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The purpose of the study was to investigate the linguistic and literary components within the framework of the cultural diversity of Central Asian peoples of the Turkic ethnic group. The study analysed the linguistic features of the Turkic languages and their mutual influence through literary texts and oral traditions, with an emphasis on the processes of borrowing and adaptation of linguistic elements in a multilingual environment. The study examined scientific sources on linguistics and ethnolinguistics, and compared phonetic, morphological, and syntactic features of the Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkmen, and Kyrgyz languages in a historical context. The analysis of borrowings from Persian, Arabic, and Russian languages, content analysis of literary texts and folklore works, and an assessment of the role of mass media and the Internet in popularising Turkic languages were also included in the study. The results showed that the Turkic languages have gone through a difficult path of evolution under the influence of various cultural and political factors, such as the Mongol conquests and Russification in the Soviet period. The languages were significantly enriched with borrowings from Persian, Arabic, and Russian, which affected their vocabulary and grammar.

This study mapped the contemporary research landscape surrounding “oral traditions as a fount of ethnomathematics knowledge” through a bibliometric analysis employed as a methodological procedure. The main problem addressed in this study is the lack of a comprehensive consideration of evolving research trends and intellectual structure within ethnomathematics, i.e., the role of oral traditions as a source of knowledge. Oral traditions, defined as the cultural knowledge, art, ideas, and practices transmitted verbally across generations, offer a rich repository of ethnomathematical insights. 713 publications were identified from the Dimensions database between 2014 and 2024. This bibliometric analysis focused on identifying key research themes, authors, publishers, keywords, or key terms distributions within the corpus of extracted publications, as well as temporal trends in publication activity and citation patterns. The findings revealed a growing interest in the field, focusing on (a) educational context, (b) cultural studies, and (c) the intersection of mathematics and language. The analysis also identified key research themes, such as (a) the role of language and culture in shaping mathematical thought, (b) the development of ethnomathematical practices, and (c) the pedagogical implications of incorporating ethnomathematics into formal education. Additionally, 11 influential scholars who are driving the field forward were identified. According to the term distribution analysis, of the 6,092 terms, 316 met the threshold (minimum number of occurrences of the term: 6). For each 316 terms, a relevance score has been calculated. Based on this score, the most relevant terms have been selected. The VOSviewer’s default setting (60% of the most relevant terms) resulted in selecting 190 terms. Based on the given criteria, there is a result of 5 distinctive clusters related to the query that emerged. This study provides theoretical insights into the conceptual foundations of ethnomathematics derived from oral traditions and empirical evidence for informing future research directions and pedagogical practices in mathematics education.

We explore changes to settlement and mobility in the northern Raja Ampat Islands (Waigeo, Gam, and Batanta) over the past five centuries, a time when speakers of several Austronesian languages were moving throughout the archipelago. The evidence shows: (1) some settlement relocations were rapid, occurring within a generation, while other settlements remained fixed for hundreds of years; and (2) there were numerous clan and family scale movements that led to high levels of intermarriage between language groups and settlements. The results demonstrate that far from being a place of stasis caught between the worlds of Maluku and New Guinea, Raja Ampat settlement and mobility were highly dynamic. This dynamism prompts us to rethink the relationship between today's settlement locations, their language affiliations, and the meta-narratives about their recent population histories. We propose that the deeper past of Raja Ampat may have also been characterized by dynamic movement and social flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first major battle of the Second Jamaican Maroon War began on 12 August 1795, when the Trelawny Town Maroons ambushed a column of British light cavalry or 'dragoons', militia, and volunteers who were attempting to invade their semi-autonomous community. This battle was a favourite topic for British colonial historians and is still referred to in mythologized legends about a Maroon ambush at a site locally called Dragoon Hole. Drawing on archival, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence, I propose that while colonial histories about this battle were influenced by imperial politics, local community memories about Dragoon Hole were shaped through generations of social interactions within a sacred and archaeologically abundant landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statues and monuments are permanent forms of commemoration that interpret and reconstruct public memory in colonial settler societies. Representation through memorialisation is attributed to a genealogy of Western collective remembering that reflects the values, narratives, and experiences of the dominant settler population. Yet, collective remembering and memory can change. This article reports on Indigenous collective remembering practices that were observed in a local government intervention in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Boulcott Memorial Research Project sought iwi Māori (Indigenous Māori tribes) perspectives of the battle of Boulcott's Farm to change a