Oral Culture Research Articles

Kathryn D. Temple. Loving Justice: Legal Emotions in William Blackstone’s England.

Kathryn D. Temple. <i>Loving Justice: Legal Emotions in William Blackstone’s England</i>.

Problematising Tribality: A Critical Engagement with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories

Tribality simply means the characteristic features of various tribal communities and the qualities of being tribal. In the 1940s leading anthropologists like Verrier Elwin and G.S.Ghurye tried to theorize and categorize tribal identities. However, they were often accused of representing either a ‘protective’ or ‘romantic’ notions of tribality. One cannot determine the tribality of a person based on their features, dialects, food habits or geographical location. Tribality is said to bind the pan-Indian Tribal literature which is again problematic considering language which is considered as the useful indicator of any identity. Tribal Literature is a distinct form of writing to represent people, things and ideas in their cultural authenticities. The tribals essentially have an oral culture and thus when a tribal writer like Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, a Government Doctor by profession, writes in the canonical English language, we will be tempted to probe if he seeks to ‘write in’ or ‘write back’ to the mainstream literary culture; or if his works can fit into the mould of minor literature, thereby making the seemingly personal an intensely political statement. This paper also aims to interrogate issues of tribal identity and their representation through a critical engagement with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories (2017).

Orality, gender and sacred texts in the context of tele-evangelism

In oral cultures such as (traditional) African cultures and the cultures that eventually produced the Christian Bible, women formed an integral part of the art of storytelling. In patriarchal cultures where the normativity of a male is taken for granted, once orality was tampered with by that which happens in the sphere traditionally reserved for men as in, for example, the introduction of literacy, the important role of women as storytellers, including the telling of the stories of Jesus of Nazareth (read: biblical discourse) gets tampered with by subordination and silencing amongst others. Whilst the participation of women in ordained ministry and the delivery of public biblical discourse still remains a challenge in many African ecclesiastical settings, the advent of the digital era (cf. tele-evangelism in this essay) is not necessarily helpful towards the affirmation of women, especially first ladies in the context of huge ministries and mega churches. Contribution: The present essay seeks to answer the following main question: If the intersection among orality, gender, sacred texts and biblical discourse are analysed in the context of the full participation of African Christian women, especially the wives of the ‘men of God’, which power dynamics regarding gender and biblical discourse can be unravelled?

Transmission of resilience learning in the context of formal education an ethnomusicological review

The existence and continuity of musical practice in the world, among others, is strongly influenced by transmission or inheritance. Therefore, local-traditional music in Indonesia that lives and develops in the midst of oral culture becomes important to study transmission. This study aims to determine the transmission process of learning in the Kalimantan Music class and find the right formula for delivering teaching materials. This research is qualitative research with an applied ethnomusicology approach. The method of collection is through observation, interviews and supported by documentation and literature searches. The research was conducted at the Department of Ethnomusicology, Faculty of Performing Arts, Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta. The study results indicate that it is important to incorporate learning models and strategies from the teacher to the Kalimantan Music class. They are practicing analytical-based learning methods in the context of a resilient society. Chunking-based strategies and formulas in memorizing songs or reports that are played are made into two notation systems, namely block notation and pronunciation-based notation, to make it easier for students to play music. Block notation formulas and pronunciation-based notations can be applied as a way of learning music in class.

Chinese Ethnic Minorities and their Oral Poetry: A Perspective from Ethnopoetics

Ethnopoetics involves in the conducting of translation experiments on oral poems of native ethnic groups, converting its relevant oral texts into written forms. The theory of ethnographic poetry begins in the 1970s and was translated and introduced to China in the early 21st century. However, most ethnic minorities in China do not have textual writings. Their oral creations from primitive society to modern society such as epics, long poems, narrative poems, ballads, and folk songs are mostly in form of oral poetry. The collection and translation of oral poems of ethnic minorities in China began in the late 1950s, that demarcated the beginning of ethnopoetics in China. In this article, the reasons behind the collection and translation of Chinese ethnic minority oral poems will be analysed. The restoration process of ethnopoetics and the connections between the collections and the translations, and the issues on whether translation is consistent to Chinese ethnic minority oral poems will also be further elaborated. The history of Chinese ethnic minorities oral poetry traces back to a long history and consists of a variety of themes and contents. Therefore, the restoration process of ethnopoetic research on the relationship between oral culture and written culture not only have gained the attention from the Chinese academic community, but also shown strong interests by the Western academic research community and worldwide.

