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The Context Oral Tradition and Contemporary Native

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Title: The Context Oral Tradition and Contemporary Native


1
The Context Oral Tradition and Contemporary
Native
  • The Relationship between Oral Traditions, Tribal
    Truths, Universal Relationships, and Contemporary
    Native Literature.
  • Shawna Cunningham, B.A. M.A

2
The Aesthetics of Oral Literature
  • The purpose of Art and Storytelling (Aristotle)
  • To Teach (instructional) - The didactic aspects
    behind the purpose of storytelling - the
    teachings
  • To Entertain (emotional/sensory)- The engaging
    aspects behind the art of storytelling
  • These aspects are essential and occur at
    varying degrees as the end result of the creative
    process.

3
Tribal Truths and Oral Tradition
  • Oral Tradition
  • The Oral tradition is that
  • process by which the
  • myths, legends, tales, and lore
  • of a people are formulated,
  • communicated, and preserved
  • in language by word of mouth
  • as opposed to writing. Or it is a
  • collection of such things.
  • (N. Scott Momaday)
  • An oral literature is that that has
  • been transmitted by word of
  • mouth from generation to
  • Generation through storytelling,
  • song, and ceremony
  • (Penny Petrone)
  • World View
  • World view is the way in which an individual or
    collective culture views the world around them
    and imagine their place within that world.
  • (N. Scott Momaday)
  • Establishment of universal relationships
  • human being to the creator/s,
  • human being to the cosmos
  • human being to nature (animal / plants / earth),
  • human being to human being (Thomas King)

4
World View
  • Vine Deloria Jr.
  • In examining the world view of people, look for
    principles of order and the threat of chaos. One
    should consider the complete inter-relationships
    of these principles and categories.
  • Petrone Petrone
  • The world view produces mythologies as a means
    of understanding the world(s) around (us).
    Essentially, spiritual in nature - the sacred
    mythologies contact spiritual beliefs,
    traditions, laws, morals, and histories of
    cultural groups as transmitted by the orators
    (and storytellers) to explain the instruct the
    mysteries of the universe and the world view of
    the people.

5
Oral Tradition
  • (N. Scott Momaday)
  • Storytelling is imaginative and creative in
    nature. It is an act by which man strives to
    realize his capacity for wonder, meaning, and
    delight. It is also a process in which man
    invests and preserves himself in the context of
    ideas. Man tells stories in order to understand
    his experience, whatever it may be. The
    possibilities of storytelling are precisely those
    of understanding the human experience.
  • Stories are in essence, Man (human beings) as
    he / she thinks of himself / herself within the
    dimension of language
  • (Penny Petrone, First People First Voices)
  • The word carried power to create.. Through the
    sacred power of the word, aboriginal people
    sought to shape and understand the cosmic forces
    and beings that governed their lives words
    merely represent meaning, they possessed the
    power to change reality itself. There were life
    substance, reality.

6
The Nature of Oral Tradition
  • For Aboriginal cultures, the Oral tradition, in
    its original context, contained tribal truths,
    beliefs, histories, and ways of knowing and
    interacting with the universe, encoded in myths
    and legends. The languages were highly symbolic
    and description. Stories were metaphorically
    charged and often connected to ceremony.
    Ceremony was guided by stories, stories connected
    the people to the land and means of survival
    within the context of the regional land base.
  • Oral storytelling communication practices were
    highly evolved and ceremonially charged, which
    effected Native / Non-native relations and
    cultural interactions.
  • There is no place in the world where Rhetoric
    is more powerful than in Canada. (They) speak
    with the keenness and delicacy of rhetoric that
    might have come out of the schools of Aristotle
    or Cicero.
  • (Paul Le Jeune, 17th Century Jesuit Missionary,
    1633.)

7
The Cultural Context of the Spoken Word
  • Words are Sacred
  • In an Oral Context - Words are Animate
  • Language is the vehicle for the imagination
  • The Word carries the power to create
  • The Word is formulated in the imagination,
    translated to language, expressed through the
    breath of life, and carried on the Wind over
    geographical barriers and from one generation to
    the next. From one mind to another through a
    complex system of transference.

8
Elements of The Storytelling Event
  • Ritual / Preparation - The performance of the
    myths can be viewed as a ritualistic
  • Purification for the orator to clear the mind and
    call upon the ancestral spirits for assistance
    Ceremonies included Smudges, Sweats, Pipe
    Ceremonies
  • Storyteller / Orator - The storyteller transforms
    reality and transports the listener through
    performance into another reality .
  • Gifts - interpretive skills, memory, ability to
    engage through visual images, presentation, and
    figurative language, natural charisma
  • The Word - the sacredness of the word as an
    animate creation is carried on the wind.
    Language is the vehicle for the imagination. The
    word has the power.
  • Audience / Listener - The audience participates
    in a transformation of space and time.
  • Communion / Outcome - A Sacred Exchange of the
    Story - The listener returns to a reality with
    enlightenment / knowledge and imagery, and
    thereby undergoes his/her own unique
    transformation or evolution.