one-sided colonial memorial that was erected to honour British militia who died in the conflict. Iwi kaipūrākau (representatives) from Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Rangatahi, Ngāti Hāua, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira relayed their perspective of the battle through wānanga (a Māori oral tradition). In wānanga, kaipūrākau were perceived to remember relationally, outside colonial time, and through contemporary concerns and political interests, to advance tribal autonomy and self-determination. In this paper, I show how collective remembering in wānanga offers an anti-colonial ethic and intervention for building commemorative landscapes that can redirect public remembrance beyond the limitations of settler colonial memory and towards perspectives that are in tune with Indigenous peoples' lived realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is devoted to the identification and preliminary archaeological research of Kasongo-Tongoni, an important caravan settlement located in the east of Central Africa to the west of Lake Tanganyika. Along with Kabambare and Nyangwe, this site was one of the main trading centres on the central caravan route linking the interior of Central Africa to the coast of East Africa during the second half of the nineteenth century. We discuss the current location and extent of the site, using archival data, oral testimony and aerial and satellite imagery. Finally, we present a preliminary field study and the results of a photogrammetric drone survey of what has been identified as the centre of the town. This research confirms the town's location and offers a first assessment of its spatial organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the Sapha Hors, a sect that emerged in the Santal Parganas in the wake of the Santal defeat in the hul of 1855. Based on oral history and archival sources, it provides an insight into how the sect committed itself, at its inception, to an agenda of self-purification, developing in the process a unique identity through an engagement with a diverse cultural environment in the Santal Parganas--a melting pot of evangelical missionary ideology and local Hindu traditions, with an interesting range of cultural symbols, moral precepts, and modes of worship from which the Sapha Hors could borrow, exercising their own discretionary agency. The songs of the Sapha Hors, wrapped in an enigmatic language of pacifism, best articulate the self-representation of the sect during its struggle to adjust to colonial and post-colonial challenges over the course of a long historical journey, which began in the 1870s. The article attempts to revive indigenous voices and their self-reflexive insights into life and struggle, which are fast disappearing from streamlined "mainstream" versions of indigeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among Líĺwat people of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, an oral tradition relays how early ancestors used to ascend Qẃelqẃelústen, or Mount Meager. The account maintains that those climbers could see the ocean, which is not the case today, because the mountain is surrounded by many other high peaks, and the Strait of Georgia is several mountain ridges to the west. However, the mountain is an active and volatile volcano, which last erupted circa 2360 cal BP. It is also the site of the largest landslide in Canadian history, which occurred in 2010. Given that it had been a high, glacier-capped mountain throughout the Holocene, much like other volcanoes along the coastal range, we surmise that a climber may have reasonably been afforded a view of the ocean from its prior heights. We conducted viewshed analyses of the potential mountain height prior to its eruption and determined that one could indeed view the ocean if the mountain were at least 950 m higher than it is today. This aligns with the oral tradition, indicating that it may be over 2,400 years old, and plausibly in the range of 4,000 to 9,000 years old when the mountain may have been at such a height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folkloric studies have accelerated in the Philippines and South Africa because the Academe acknowledged the urgency to collect, preserve, and publish the oral traditions of indigenous communities. Oral traditions embody the history, values, and world views of these indigenous cultures, which need to be preserved for posterity. This paper discusses the relevance, gains, and challenges in conducting folklore research in the Philippines and South Africa, which share similarities, including their colonial pasts and number of indigenous communities. The paper contemplates the relevance of folklore research outputs in different fields thereby contributing to the discourse on the value of folklore research. This qualitative study uses textual analysis to focus on insights related to folklore research, using secondary data including journal articles, book publications, and textual references. The study reveals that although there is extensive research in the field of folklore in both countries, there remain gaps that need to be filled, such as the collection, preservation, and recognition of representative folklore from other regions and cultural communities. South Africa, for instance, has 12 official languages, and the Philippines has 110 ethnolinguistic groups. There are still languages and indigenous oral traditions that are developing, and folk literature that needs to be recorded, preserved, and published. These oral traditions/folk literature play an important role in revealing people’s cultural identities and preserving heritage, which is imperative in nation-building. The findings highlight the importance of continuing research about folklore and the need to preserve indigenous knowledge systems When written down and published, folklore becomes tangible and preserved for posterity, providing present and future generations the opportunity to learn, understand, and appreciate their cultural legacy.