Crossing Merfolk Narratives of the Sacred: Nalo Hopkinson’s The New Moon’s Arms and Gabrielle Tesfaye’s The Water Will Carry Us Home

This article defines what I call the ‘crossing merfolk’ narrative, the idea that African people who jumped or were cast overboard during the Middle Passage became water-dwelling beings. While critical attention has been increasing for 1990s’ electronic music duo Drexciya, whose sonic fiction contains the most well-known example of this narrative, this is actually a recurring tradition in Black oral and artistic culture that can be traced to West and Central African religions. I focus particularly on what I call ‘crossing merfolk narratives of the sacred’, M. Jacqui Alexander’s term for African diasporic religious traditions anchored in West and Central African cosmologies. Analysing the role of the sacred in two crossing merfolk narratives, Nalo Hopkinson’s 2007 novel The New Moon’s Arms and Gabrielle Tesfaye’s short film The Water Will Carry Us Home (2018), I argue that these texts expand the Black Atlantic imaginary and transform mermaid lore. I develop the term ‘diasporic collage’ to describe the ways in which Hopkinson and Tesfaye reference and combine water spirits and ritual practices from multiple African diasporic traditions into narratives that intersect mermaids and the Middle Passage.

The stories African lawyers could tell when analysing legal issues: Lessons for social sciences teachers

Activists and academics have clamoured for the decolonisation of knowledge, including law. But, unfortunately hardly anyone has put forth strategies for how faculties should decolonise the law. A number of jurists have underscored the necessity to draw on customary laws and traditional values. Still, the #RhodesMustFall movement has, for the most part, been loud on the outcomes, but quiet on the methodologies. Joining the conversation on the decolonisation of epistemologies, this article contributes to the ongoing efforts to sanitise the law by proposing to revive African oral storytelling cultures as a way to analyse the questions of law facing society. To live up to this task, this article adopts decolonial theory and, through stylised examples, illustrates how lawyers and social scientists in Africa can utilise storytelling to contextualise, (de)construct, and comprehend those questions. This article assumes that lawyers can use African storytelling alongside the prevailing doctrinal method. That method, relaying the coloniality of law and captured by the acronym IRAC (issue(s), rules, application, and conclusion), trains students to approach conflict in society through a highly abstract and decontextualised problem-solving model. Lately, some (Western) social scientists have (re)discovered the practicality of storytelling in presenting analysis and research. However, in African oral traditions, stories worked differently from the manner in which those scientists employ them. African storytelling played a leading role, not only in conveying collective wisdom and social memory from one generation to the next, but also as a medium through which communities transmit the values that hold them together.Contribution: This article adds to the scholarship on storytelling and narratology by showing how educators can utilise stories to analyse legal questions. That rich scholarship in the humanities and the social sciences has so far not taken seriously the possibility of using stories to analyse research problems. Instead, scholars focus on storytelling mainly as a way of presenting science, not as an analytical tool. This article bridges that gap and demonstrates the analytical value of storytelling.

