythtellers are those in which he reveals how oral traditions really do carry practical advice for our modern world. There is the practical wisdom, described on p. 37-38, where Kane explains how the stories of our ancestors provide clues for the pharmaceutical industry. There is the story of why you really shouldn't eat white berries (p. 39). And there is the Dene and Inuit myth about the caribou, detailed on pp. 42 and 43. In this account, oral tradition triumphs over science when scientific modeling of caribou cycling patterns did not turn out as biologists predicted. Oral tradition, we learn, is not just a series of elaborate, made-up stories. It is its own sort of science, observed and documented, passed down through generations. These generations of oral peoples have been with nature all along. Their stories present wisdom because of their close relationship with the environment. For centuries, they have been there, watching the way things work in the world and gradually building their upon their knowledge.

Naturally, after studying Kane, I have been searching for more examples of mythteller's wisdom in our world. I was listening to NPR's National Native News the other day when I heard this headline: "Native Oral Tradition Used in Study on Droughts in the Great Plains" (National Native News, March 3, 2005). Check it out in the NNN archives: http://www.nativenews.net/ . Unfortunately, the NNN website gives little information beyond the headline. I hope to find out more about this story so that I can write more about this example of oral wisdom.

Ancient wisdom of the Fulbe

2005-03-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

We have been talking in class about the importance of proverbs in oral tradition. Here are some proverbs from the Fulani (aka Peuhl) culture of the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea. I got these from a Peace Corps language book written by a returned volunteer and my friend and instructor, Ousmane Besseko Diallo. The book is accessable on the web: http://ibamba.net/pular/. The Pulaar language is full of proverbs like this, and they really do play a critical role in the Peuhl traditions and culture.

Lekkun bee e dowkal mun.
Every little tree gives its little bit of shade.

Si tawi hodo fow ko bumbe, omubu yiitere haa feyyaa.
If you come to the village of the blind, close an eye until you leave.

Wata boobtihun hawjan gala; ko ko kun maydaa.
A calf shouldn't be in a hurry to grow horns; he'll have them until he dies.

Labi lesataa flawal mun.
A knife can't carve its own handle.

Leggal, ko waalii ka ndiyan woo, wontataa noora.
No matter how long it sits in the water, a log doesn't turn into a crocodile.

Bingawal no andi ko acci e fayande.
The spoon knows what it left in the pot.

Unidoobe dido wata suudondir ley nolki.
Two women pounding at the same pestle shouldn't try to hide their armpits from eachother.

Basaal warataa kono no tampina.
Poverty doesn't kill, but it is rather unpleasant.

MSU top 100

2005-03-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that I was dreading this memory demonstration. One hundred book titles? There was no way. Even after hearing Justin wow the class with his swift recitation of the titles, I knew that it'd be tough for me to pull off. And though I had heard about the use of the memory maps and imagery in psychology courses (my undergraduate major), I was pretty skeptical about actually putting the memory palace technique into practice. But I tried it anyway. And it worked!! I couldn't believe how easy it was to memorize the titles. I was able to recite them quickly today, without hardly stumbling.

Regarding the memory theater, I was interested to read on Allison's website that she used an outdoor setting for her memory palace. I used my house, and it worked well for me because each of the loci was very different looking. But Allison's memory forest must have worked well for her, because she was able to tick off the 100 titles without problem, either. I guess the memory theater is a very personal thing -- loci that look the same enough for one person may be very distinct and separate for another. And besides, I haven't seen her backyard!

Quiz #1

2005-02-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

Today was our first quiz in Oral Traditions. I was a little surprised at the question about Kori Winslow's first lesson -- what were the items that she had us remember. Amazingly, though, these things came back to me without too much difficulty. Dog, grapefruit, bottle of wine, toothpaste, left shoe, eyebrow. How could I remember these things? And moreover, why would I? The answer lies, of course, in the memory theater. Kori created for us a visual map inside the classroom, where we could visualize each of these items being placed. Then, during the test, all we had to do was look at the places around the room and the items would come back to us. Amazing!