Abstract The Homeric plant moly is a mysterious herb mentioned in Book 10 of the Odyssey. In the early 1980s, a pharmacological thesis to identify the plant was put forward for the first time, regarding the snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis L.) as candidate species. The proposal was inspired by the snowdrop’s acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-inhibiting properties and its alleged morphological reminiscence to other plants called moly by ancient Greek herbalists. Here, we draw from a compilation of literature from various disciplines, together with an understanding of the Homeric epic as a repository of information based on oral traditions, to (i) show that the assimilation of Homer’s moly to Galanthus nivalis is, at the very least, questionable and (ii) frame and support a new synthesis of the pharmacological thesis. We suggest that the uncertainty that revolves around the identity of Homer’s moly can be tied to an unnamed phylogenetic clade of closely related Mediterranean native species with AChE-inhibiting properties. Further, we speculate that Homer’s moly might represent an early record of an ethnobotanical complex, a sort of cultural taxon resulting from the cognitive crossbreeding of closely related taxonomic species that could have been interchangeably used due to their rough resemblance and common AChE-inhibiting properties. Such cultural taxon would have referred to the phytonym moly by the centuries-old oral traditions that ultimately crystallized in the poem. We also venture that sea daffodils (Pancratium spp.) could have greatly contributed to shaping the botanical archetype in the myth as we know it today.

Following the rise to power of the Christian Solomonic dynasty (1270–1974) in Ethiopia, Christian rule expanded to encompass the regions inhabited by the Betä Ǝsraʾʾel (Ethiopian Jews). This process was accompanied by military campaigns (fourteenth–seventeenth century), during which the Betä Ǝsraʾʾel gradually lost their political autonomy. The Betä Ǝsraʾʾel oral tradition remembers the campaign waged by the Solomonic monarch Yəsḥaq against them as the most decisive in their history—because of it, their political power was greatly reduced, and their continued existence was jeopardized. This campaign is also commemorated in Solomonic texts, and both Christian and Betä Ǝsraʾʾel holy sites are associated with it. This article will examine the ways in which this campaign and its aftermath are depicted by the two respective communities and reflected their religious sites and in landmarks in Wägära and the Sǝmen Mountains. Based on the sources at hand, it will attempt to trace the geographical aspects of the campaign.

African intellectuals started to write history before academic historians began to take an interest in Africa. Often, they spent decades elaborating research methods and research practices, perfectioning their knowledge, and presenting and debating their findings. Their efforts were rarely noticed by academic scholars, who turned their attention to colonial archives and oral sources which they then processed with the techniques of the newly founded African history discipline. This article discusses the life and historical work of Seetsele Modiri Molema, doctor and historian of the Barolong of Mafikeng, in modern South Africa. It follows the development of his methods between the 1930s and 1965, demonstrating that his less-known books are valuable for historians today. Finally, it proposes a first reconstruction of the three drafts of an unpublished manuscript, the History of the Barolong, which may constitute the most important work about the deep past of central southern Africa.