9
Types of Oral Literature
  • Myths - Sacred Stories having to do with elements
    of creation and the universe
  • Types of Myths
  • 1. Creation myths
  • Earth Diver
  • Emergence
  • Cosmos
  • Within creation myths, the complex metaphorical
    content outlines the order of the universe, the
    belief systems, and the primary universal
    relationships.
  • 2. Trickster Cycles
  • 3. Migration Myths
  • Legends Stories with elements of humans /
    super-humans.
  • Orations - recorded speeches of Aboriginal
    leaders. Part of historical ethnographic record.
    Issues translation, transcription.
  • Secular Stories the day to day stories, family
    histories, kinship,
  • Narrative Voices
  • The Secular / Present and Immediate
  • The Historical / Past and Human-based
  • The Mythical Spiritual /Sacred
  • N. Scott Momaday

10
Traditional Trickster Mythology and the Trickster
Motif
  • General Function of trickster myths 1) to
    instruct, 2) to entertain ( in that order)
  • Archetype figure or Cultural Motif present in
    most tribal literatures across North America
  • Trickster Mythology - Part of the sacred as the
    trickster lies in the fact that the trickster
    character often participates in creation-type
    myths, where by the world or aspects of nature
    are altered.
  • Trickster mythology deals with principle cycles
    of order and chaos
  • Trickster myths can be viewed as Cyclic, and the
    regional tribal Tricksters are recognizable to
    the people, such as Napi, Weesackgeechuk,
    Coyote, Nanabush, Raven, and etc.
  • Some Shared / Fixed Traits
  • Duality / Paradoxical elements of good / evil,
    creator / destroyer, human / spirit, order /
    chaos
  • Marginality / Interloper
  • Visceral Humor,
  • Some Fluid, Regional Traits
  • Appearance, Transformation Abilities, Gender,
    Name

11
Aboriginal Scholars Philosophical Aspects of
existence and universal relationships
  • N. Scott Momaday, Man Made of Words, Sam Gill
    in Native American Traditions.
  • Explores the context of place, identity,
    inter-generational memory and ancestral ties to
    land through stories and language.
  • Vine Deloria Jr. God is Red
  • Explores the concept of spatial versus temporal
    accounts of history and existence.
  • Thomas King, The Truth About Stories
  • Explores the philosophical concepts of universal
    and tribal truths in relation to myths and
    storytelling.

12
Contemporary Native Literature
  • Inter-fusional Literature Contemporary Native
    literature that incorporates cultural motifs and
    aspects of the mythical derived from tribal Oral
    literatures.
  • Issues in Literary Criticism
  • Artistic Responsibility versus Artisitic Freedom
  • Experimentation with combining Western Structure
    and Aboriginal concepts of storytelling in
    narrative voice and language the oral dialogue,
    collective narration, and active participation
    from the audience in plot development and
    narrative voice.

13
Recommended Brief Readings
  • Bruchac, Joseph. "Introduction" in Keepers of the
    Earth, eds. Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac.
    Saskatoon Fifth House Publishers, 1991. (ix-xi)
  • King, Thomas. ''Introduction", All My Relations,
    ed.Thomas King. Toronto McClelland and Stewart.
    Inc. ,1990. (ix-xvi).
  • Momaday, N. Scott. ''Forward" in, eds. Michael
    gtCaduto and Joseph Bruchac. Keepers of the Earth
    Saskatoon Fifth House Publishers, 1991. (ix-xi)
  • Panegoosho, Mary. "Where are the Stories of My
    People" in _Paper Stays Put, ed. Robin Gedalof.
    Winnipeg Hurtig Publishers, 1990. (13).
  • "Why the Moose's Skin is Loose" in Our Bit of
    Truth, ed. by Agnes Grant. Pemmican Publishers
    Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1990. (12-13).

14
Recommended Literature
  • Short Stories
  • All My Relations, Thomas King (collection of
    short stories)
  • This is a Story Jeanette Armstrong
  • The Last Raven Richard Green
  • The One About Coyote Going West Thomas King
  • Novels
  • Green Grass, Running Water - Thomas King
  • Medicine River Thomas King
  • Honour the Sun, Ruby Slipperjack
  • Fools Crow, James Welch
  • The Way to Rainy Mountain, N. Scott Momaday
  • Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson
  • Plays
  • The Rez Sisters, Tomson Highway
  • Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, Tomson
    Highway
  • Toronto at Dreamers Rock, Drew Hayden Taylor.
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