Important Terms for Quiz 1

2005-02-19T17:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some important terms that have come up in class:
chirographic - pertaining to (hand)writing
typographic - pertaining to print
grapholect - variation of standard language -- this only really exists in a print culture
Primary Orality - strictly oral; not "contaminated" by chirographic or typographic cultures
Secondary Orality -
logos - ths spoken word
apothegems - wise sayings
psyche - Greek for "soul"
tabula rossa - blank slate

Mnemosyne - name means "Memory"; mother of the 9 muses: 1) Calliope; 2) Clio; 3) Erato; 4)Euterpe; 5) Melpomene; 6) Polyhymnia; 7) Terpsichore; 8) Thalia 9) Urania

An inventory of my bedroom

2005-02-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

I am in the interesting situation right now, as a 24-year-old, to be living with my parents. (SHHH!!). Thus, I sleep in the same bedroom that I grew up in, and the items in the room reflect that fact.

The general decor of the room is quite interesting and will tell the observer about certain phases of my life. First of all, there is the pink carpet. Bright pink. This is because shortly after we moved into this house, my parents made the brilliant choice of letting me, a very mature 5 year-old girl, redecorate my own room. I chose my favorite color for everything -- pink carpet, pink walls, and of course, a pink canopy bed. Though the walls have been since painted and the bed replaced, the pink carpet remains -- a reminder of my girlie elementary school days.

So what do the walls look like now, you ask? The pretty pink walls were painted in my early high school years to reflect a sort of return to the 70's phase. They are bright blue, with trim the color of well-watered grass. And on the ceiling is the best part -- a giant white daisy, painted so that the light fixture is the center of the flower. It was waaaay cool. On the walls hang posters, preserved under glass, of plays in which I acted in years past. There is also a Monet print that I bought on a trip to visit my oldest brother in France when I was 10. Over the bookcase is a fairly recent photo of Paradise Valley, taken by my favorite photographer, my brother Jay.

The furniture in the room is a mish-mosh of pieces acquired over the years: my parents' old dresser, a mirror that used to be my great grandma's, a desk that used to display expensive ceramic figurines at the Hallmark store where my mom used to work, a daybed that I got for my 13th birthday, a bookcase that my dad built. On top of the desk, the dresser, and the bookcase are framed pictures from various stages in my life. The faces in the pictures smile back at me, reminding my of how my life used to be.

Interesting links

2005-02-13T20:32:00.000-08:00

Salman Rushdie will be coming to MSU soon! Here's a link about him:

http://www.subir.com/rushdie.html

Flyting -- a colorful exchange of words of abuse

2005-02-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

I like to think of myself as a non-confrontational person. I don't like yelling. I whimper at name calling. So talking about flyting kind of makes me nervous. But it's true -- I've done it.

Of course all of us have had times growing up when we exchanged colorful insults with our brothers and sisters. I grew up with three older brothers, so I had ample opportunity for sibling fighting and flyting. It seems like more often than not, our arguments and spats led to physical confrontations. Being the youngest in my family (and the only girl), I had a large size disadvantage when it came to physical match-ups. That didn't stop my brothers from bullying me, but it also didn't stop me from pulling the "mom card". ("MOOOOOOOM! Shawn/Adam/Jay is hitting/punching/kicking/bugging me!"). Ah, the advantages of being the youngest...

I'd like to say that my wit and intellectual prowess compensated for my lack of physical strength in these sibling rivalries. However, as a young child, my age and lack of vocabulary left me nearly as disadvantaged in flyting as I was in fighting. One particular example of this is still clear to me today. I was angry at my brother Adam for whatever reason, and the name-calling began. I'm sure we started out with the typical "stupid" and "poopy-head" childhood classics. But Adam, who has always prided himself in his big words, won the duel when he called me... A botanist. BOTANIST!!! I had no idea what this meant, of course, but it sounded like something really terrible. It was the end of the argument. How could I top an insult like "botanist"? I remember going over this term in my head for hours after the incident -- repeating it, tasting its sour significance, and of course, preparing to use it in future flyting. And when my mom (finally!) got home from work that day, I ran to her in near tears. "MOM! Adam called me a BOTANIST!!" (e.g., doesn't he deserve to have his mouth washed out with soap??!!). Unfortunately, the "mom card" didn't work so well this time...

