Oral Tradition Volume 5, Number 2-3May 1990

Editor's Column

This issue of Oral Tradition is devoted to oral traditions in the South Pacific and reports the results of a series of twentieth-century and mainly field-based studies. Since this region may be unfamiliar to some readers, these opening comments give a very brief introduction to this vast area, followed by some discussion of the significance of its oral traditions and their study for the wider comparative study of oral tradition.

Read more - Introduction; or, Why the Comparativist Should Take Account of the South Pacific

Ruth Finnegan, Guest Editor

 

It is still widely assumed, despite the writings of Ruth Finnegan (esp. 1977:73-87) and others, that the composition of oral poetry necessarily involves improvisation. But most traditional Maori songs, for example, were prior-composed, and their texts were fixed, in that a song might be memorized and sung in the same form over a period of many years (though on other occasions the words would be adapted to fit new circumstances, and the process of oral transmission might also bring about some changes).

Read more - “My Summit Where I Sit”: Form and Content in Maori Women‣s Love Songs

Margaret Orbell, Guest Editor

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