71: Collection of expectorated sputum or oral pharyngeal cultures during initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic in a pediatric cystic fibrosis clinic

71: Collection of expectorated sputum or oral pharyngeal cultures during initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic in a pediatric cystic fibrosis clinic

“Good Wings”: Orality, Literacy, and Arna Bontemps’s Black Thunder

This reading of Arna Bontemps's Black Thunder, which portrays Gabriel Prosser's 1800 rebellion, argues that the novel is both a tribute to the courage and to the largely oral culture of enslaved persons. The text is also a study of the broader spectrum of orality and literacy. Viewing orality and literacy not in a dichotomous but rather in a symbiotic relationship, Black Thunder depicts the ways that these modes of communication interact to foment political consciousness and revolution. Long before scholarly engagement with print culture studies, Bontemps's fiction theorized the relationship between orality, literacy, power, and the struggle for Black liberation.

Historical Narrativesi in Chuvash Folklore

Historical narratives (istori halapsem) have an important place in Chuvash folklore studies. One of the reasons for this special interest is the lack of sufficient information in the sources about the Chuvash history before the 16th century. Studies on the origin and past of the Chuvash played a leading role in the construction of the national Chuvash identity. Historical narratives were also used directly to illuminate the dark parts of the origin and past of the Chuvash. The primary results of historical and cultural studies have had an impact on oral culture as well as identity construction. Thus, written culture and oral culture mutually fed each other. After the information in historical sources was transferred to oral culture and reinterpreted here, it took place in scientific researches, textbooks and anthologies. However, researchers working on historical narratives did not take this interaction into account and used every possible data to reveal historical facts and to support historical assumptions. Moreover, the data in the historical sources were also included in the relevant anthologies as a historical narrative as if they were obtained from oral culture in the future. In the article, Chuvash historical narratives are examined in terms of genre, definition, classification and sources.

Two Wikipedias in Bhutan: problems and solutions for knowledge equity in the digital age

ABSTRACT The growing influence of English Wikipedia as a provider of information has created powerful new gatekeepers and publishing practices that determine not only what constitutes knowledge in the online world, but whose knowledge is privileged. The structural inequalities of the offline world are being reproduced online, creating new sites for information imperialism. Research shows western contributors are overwriting local knowledge, perpetuating western narratives, and presenting cultures through an outsider lens, resulting in subtle and not so subtle forms of hegemonic cultural dominance. Nonetheless, Wikipedias have multi-media capabilities, which can be utilized by oral cultures as well as providing new asynchronous online meeting places where communities can continue their social imaginings. This paper considers the impacts of English Wikipedia on global knowledge equity and cognitive justice. It analyzes two articles about Bhutanese culture to demonstrate the risks of dilution brought by western ontological expansiveness, and argues that, by contrast, the Dzongkha Wikipedia offers an online space mostly inaccessible to outsiders, and thus a bulwark where the community can continue its cultural conversations in ways not possible before Web 2.0 technologies.

Culture and Igbo notions of masculinity in Nigerian children’s literature

Children’s literature conveys the cultural and indigenous artistic experiences of the people to whom it is attributed. Earlier studies on modern Nigerian children’s literature focus mainly on the representation of moral etiquette with little attention to gender. The twin theme of culture and masculinity has not been paid close attention by scholars of children’s literature in Nigeria. In applying Igbo notions of masculinity, in this article I examine the role of oral tradition and culture in the construction of masculine identity in children’s literature in Nigeria using Ifeanyi Ifoegbuna’s Folake and Her Four Brothers, Anthonia Ekpa’s Edidem Eyamba and the Edikang-Ikong Soup, and Ikechukwu Ebonogwu’s The Champion of Echidime. I show how the ideals of masculinity, as visible and permissible in the traditional Igbo society, are, in particular, constructed and communicated through various oral and cultural norms such as praise poetry, war songs and dance, wrestling, and drumming. I reveal that oral and cultural traditions in children’s literature reflect attributes such as strength, toughness, honour, protection, respect, heterosexual desirability, and the projection of self-pride as acceptable and embraced masculine values among the Igbo in Nigeria. I also demonstrate how oral and cultural tradition is replete with masculine ideologies and messages that promote male dominance in the Igbo society.