Adam continues to challenge my vocabulary to this day.

World Views

2005-02-07T11:05:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons that I signed up for this course is that I just returned from an culture that is primarily oral. For the past two years, I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the West African nation of Guinea. I returned to the United States on December 1, 2005.

Living in such a different culture has colored my view of the world. I was there for long enough that I got a huge taste of Guinean life. I learned to savor rice and leaf sauce, to tie on a traditional skirt, to understand Guinean humor. My village took me in -- accepted me as one of their friends, one of their sisters.

With my past experiences in mind, learning about oral traditions is fascinating. I almost wish that I had taken the course before I left so that I would have known what to look for. But in the same light, taking the course now makes so much sense. When we talk about oral cultures and critical thinking, the repetition that exists, the kind of learning that goes on, the first stages of literacy, it really hits home.

I could talk about my Peace Corps experience for hours -- but I'll spare everyone and just give a link... If anyone would like to see a little more of Guinea, here's a link to some cool pictures that my brother Jay (a professional photographer) took when he came to visit me last May/June: http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=2697 . And if you want to learn more about Guinea in general and the projects going on in Peace Corps Guinea, here's a good link: www.friendsofguinea.org .

Taking things for granted

2005-01-31T20:35:00.000-08:00

In class last Thursday, Professor Sexson asked us to write about what we take for granted in this writing culture. Ironically, what I take for granted the most is the nature of the writing culture itself. That is, our world is based on the fact that the individual knows how to read. Our society is set up so that the illiterate person is stigmitized, discriminated against. Literacy is vital to every aspect of our culture, from advancing in the career world to navigating the freeway to ordering at a restaurant.

Perhaps in this American society, where the vast majority of the population attends school through high school, it's not unreasonable to expect literacy. However, in other parts of the world, literacy is the exception to the rule. I just returned from two years serving in the Peace Corps in Guinea, a country in west Africa. There, the adult literacy rate is at 37%. While the official language of the country is French, people don't speak it unless they've had the chance to go to school. And as can be imagined, much of the population hasn't had this chance. In fact, I lived in a village where the main language, Pulaar, isn't even a written one (none of their three main local languages are). So it was something to get used to when my neighbors didn't know how to sign their names, how to read a newspaper, or even how to hold a pencil. I never knew how much I expected everyone else to be literate, just like me, until I was living among them.

There were so many times when I forgot about the illiteracy, if just for a moment. I would ask a market woman to sign a reciept I needed for my records and find her fumbling with the pencil or expect my barely literate counterparts to fill in a chart more rapidly than they were able. Or a couple of times when I was unsure of a word in local language, I would ask someone to spell it. With what alphabet? The first time my neighbor brought me a letter (delivered to her via bush taxi), I was confused. For me? No, for me to read to her. And then, of course, she wanted me to compose her dictated response. The expectation of literacy is ingrained in me because of where I grew up.

Logically, the Guinean society is more accepting of illiterate people, and more accessible to them. Signs over restaurants and shops show pictures of what you might find inside, not words. People learn their trades from spending time as an apprentice, not from studying in University or trade school. Stories are recounted, sang, and danced, not read from a book. Even children in school learn more from recitation and song than from the few books they do possess. And since the Guineans live in such an oral culture, I had to adjust my methods to their illiteracy and traditions. I was there as a health volunteer, passing on knowledge about malaria, diarrheal diseases, STIs, and the like. But though the instincts I brought with me from my chirographic, typographic culture may have led me to educate people with written signs and information-filled lectures, the oral culture told me not to. I painted murals of people washing their hands and of babies getting their shots. I sang songs about diarrhea with elementary school children. I couldn't count on people being literate, and everything changed.