The Homeric plant moly is a mysterious herb mentioned in Book 10 of the Odyssey. In the early 1980s, a pharmacological thesis to identify the plant was put forward for the first time, regarding the snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis L.) as candidate species. The proposal was inspired by the snowdrop's acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-inhibiting properties and its alleged morphological reminiscence to other plants called moly by ancient Greek herbalists. Here, we draw from a compilation of literature from various disciplines, together with an understanding of the Homeric epic as a repository of information based on oral traditions, to (i) show that the assimilation of Homer's moly to Galanthus nivalis is, at the very least, questionable and (ii) frame and support a new synthesis of the pharmacological thesis. We suggest that the uncertainty that revolves around the identity of Homer's moly can be tied to an unnamed phylogenetic clade of closely related Mediterranean native species with AChE-inhibiting properties. Further, we speculate that Homer's moly might represent an early record of an ethnobotanical complex, a sort of cultural taxon resulting from the cognitive crossbreeding of closely related taxonomic species that could have been interchangeably used due to their rough resemblance and common AChE-inhibiting properties. Such cultural taxon would have referred to the phytonym moly by the centuries-old oral traditions that ultimately crystallized in the poem. We also venture that sea daffodils (Pancratium spp.) could have greatly contributed to shaping the botanical archetype in the myth as we know it today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Battle of Stamford Bridge, fought on September 25, 1066, was a decisive battle which involved two contenders for the English throne, Harold Godwinson of England and Harald Sigurdsson of Norway. Reconstructions of the battle rely almost entirely on accounts in original written sources, the most detailed of which are the three major saga compendia, Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna , and Heimskringla. Saga accounts of the battle have often been considered to be unreliable and of little value as historical sources based primarily on their dates of composition, their reliance on oral traditions as source material, and their inclusion of certain elements, such as English cavalry charges. This article examines the possibility that several passages in the Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna , and Heimskringla accounts in fact provide reliable information that can be used for reconstructions of the battle. The criticisms mentioned above are examined for their validity as determining factors for judging the reliability of specific saga passages. Information gathered from saga and memory studies is used to argue that core information passed on in oral traditions and used by the authors of the kings' sagas was likely reliable, even after 150 years of retellings. Also reviewed for reliability are several saga passages that contain information which is corroborated by English and/or Anglo-Norman accounts. Additionally, comparisons of the saga accounts with English and Anglo-Norman accounts combined with data from tactical and logistical analyses are used to demonstrate both the plausibility and likely reliability of additional saga passages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how indigenous people's sovereignty and legal system, may not mesh adequately with the United States legal system. The issues and injustices indigenous peoples feel are not unique to the United States. Canada has experienced similar cultural and legal issues and has come up with a unique solution to the problems created. I intend to examine the problems from both a historical and legal societal perspective. And then suggest some potential solutions. The value of this paper is that it helps us to recognize the valuable resources we have in our diverse population and how to effectively utilize and, most importantly recognize their unique and varying skill sets. By including these peoples into our collective fabric, we will yield a better society. The fabric of our society can seem much like conventional clothing fabric, which is strengthened by the introduction of another element into the mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2011, the Sand Canyon–Castle Rock Community Archaeological Project has been conducted in several canyons of the central Mesa Verde region, southwestern Colorado in the North American Southwest. One of the project’s aims is to reconstruct the relationships between Ancestral Pueblo culture settlements and rock art vs. environment and surrounding landscape. All these elements were related to the beliefs and rituals of Pueblo societies in the thirteenth century A.D. Although contemporary Pueblo people live a few hundred kilometres south and southeast of the Mesa Verde region, many of these sites still have a special meaning to them and are mentioned in Puebloan oral traditions, histories, and myths. In the Southwest, other sacred places, including shrines, lakes, and mountains are significant for various Indigenous groups: Apache, Navajo, Ute, and others. They are part of cultures that still exist and for whom many landscape features are essential for their ritual life and perception of the world. Nowadays, a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between human settlements, rock art, and the landscape is possible with the use of digital documentation and spatial analyses including various methods of digital photography, 3D laser scanning, Geographic Information Systems, and subsequent reconstruction and visualisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the issue of applicability of Milman Parry's principles of economy and extension to Homer and other epic traditions. By addressing the objections raised by scholars in various fields, it argues that the presence of formulae is in itself not enough for either proving or disproving a given text's orality. Only economy and extension embodied in the systems of formulae can serve as such a proof. Application of this criterion to various epic traditions shows that, although economy and extension cannot be considered universal indices of orality, they do fulfil this function in Homer and early Greek epic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mustafa Ejubović-Šejh Jujo, one of our prominent Arabic-language writers, lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the transition between the 17th and 18th centuries. Besides being a highly prolific author in the fields of Arabic stylistics and Islamic theology, respected not only locally but also throughout the Ottoman Empire at that time, he is also one of the significant figures in Bosniak oral traditions. Over the past few centuries, various anecdotes about him have been retold, fueling the imagination and strengthening beliefs for generations. These narratives, belonging to the genre of oral traditions about saints (evliyas) in Bosniak oral tradition, focus on the miracles and supernatural powers bestowed upon these extraordinary individuals. What is interesting in the case of this extraordinary mufti from Mostar is that, unlike other figures in Bosnian folklore, there is a wealth of biographical data and facts about him, which has led to controversial perspectives among many researchers regarding their intersection with numerous oral traditions.