Late medieval Vlachs in the western Balkans: orality, society and the limits of collective identities

This paper explores the social structures of late medieval Vlachs – particularly the ones inhabiting the Western Balkans (the Dinaric Alps) – in order to determine how collective identities were shaped and reproduced in medieval oral cultures. Southeast European historiographies have often portrayed the Balkan Vlachs as a unitary group and the label „Vlach” as representing a single, homogenous social entity during most of the Middle Ages. Still, social groups cannot exist and function without regular communication – oral or written – between their members. Oral cultures are based on verbal communication and are therefore bound by its specific nature, given that it requires continuous personal contact and oral transfer of information for communication and society to function properly. Literate cultures on the other hand tend to rely on written communication to a considerable extent and given that it allows for information to be conveyed impersonally (by text) its range is (at least in theory) almost limitless – as it is the level of (il)literacy that represents the main communicative and social limit in literate societies. Having in mind the abovementioned communicative and social limits of orality and the fact that it was the predominant if not exclusive form of communication among transhumant pastoralists such as the medieval Balkan Vlachs this paper argues that the range/scope of their group identities and collective identifications was rather limited. Furthermore, this paper discusses the types of collective identities utilized by Vlachs, questioning whether they ever shared a common „Vlach identity” given the fact that the social identity of the medieval people known as „the Vlachs” was primarily shaped and defined from the „outside” and „above” – by state intervention and a legal frame that was forced upon them. The Vlachs in the Medieval Balkans, and particularly in its western part, generally did not possess political authority and power, nor did they have the material resources and literary traditions allowing them to form more complex and enduring communication networks that would in turn have resulted in group identity formation on a larger scale. During the Early Middle Ages the Vlachs were „Vlachs” primarily because they were labelled as such and considered to be a distinct category of population by their Slavic (and later Byzantine) neighbours and overlords, and not necessarily because they originally defined themselves as such. This is not to say that gradually, during the course of the Middle Ages, the bearers of the „Vlach” name could not have started to identify themselves as „Vlachs” by accepting this foreign name (xenonym) as their preferred group name (autonym). Still, when this finally did happen it did not imply a „universal” Vlach identity in the medieval Balkans. Given the communicative limits of oral cultures as well as the Vlachs’ position as legal and political „objects” rather than „subjects” it seems most likely that the medieval Balkans witnessed a simultaneous existence of a multitude of „Vlachnesses” which were usually unrelated and unaware of each other.

Sözlü Kültür Ekseninde Seyyid Derviş Beyaz Ocağı Hakkındaki Menkıbeler

Seyyid (Sayyid) is the name given to the notables of a community. People who are descendants of Ahl al-Bayt (the members of the Prophet’s family) are known as seyyid. A large part of Alevi dede (lit. grandfather; socio-religious leader of the community) institutions established in Anatolia bear the names of these seyyids. Seyyid Derviş Beyaz Ocağı is one of them. Derviş Beyaz is also named after him. He is also Es-Seyyid Şeyh Mahmūd al-Kebīr. Sultan Murad Hüdavendigār witnessed the kerāmet of this institution. Therefore the name of the hearth (ocak) is known by his name. The kerāmet of entering in the fire but not burning, that is, keeping ice has given this institution its name. These stories emerged as a result of the research of Metin Küçük Dede, who published some of his grandfather’s genealogy as a book. For the purpose of this study, it is based on the stories told through the miracles of dedes and consists of two parts. Although this study will examine the subject through oral culture, the things that are told in the genealogy of Hazır Ali Beyazyıldırım Dede will be included due to the disagreements between the dedes and the miracles told. The subject will thus be explained. In the first part of the study, the miracles of Metin Dede in the genealogy of his own grandfathers will be included. In the second part of the study, the stories of Seyyid Haktan Çelik Dede, who has thousands of fans in the country and abroad, will be covered by his own and his family’s stories.Keywords: Seyyid, Derviş Beyaz, Genealogy, Miracle, Legends.

