REGISTRATION NOW CLOSED. Please contact Michelle Maciejewska if you are interested in attending the event.
Convenor: Mark Turin (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge)
Programme and Registration
Please use the links at the right hand side of the page to see the programme and register online. The fee (which includes lunch on both days) is £30, with a concessionary rate of £15 for students or unwaged. The deadline for registration is Thursday 10 December.
Summary
This two-day workshop, organised by the World Oral Literature Project at the University of Cambridge, is designed to bring together established scholars, early career researchers and graduate students with indigenous researchers, museum curators, archivists and audio-visual experts to discuss strategies for collecting, recording, preserving and disseminating oral literatures and endangered narrative traditions. In view of the diversity of current research initiatives on the oral literatures of the Asia-Pacific, and the geographical strengths of Cambridge-based scholars, the workshop will broadly focus on this region. Specific sessions on the Himalayas (India and Nepal), High Asia (China, Mongolia and Tibet) and the Pacific are planned.
The workshop will provide a collaborative environment for scholars to present, discuss and be exposed to new techniques and fieldwork methodologies. Topics include the ethical responsibilities of researchers, their engagements with local communities as partners, the place of western universities as archival repositories of living traditions and sites of interaction for indigenous communities, and the role of local digital archives or community cultural centres as sites of knowledge transfer, teaching and research.
In parallel, we are pleased to host the second meeting of the ‘Ritual Speech in the Himalayas’ working group, participants of which will present on their research and publishing projects to those attending the World Oral Literature Project workshop.
Confirmed participants include:
Professor Peter Austin (SOAS)
Katey Blumenthal (University of Virginia)
Dr Lissant Bolton (British Museum)
Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey (Publisher and Archivest)
Professor Ruth Finnegan (Open University)
Professor Martin Gaenszle (University of Vienna)
Dr Stephen Hugh-Jones (King's College, University of Cambridge)
Dr Christopher Kaplonski (MIASU, University of Cambridge)
Professor Alan Macfarlane (King's College, University of Cambridge)
David Nathan (Director, Endangered Languages Archive, SOAS)
Professor Michael Oppitz (University of Zürich)
Dr Carole Pegg (University of Cambridge)
Dr Judith Pettigrew (University of Limerick)
Gerald Roche (Griffin University/Qinghai Normal University)
Dr Anne de Sales (CNRS, Paris)
Dr Sara Shneiderman (St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge)
Elin Stangeland (DSpace, University of Cambridge)
Alban von Stockhausen (University of Zürich)
Professor William Sutherland (Zoology, University of Cambridge)
Yarjung Kromchai Tamu (Chief Advisor, Tamu Pye Lhu Sangh)
Professor Nicholas Thomas (Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology)
This workshop has been made possible by generous support from:
C-SAP
The Onaway Trust
The Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research
Please note that part of the proceedings may be filmed by the University Office of External Affairs and Communications for a series of short video podcasts on research projects.
Please address administrative enquiries to mm405@cam.ac.uk.
Programme
Location : CRASSH Date : 15-16 December
Tuesday 15 December |
|
9.00-9.30 |
Registration |
9.30-9.45 |
Welcome and Introduction |
9.45-11.30 |
From Practice to Text Ritual Drumming and Chanting of the Tamu Shamans of Nepal The Parched Grain Chant: Parallel Verse and Simultaneous Action in Magar Rituals Tamu Shamans' Books: The Challenges of Textualising the Pye-ta Lhu-ta |
11.30-12.00 |
Tea/Coffee Break |
12.00-13.00 |
Keynote Address The Rewards and Issues of Studying Oral Literature: Some Personal Reflections |
13.00-14.00 |
Lunch |
14.00-15.15 |
Archives and Dissemination DSpace@Cambridge - Ensuring Access to Cultural Heritage Resources A New Look at Archiving for Sensitive Community Based Materials: A "web 2.0" Approach to Distribution and Updates |
15.15-15.45 |
Tea/Coffee Break |
15.45-17.00 |
Community Cooperation and Collaboration Collecting Change in Vanuatu: Oral Traditions and Cultural Change Participatory Cultural Preservation on the Sino-Tibetan Fringe |
17.00-17.30 |
Summation and General Discussion |
17.30-19.00 |
Reception at Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Open to all) |
Wednesday 16 December |
|
9.30-10.45 |
Orality and Textuality: Himalayan Examples Documenting Ceremonial Dialogues in East Nepal: An In Vitro Performance and the Problem of Textualisation 'Producing' Thangmi Ritual Texts: Practice, Performance and Collaborative Documentation |
10.45-11.15 |
Tea/Coffee Break |
11.15-13.00 |
Audiovisual Engagements: Songs and Narratives Collecting Shamanic Songs in Nepal |
13.00-14.00 |
Lunch |
14.00-15.15 |
Classifications of Language Endangerment Languages and Species: Threats and Global Patterns Reading the Lontars: Endangered Literary Practices of Lombok, Eastern Indonesia |
15.15-15.45 |
Tea/Coffee Break |
15.45-17.30 |
Re-presenting the Orality of Inner Asia Data, Basically: Computers, Documents and the Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia |
17.00-17.45 |
Summation |
17.45-19.00 |
Reception at CRASSH (Open to all) |
19.00 |
Dinner at St Catharine's College |