This study aims to describe the values of local wisdom in the Takneul oral tradition of the Bunak people, East Nusa Tenggara from a metaphorical ecolinguistic perspective. This research is a qualitative research with a simplified Spradley ethnographic approach for collecting data researchers using interview techniques. In this study, ethnographic approach will be simplified in a series consisting of four stages, namely 1) determining informants, 2) interviewing informants, 3) conducting ethnographic interview analysis, 4) analyzing components. Simplification of these steps is carried out as a simplification without reducing the effectiveness of ethnographic research. The data used in this study are classified into two types, namely primary data and secondary data. Primary data obtained based on the results of interviews with relevant sources. Secondary data was obtained based on texts related to the traditions of the Bunak tribe, East Nusa Tenggara and oral tradition poetry texts in the Bunak language given by research sources. Based on the results of data analysis it was found that there are three values of local wisdom in the Takneul oral tradition of the Bunak tribe, East Nusa Tenggara, namely 1) great values related to sadness or lamentation, 2) great values related to consolation or humor, and 3) great values related to love and affection.

Based on a recent body of scholarship that addresses the epistemologies of the South, our goal is to incite a shift in how we conceptualize technology adoption in the Global South. We interrogate the notion that the role of digital technologies in these regions follows a linear model of progress from traditional lifeways toward industrial modernity. Joining a recent shift toward decolonizing the study of the flow of digital technologies in the Global South, this article calls for a new approach that prioritizes specific historical, cultural, and epistemological contexts in the Global South and acknowledges the fragmentation left behind by colonization and divergent economic policies. We argue that communities appropriate digital communication technologies in complex ways and weave them into their existing ancestral epistemologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre & Folklore / Mínsú Qǔyì is the property of Shih Ho-Cheng Folk Culture Foundation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In all traditional Polynesian societies, people developed a deep knowledge of all feathered creatures, and devised a great many stories about them. This paper offers a summary and a comparative study of seventeen traditional narratives from throughout Polynesia that feature birds as the companions of the human, divine, or semidivine protagonists of the stories. These oral traditions, which were put in writing in the 19th and 20th centuries by Westerners, show that, in traditional Polynesian societies, people perceived birds as much more than a food source: They were deeply attached to the feathered creatures that they kept as companion animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces Rethinking oral history and tradition: an indigenous perspective, by Maori and New Zealand historian Népia Mahuika, published in 2019 by Oxford University Press and not yet translated into Portuguese. The book offers valuable instruction to academic thinking from the experience and perspectives of indigenous communities, dialoguing with literature from the oral history and oral tradition academic fields. Among the contributions brought by the work, the article focuses on a few points in order to better characterize the form and dynamics of indigenous history and oral sources, as well as the dialogue with the main concepts that inform the field of oral history and oral traditions. It also brings the perspectives of Maori history and oral traditions closer to those of other indigenous and/or native contexts in which such notions are determinant, presenting research experiences in African, Latin American, and, specifically, Brazilian contexts. The text is an exercise carried out by a white researchers, who assume the posture of apprentices, willing to contribute to a rich and challenging discussion, from the careful reading/listening of protagonists who have not always had their voices and knowledge valued by academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James Swauger's study of Ohio's rock art, Petroglyphs of Ohio, has been the definitive guide to the subject since its publication in 1984. Swauger concluded that the Indigenous American Indian petroglyphs were created during the late precontact period and proposed that the makers of the designs were "proto-Shawnee," but he deliberately eschewed any attempt to attribute meanings to the designs. Building on Swauger's work, we consider Ohio rock art through the lens of our previous research on Serpent Mound and the rock art of midcontinental North America, particularly the unique suite of pictographs at Picture Cave, as interpreted through the lens of Dhegiha Siouan oral traditions. We argue that several Ohio petroglyph sites include configurations of motifs that represent episodes from an ancient and widespread Indigenous creation story featuring the Great Serpent, Lord of the Beneath World, and First Woman, the mother of all living things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between rains, religion and prayer, as well as individual