The 22nd Convention of the Media Ecology Association

The 22nd Convention of the Media Ecology Association

Communicative-pragmatic paradigm: the importance and opportunities for the formation of speech culture

The introduction outlines the communicative-pragmatic paradigm, which is a new, relevant direction, these ideas are based on the work of the intellectuals of the nation at the beginning of the twentieth century. The opinion of thinkers of different periods is argued that the improvement шт the culture of the younger generation personality, the culture of the word in the educational process allows to form its civic appearance, national consciousness and mentality. The goal of the article is to consider the issues of the formation the culture of a person's pronunciation, the components of speech activity are comprehensively differentiated - the peculiarities of pronunciation. In this regard, the effectiveness of the use of the communicative-pragmatic method in mastering the skills of oral text formation has been scientifically substantiated. The authors of the article are participants in the project "Paradigms of language communication: literary pronunciation and Latin American writing." Therefore, the article also contains the findings of the research within the framework of this project. During the experiment, students are offered to work with a structural diagram of the&nbsp; oral speech development for the analysis of a specific article. It is proved that students, acquiring such a specific orientation, acquire speech skills characteristic of the communicative quality of oral speech culture in accordance with the communicative-pragmatic paradigm, the achieved results are listed. It is differentiated that the right compilation, indication of the structural and content parts of monologue texts and the correct use of the paragraph in the transmission of the main idea when teaching the speaker the culture of pronunciation is one of the main conditions for achieving a communicative goal. It is assumed that the indicator of the communicative quality of a word is not limited only to the text, but also one of the main non-linguistic conditions of the participle is the addressee factor. Keywords: communicative-pragmatic paradigm, pronunciation, literary speaking, speech culture, norms of literary language, language communication, text, conversational activity

Cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory effects of chitosan and hemostatic gelatin in oral cell culture.

Chitosan is a biopolymer with bactericidal/bacteriostatic effect, biocompatible and biodegradable. It has been used in tissue engineering to replace tissues partially or completely by releasing bioactive materials or influencing cell growth, usually in regenerative medicine and dentistry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory effect of chitosan alone or with hemostatic gelatin (Spongostand®) in cultures of human pulp cells (HPC), human gingival fibroblasts (HGF) and mouse pre-osteoblasts (MC3T3-E1, ATCC). HPC and HGF were isolated from patients. Cells were subcultured in DMEM. Chitosan was inoculated at different concentrations (0-0.5%) and hemostatic gelatins impregnated with chitosan (0.19%) were placed directly in the presence of cells and incubated for 24 hours. Cell viability was determined by MTT method and mean cytotoxic concentration (CC50) was calculated from the dose-response curve. Anti-inflammatory effect was calculated from the in vitro gingivitis model induced with interleukin 1beta (IL-1β) in HGF and protein detection. The data were subjected to Shapiro-Wilk, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. Experiments were performed in triplicate of three independent assays. Cell viability of HPC, HGF and MC3T3-E1 in contact with chitosan decreased significantly (p<0.05). The HPC were the most sensitive (CC50= 0.18%), followed by HGF (CC50= 0.18%) and MC3T3-E1 (CC50= 0.19%). The cytotoxicity of gelatins impregnated with chitosan decreased cell viability of HGF and HPC by 11% and 5%, respectively. The proinflammatory effect was reduced significantly in the gingivitis model. To conclude, chitosan induces moderate cytotoxic effects alone or with hemostatic gelatin at 0.19%, in dose-dependent manner, with anti-inflammatory effects on human gingival fibroblasts. The use of chitosan as a biomaterial can be an excellent choice for use in regenerative dentistry.

