Handout available outside G19 my office in "UZ" pigeonhole

1
Handoutavailable outside G19 (my office) in
"U-Z" pigeonhole

• Two pages of Geertz left out of reader pack.

2
Sacred Narrative

• Sacred Time
• Mythic era is unlike the current one
• Shit-eating culture heros?

3
Typology of tales

• Myth
• Legend
• Folktale/fairytale (Märchen)

4
Bronislaw Malinowski The Role of Myth in Life

• Myth controls moral and social behaviour
• Attacked Müller and his theory of
  nature-mythology
• Myths solve practical problems
• They fulfill functions

5
Trobriand tales

• kukwanebu (fairy tales, humorous fictions, art)
• libwogwo (true histories/legends, stories of
  personal experience told for edification about
  the world, not art)
• liliu (sacred tales/myths, venerable and sacred,
  true)

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Performance of Myth

• Denis Tedlock, Dell Hymes, Julie Cruickshank
• Oral literature, poetry
• Narrating a myth is a ritual
• Performative competence
• Form and content intertwined

7
Capturing oral performance

• Tape recorders, responsive audience
• Translations which produce similar effects
• Notate paralinguistic features (tone, volume,
  pitch, pause)

8
Guide to Reading Aloud

• She went out and
• went down to Waters End.
• On she went until
• she came to the bank
• and washed her clothes

9
Guide to Reading Aloud

• Up on the hills
• HE SAW A HERD OF DEER.
• The would sit king
• On he went.
• KERSPLASHHHHHH

girl wor
10
Guide to Reading Aloud

• aaaaaaAAAAAAH
• ta
• (gently) Now come with me.

l
a
a
a
a
a
11
not primitive but poetic

• Our prose is realistic, poetry is evocative.
• Repetition is poetic parallelism (common in epic
  poetry)
• Dramatic stories

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• And ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAD COME
• KILLED THE DEER
• killed the deer
• 
  killed the deer
• Wherever they made their kills they gutted them,
  put them on their backs, and went home.
• Two of the uncles
• Then
• went ahead of the group, and a third uncle
• (voice breaking) dropped his elder sister
• his elder brother
• his mother.

13

• while the other two uncles went on. As they
• went ON
• the boy pretended to be tired. The first uncle
  pleaded
• "Tísshomahhá!
• STOP," he said, "Let's stop this contest now."
• That's what he was saying as
• The little boy kept on running.
• As he kept on his beels went telele.
• On, he went on this way
• On until
• The little boy stopped and his uncle, dismounting
• Caught him

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Measured verse

• Not metrical
• Recurrent patterns (words, particles, episodes,
  verb tense, etc.)
• Patterns of 3s 5s or 2s 4s
• 'Bookending' pairs (openings and closings)
• Triadic patterns of onset, ongoing, outcome

15
Louis Simpson, Wishram Chinook, excerpt from
Coyotes Journey

• A a Now Coyote went, 1
• straight on he went,
• he saw white salmon in the water.
• b Then he thought
• How shall I get them? 5
• c Now then he thought
• I shall make a trap.
• (He saw the white salmon jumping about,
• he made a trap).

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• B a Now then he tied the trap,
• he tied it on. 9
• b Now then he jumped straightway right into
  the trap.
• c Now then Coyote told the trap
• Whenever you become full, trap,
• Whenever you mouth is full of white
  salmon, 13
• Now then youwill cry out,
• Ú, Im full,
• You will cry out,
• Now its full of white salmon at the trap.

17

• C a Now then it cried out
• Ú, Im full, the trap. 19
• b Coyote cried out
• Ú.
• c Now then Coyote went,
• he saw, 23
• now its full.
• d Now then he unloosened the trap
• e Now then Coyote
• Coyote got them this way. 27
• (This countrys name is eating-place,
• or it keeps tearing out.)

18
Raven-Man and Little-Bird-Man both want a wife
from Great-Raven. AGreat-Raven wants
Little-Bird-Man, he says, I will give my
daughter to Little-Bird-Man.Miti
says, 5 I will give my daughter to
Raven-Man.So then Raven-Man goes out
secretly, B he is eating
excrement, he is eating dog-carrion.They wake
up, C 10 some wolverine-skins
and wolf-skins are lying there.They are saying
to both, Who killed them?Raven-Man,
I.
Act I, Scene i
19
So then a snowstorm came. AAlways thus it is
not getting better. Great-Raven was saying
to both, B Well, make it better! Whoever
will make it better, 20 to that one I will
give the wife.Raven-Man, I will make it
better.He says, Prepare provisions
for me. 25They prepared a number of
boots. He left. CThere he is staying
under a cliff, eating.Little-Bird-Man is
going out, 30There he is staying, eating.O
f course, Raven-Man is scowling at
Little-Bird-Man. Little-Bird-Man enters (the
house), he is there not saying
anything. 35
Scene ii
20
Raven-Man stays there. D Thus always it is
storming, not getting better at all.Oh, So
then he entered, E all his boots were
frozen, 40 because he had been urinating
into the boots.Thus the boots were
frozen.Impossible, heaven is broken.
21
So then he said to Little-Bird-Man, 45 A Well
, you now, make it better. Impossible,
shall I go out like you, shall I urinate into
my boots?Great-Raven said to them, 50 Go
away, stay there unmarried.So then
(Little-Bird-Man) said to him, B Well
now.He took a small bit of fat, 55 a
stopper, a small shovel,He left for the
sky, he flew up, he came, 60He stopped up
the cleft in heaven with a stopper, he threw
the bit of fat at the sky,For a while it was
fine.
Scene iii
22
Again he came home, C again it
stormed. 65That stopper was thrust out into
the house, the small one, that is to say.He
says, Impossible. Heaven is broken.
23
Great Raven made another stoppera big
one, A gave it (to him), gave him also a big
piece of fat,He went again, to the same place
he flew up. 75 he came. Another time he
stuffed in that stopper all right, he struck it
with the mallet, he threw that fat at the
sky,Again with snow he shoveled up, 80 the
hole Forever it was fine.
Scene iv
24
Scene v He came A that Raven-Man
feels hatred toward them.To Miti he sits
close, 85 she is saying to
Raven-Man, How is it that you are, you
quite smell of excrement?Why, I have been
without any bread for a long time. She said to
him, 90 Enough, go away! You didnt
even make it better!He left. B Little-B
ird-Man married that Yiniangawgut.
25
Act Scene Stanza Verses Plot I i A abc
Onset of problem for Act I and Narrative
B a Intro of Raven-Mans character C abc an
imal skins ii A ab Onset of problem for Act
I B ab cd general situation C ab cd ef
Raven-Man (rhyme, stress) D ab not getting
better at all (general) E abc Impossible,
heaven is broken iii A abc Little-Bird-Man
attempts B abcde Partial success C abc Impo
ssible, heaven is broken iv A abcde forever
it was fine. v A abcd Miti rejects her former
favorite B ab Little-Bird-Man marries Yinia
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Schemas

• Man Woman
• Quikinyaqu Miti
• Little-Bird-Man Yiniangawut
• Raven-Man
• Raven-Woman
• River-Man Chañai
• stopping-up unblocking

Effective Ineffective Movement staying in one
place Cooperation acting alone