charisma, is ancient. This paper looks at some late medieval and early modern reverberations on this topic. They are of interest because of the intensity and prominence of the subject in the contemporary evidence. They also allow us to observe the rich coalescence of different areas of Jewish thought on the same subject: liturgical jurisprudence, poetry, calendar, family and other traditions. They also present us with the possibility of adding and comparing contemporary Christian perceptions to the Jewish ones. They raise the question of different Jewish perspectives on prayers and rains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afro‐descendant oral traditions are powerful modes of political expression that disrupt anti‐black logics within Latin America's mestizaje. Scholarship on Afro‐Latin American anti‐racist mobilisation centres on large‐scale, collective action. Instead, in this article, I examine songs and décimas, central forms of Afro‐descendant cultural subjectivity. Drawing on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in La Guaira state, Venezuela, I show how oral traditions are place‐based forms of resistance against anti‐black racism. This research calls on scholars to attend to oral traditions and their geographies as a tool of anti‐racist political mobilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Sciences & Humanities Studies / Društvene i Humanističke Studije (DHS) is the property of Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Tuzla and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present paper, 'Exploring the Role of Testimonio Method in Shaping Collective Memory of Indenture History: from Empathy to Empowerment,' attempts to study how the Testimonio method of study, which is a powerful literary genre rooted in oral history, can be used to study indenture history from the Bhojpuri speaking areas of North India and bridge the gaps and silences of this history using folksongs, folktales, oral accounts, poems, diary, autobiographies, etc. It also highlights the role of Bhojpuri as a lingua franca of the community and its impact on cultural preservation and literary expression, also focussing on the role of Khelauni (baby-sitter) and Ajie (grandmother) culture in the formation of a distinct community in the erstwhile sugar colonies like Fiji, Mauritius, etc., through folk stories and songs narrated to young children. This paper seeks to elucidate the Testimonio method's effectiveness in unravelling the untold stories of indentured people, and by analyzing a range of testimonial narratives and literary works, it highlights the multifaceted dimensions of indenture history, gender dynamics, and the preservation of cultural identity. It also underlines that the Testimonio method's unique approach, centred on personal narratives and collective memory, allows for a nuanced understanding of the lived experiences of the Girmitiyas' struggles and triumphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from a project that sought to determine the effects of a home-based literacy intervention on bilingual (English and Te Reo Māori) preschool children's early literacy skills. The culturally responsive intervention, which was adapted from Tender Shoots, incorporated traditional Māori teaching and learning approaches, such as the use of storytelling, songs, games, and reminiscing about the past, as practices for supporting key cognitive skills crucial to foundational literacy, specifically phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. Over a 12-week period, during which the intervention was conducted, data were gathered from eight Māori preschool children and their families. The study utilised a crossover design. Four children and their families participated in the Rich Reading and Reminiscing (RRR) component of the intervention, which ran for six weeks, followed by the Strengthening Sound Sensitivity (SSS) portion of the intervention. The remaining four children completed the intervention in the reverse order of delivery. The crossover approach established a control in the study and allowed the effects of each part of the intervention on the aforementioned cognitive skills to be more clearly revealed. Overall, the data indicate that traditional Māori pedagogical practices helped to strengthen the early literacy skills of the children participating in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesatua folklore in Bali has moral education values. The aim of this training is to draw folklore illustrations for elementary school (SD) children in Bali to preserve the mesatua tradition whose values are relevant to society. This training program uses three program approaches, namely (1) Mesatua, (2) Drawing illustrations, (3) Reading children’s drawings. The implementation of the program resulted in the provision of mesatua folklore in each region which was given differently according to the needs of the local environment. At the public elementary school in Budakeling village, Karangasem district, they were given the folklore I Belog, while at the public elementary school in Tukadsumaga village, Buleleng district, they were given the story The Arrogant Frog. The conclusion shows that children’s illustrative work discussed line, composition, illustration, typography and color. The works produced by elementary school children in the two districts show works that are honest, expressive and