Peran Website Desa dalam Peningkatan Partisipasi Masyarakat Desa Nglanggeran dan Desa Girijati Kabupaten Gunungkidul

This study aims to describe the relationship between website exposure variables and community participation variables in village development through the use of village information system communication technology (SIDA) through the provision of village websites so that various data and information related to village policies are quickly and routinely disseminated and easily accessible to residents. Through village websites in Nglanggeran and Girijati Village, Gunungkidul Regency. The research method used is the mix method sequential explanatory design with the method of distributing questionnaires, followed by in-depth interviews and observations. The data obtained were analyzed by non-parametric statistical quantitative analysis. The results of the statistical analysis are then taken to the field to be used as a basis for interviews and qualitative analysis to build theories or patterns of certain knowledge based on participatory perspectives. The findings are in the form of a description of the case and the alleged factors stated in the summary of findings and research on knowledge. The results showed that the existence of the website at the level of government administration was quite effective. However, in increasing community participation, the village website has not been able to create a cognitive, affective and conative impression on increasing awareness in development and community participation. This is due to several factors such as news of the value, consistency and variety of the SIDA program, internet connectivity and ownership of access devices, social capital, oral culture, and policies that are misleading to local governments. To maximize the existence of the website, the community needs to be given strengthening citizen journalism so that the community's active role is in the process of reporting, reporting, analyzing, and presenting better news and promoting communication between citizens and the village government.

Oral immune dysfunction is associated with the expansion of FOXP3+PD-1+Amphiregulin+ T cells during HIV infection

Residual systemic inflammation and mucosal immune dysfunction persist in people living with HIV, despite treatment with combined anti-retroviral therapy, but the underlying immune mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we report that the altered immune landscape of the oral mucosa of HIV-positive patients on therapy involves increased TLR and inflammasome signaling, localized CD4+ T cell hyperactivation, and, counterintuitively, enrichment of FOXP3+ T cells. HIV infection of oral tonsil cultures in vitro causes an increase in FOXP3+ T cells expressing PD-1, IFN-γ, Amphiregulin and IL-10. These cells persist even in the presence of anti-retroviral drugs, and further expand when stimulated by TLR2 ligands and IL-1β. Mechanistically, IL-1β upregulates PD-1 expression via AKT signaling, and PD-1 stabilizes FOXP3 and Amphiregulin through a mechanism involving asparaginyl endopeptidase, resulting in FOXP3+ cells that are incapable of suppressing CD4+ T cells in vitro. The FOXP3+ T cells that are abundant in HIV-positive patients are phenotypically similar to the in vitro cultured, HIV-responsive FOXP3+ T cells, and their presence strongly correlates with CD4+ T cell hyper-activation. This suggests that FOXP3+ T cell dysregulation might play a role in the mucosal immune dysfunction of HIV patients on therapy.

An Attempt to Classify Kurdish Legends Using the Juha Pentikainen Method: Example of Adıyaman

Legends are one of the genres of folk narrative that occupy an important place in the daily life of the people. Legends, the creation and destruction of the world for thousands of years; historical events; supernatural beings and events; They are folk narratives that are believed to be "as if they are real" in many subjects, including religious leaders and heroes, and that are transmitted from generation to generation by developing and transforming. The classification of the legends is important in order to know and understand the social memory and beliefs of the people closely. It is urgent to compile, classify and analyze legends, especially in terms of preserving and maintaining Kurdish oral culture and literature. The aim of this article is to determine the Kurdish folk legends compiled from the region of Adıyaman province and to try to classify them with Juha Pentikainen method. In this study, the face-to-face interview technique was applied with 21 people who were knowledgeable about the subject and were identified with the snowball method. As a result of the interviews, 28 legends from the region were identified, compiled, and deciphered. The legends are classified as traveler and locale, according to the method of Juha Pentikainen, and are summarized. As a result, legends of both types were found in Adıyaman region, 7 travelers and 21 of them local. It has been observed that the legends have a universal character in terms of genre, form, and motif. Most of the legends are narrated by men, but it has been determined that the legends about the miracles about personalities important in terms of religious representation are mostly told and cared for by women. It has been determined that the legends play an important role in the establishment and execution of the social order as well as their literary and artistic characters.