Again!

2005-01-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

When I asked my parents what word I said over and over as a child, they had a hard time remembering. I am the youngest of four children -- perhaps our babyhoods run together a bit. In the end, though, they did come up with something that I often repeated: the word "again". Appropriate, huh? My mother says that I always wanted to have stories read again, be pushed in the swing again, etc... So there you have it.

links to other oral traditions journals

2005-01-25T17:54:00.000-08:00

Courtney: www.livejournal.com/users/wilsoncourt/
Opai: www.geocities.com/apabritabasu
Shauna: www.ideasandramblings.blog.com
Allison: www.oraltraditions.blogspot.com
Cindy: www.spaditions.blogspot.com
Jennie: www.buttersickle-la-la.blogspot.com
Juliet: http://julietno.blogspot.com/
Justin: http://oraltraditionsengl337.blogspot.com/
Debbie: http://oraltraditionsdeb.blogspot.com/
Cara: www.dineenc.blogspot.com
Jennifer: http://jst-oraltraditions.blogspot.com/
Stephanie: http://stephurban.blogspot.com/
Jeremy: http://www.adamlamb.com/webPages/Oral%20Traditions%201/Feats%20of%20Memory
Valerie: www.thefirebird2005.blogspot.com
Sophie: http://oraltradsophie.blogspot.com/
Brian: http://rememory.blogspot.com/
Wes: http://www.livejournal.com/users/wesleyfriske/
Ed: http://trex2.oscs.montana.edu/~eshanley/index2.html
Josh: www.livejournal.com/users/jgerdes/
Samantha: www.originaldrivel.blogspot.com
Wayne: www.wayne.blog-city.com
Kelly: http://galacticgerbil.blogspot.com
Nikole: http://www.geocities.com/nikoledidier/index2.html
Lauren: http://oraltraditions337.blogspot.com/
Dustin: http://dythonoraltradition.blogspot.com/
Mick: http://msuenglish337.blogspot.com/
Hanna: http://precontamination.blogspot.com

Before I learned to read

2005-01-25T17:07:00.000-08:00

It's difficult to recall my world before I learned to read. It seems that all my memories are colored by what I have heard about myself since that time. And I'd like to say that before I learned to read, I lived in an oral culture, but I think that's only partly the case. I was purely oral, but the world around me was not. Our culture revolves around writing. So even though I saw things as pictures and remembered things as rhymes and songs, my world was still not completely an oral one. I was read to before I learned to read. Instead of hearing the oral traditions passed down from generation to generation in my family, I was able to just pick a story off a shelf. Granted, I picked out many of the same stories. But the fact that I was able to choose a book took some of the ceremony out of the storytelling. Anyone who could read could tell me these stories. They did not change or evolve, but were the same words every time. In fact, I had heard some of the stories so many times that I had memorized some of the books. If someone tried to deviate even a bit from the text that I knew, I would tell them to "read right".

The art of storytelling is so different in a literate society. In this culture, it seems that it doesn't really matter whether one is able to read or not. Young or old, literate or illiterate, the written word permeates our world. When reflecting back on these children's books I had people read to me, the quote that we talked about in class today, "the medium is the message," seems even more appropriate. Anyone could read me the stories. In our literate world, a story is words on a page instead of a creation of the storyteller. The art of the story was created with the author of the book, not with the storyteller.

Google: orality and literacy

2005-01-23T13:23:00.000-08:00

I searched the internet for "orality and literacy" and came up with a bunch of stuff about Ong. I haven't had the chance to go through all of them yet, but hope to get back to it later. Here are some of the links:

http://www.engl.niu.edu/wac/ong_rvw.html

http://www.coe.uga.edu/reading/faculty/dreinking/ONG.html

http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/ong.htm

http://slis.cua.edu/ihy/fall01/paoral/general.htm

http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/orality_and_literacy.html

http://www.georgetown.edu/users/ama44/Orality%20and%20Literacy.htm

http://www.tarleton.edu/~lilly/discuss2.htm