free. The composition of the fields also shows that their drawings are full of freedom and confidence in drawing. Character values such as not being arrogant, having to study hard and being obedient to worship are contained in the children’s drawings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First published just over three decades ago, Teresia Teaiwa’s “Microwomen: US Colonialism and Micronesian Women Activists” calls attention to the absence of Micronesian women in academic histories. The paper came out of a Pacific History Association conference panel aimed at amplifying the voices of women in histories of Micronesia, which, Teaiwa argued, remained “deafeningly silent on women” (1992, 126). While progress has been made in the thirty years since, Micronesian women remain underrepresented in academic histories. Using Marshallese oral traditions as a guide, this article argues that re-centering women in histories of Micronesia remains essential to the decolonization of Pacific Islands history, not only for the sake of representation but also as a necessary step in the ongoing development of historical methods more reflective of Indigenous historicities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two books of Amharic proverbs and the book of Amharic riddles under review document Amharic oral traditions far beyond what others have done previously. They all build on previous scholarship. In addition, each one adds new examples to what has been published before. But it is also important to note that each book has added significant new methodological contributions to their field. They will be valued by those who use and enjoy Amharic oral traditions in their lives. They will also be valued by scholars who study these Amharic oral traditions. In addition, these books can serve as inspirations and models for speakers of other languages, in the Horn and beyond.

Literary scholars and linguists have argued extensively that language is not simply a purely representational vehicle of thought but its determining medium, whose ordering powers not only shape cognizance of reality but are also actively involved in processes of imperialism and cultural erasure. It is the determinative yet slippery quality of language, prompting the loss of meaning in attempts at translation, that colonial powers manipulated to violent effect and which, as enacted in the plays of Nyoongah Indigenous Australian playwright Jack Davis, continue to haunt history and the present. This article considers how a history and culture made unspeakable by colonialism through the erasure of Indigenous Australian oral traditions, languages, and historical perspectives is translated on to the Anglophone stage in the plays of Davis, one of the first Indigenous playwrights to be published and performed internationally, and how this was received by the witnessing audience. Davis achieves this theatrical translation not only through the negotiation and manipulation of colonial language and verbatim history alongside Indigenous languages, enacting a kind of linguistic double consciousness, but also through physical theatre and dance. The latter are the central means of communicating meaning and knowledge in Nyoongah culture. Jacqueline M. Brown is a graduate student at Worcester College, University of Oxford, studying for a Master of Studies in English (1900–present). This article received first prize in the 2022 TORCH Reimagining Performance Network Graduate Essay Prize competition run in collaboration between the University of Oxford and New Theatre Quarterly. For more information on the Reimagining Performance Network, see < https://torch.ox.ac.uk/reimagining-performance-network >. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hawaiʻi, tsunamis are often described in orally transmitted legends (moʻolelo). This study examines sedimentary evidence of a possible local submarine landslide-generated tsunami, described in a legend from the south east coast of Maui which originated between the 15th Century CE and the first arrival of Europeans in 1778 CE. Physical evidence for a tsunami, found at the Nu'u Refuge, Maui, is primarily comprised of an extensive coral clast deposit (found 8.5 m above msl and 251 m inland from the shoreline) together with waterworn cobbles which form fracture-embedded wedge clasts in a local basalt escarpment (at up to 8 m above msl). U/Th dating of the coral clasts gives a maximum tsunami deposit age of 1671 CE for the event that may have inspired the local moʻolelo. This depositional sequence is used to characterize the nature of the assumed tsunami in terms of inundation distance, maximum wave runup and minimum flow velocities. A numerical model developed using GeoClaw matches well with the physical evidence. The data and modeling presented here suggest that locally-generated tsunamis from submarine landslides warrant further research attention as sources of destructive high energy marine inundation events. • Tsunami legends often include details on the intensity and severity of tsunamis. • A pre-historic tsunami on Maui left discernible signatures in the field. • These signatures provide important details on the intensity of this event. • These include minimum flow velocity, inland inundation and run-up heights. • Tsunami modeling provides a context to discern coastal vulnerability to tsunamis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]