Wednesday, June 3, 2015
A summary of, "Creating a Continuity between Self and Other: First-Person Narration in an Amazonian Ritual Context" by Suzanne Oakdaue
This article explains how the Tupi people identify themselves is highly influenced by their different way of being able to perceive 'self' through ritualistic songs. The fieldwork, which this article was based on, was carried out for nine months over the course of 1992 and 1993 in one of the larger new style villages within the Xingu Park. The anthropologist and his article focuses on the Jowosi that is held within the tribe to help people move on and forget tragic events. This is a period of time, usually a couple weeks, in which the Tupi women would sing the chorus as the men lead in with the solo. This event was held for days at a time and would be stopped if anything seriously tragic were to happen, for example the loss of a family member or illness.
The author explains how these songs are heavy with metaphors and generally have no sense of time. He then elaborates about how amazing it was that even though the songs were never explained that often other men, who also sung inherited songs, come to understand their songs in a similar manner. They would relate their own experiences as well their relatives'.
The anthropologist deeply studied the Kayabi and the Jowosi ritual, and turned to the
performance of one man's song. What he observed was the very particular use of metaphor, as well as the lack of tense-evident markers. He also constantly saw the use of first-person pronouns to aide with the singer's identification with the experiences of relatives from previous generations. This mixture creates a different way of perceiving the sense of 'self' as was once thought of.
Within this article the author argues that culturally specific genres of first-person narration, as they are found within social life, offer a privileged window on the perception of 'self'. This article explains that the extent to which 'self' and 'other' have distinct boundaries in certain circumstances may become blurred and even merged. The main example is a ritual art, of first-person narration, sung by the men of Kayabi, a Tupi-Guarani-speaking people of central Brazil. In this form of expression, the experiences of past generations become incorporated into the lives of contemporary narrators. The author explains how this incorporation is created as well as its importance in the of Kayabi views on human development.
With this new perception it is then understood that the new idea of 'self' can heavily effect the Kayabi views and their development as humans. The author then explains how this kind of incorporation of another's experiences relates to the importance of repetition in Kayabi notions of human development.
Oakdale, S.
(2002), Creating a Continuity between Self and Other: First-Person Narration in an Amazonian Ritual Context. Ethos, 30: 158–175. doi: 10.1525/eth.2002.30.1-2.158
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ReplyDeleteThis article sheds new light on how language highly shapes perception and to the extreme length that it is able to do so. It also really brought to my attention a new way of being able to understand oneself as well as understanding that other people may have a different interpretation of themselves. This article revealed that there are more concepts and ideas/viewpoints other than the western viewpoint I was encultured with.
ReplyDeleteIn our society we heavily ingrain individuality into become our our independent individual. So we we sing or tell stories we tend to use past and present tense to show a lineage in time. We also separate what has happened to ourselves as well as what has happened to our ancestors. We tend to treat these as separate stories that happen to separate beings.
In this article you start to understand that because of the Tupi Language that they perceive their surroundings differently and that if there were no sense of separation in what happened to you and what happened to your ancestors that their would also be a much greater bond between that lineage of people. It almost seems as though the son completely inherits the life of the previous family member when practicing this.
What is even more incredible is that although they are using absolutely nothing to explain some sort of time/history as well as using a very intricate and vast amount of metaphors, they other men in the tribe are still able to decipher and figure out what the song is about as well as when and what it is referencing. The other men in the tribe are able to do this with absolutely no explanation before hand, they just have a simple idea or interpretation of what the song may be about.
I can also personally relate to this research because of the anthropology course in taking in school. Its amazing basically being able to watch my lessons come to life What I personally liked was how language changes a persons perception on life and that is exactly what this ethnographic research encompasses. I can also relate to this tribe because I myself take pride in my heritage and ancestry. I would probably like to one day write poetry in the form that these people do to see if I can feel my ancestors experiences as well as they did. I feel as though this is a good way to bond with your past generations and i can relate to this as well. Although I'm not singing like the Tupi, My family does things like spending the holidays and eating together to bond the family closer.