Non-Native scholarly interpretations of The Three Bears--a traditional story of the Nlha7kapmx Nation--focus on mythology as simplistic science to explain the physical world. In contrast, a Nlha7kapmx interpretation illuminates connections of land to people. Such stories reinforce cultural identity and teach young people about the spiritual power…

This report is designed to examine the construction of cultural memory, specifically the interpretation and transmission of historical knowledge in Spain and Catalonia. The study contends that in modern complex societies the genre commonly categorized as history represents a particular form of cultural construct devoted to the transmission,…

This book features more than 70 stories about the wide range of the Black experience, including traditional tales from Africa and the West Indies. Collected in the book are family stories and moral fables, ghost stories and tales rich in humor, as well as raps and rhymes, memoirs and songs, recipes and riddles, and stories and poems about freedom,…

This report focuses on rhythmic meters characteristic of Bulgarian folk music. Folk instruments, attire, music history, and methods of learning the folk traditional music and dances are presented. Students prepare a lecture/recital to showcase their learning of this unit. The project is intended for use in an undergraduate music history course for…

Indigenous knowledge is a living, breathing concept and must be treated with care and respect. This living knowledge is transmitted orally. At the University of Queensland (Australia), the Torres Strait Islander Studies course was taught in the Indigenous way, and elders were involved throughout, from formatting the course outline to the running…

Describes an initiative to incorporate folktales and legends from francophone West Africa into a college-level advanced French literary and cultural studies course. Students recorded their reactions to various texts taken from France and West Africa in reading journals. Analysis of the journals shows that critical competencies in Western culture…

Describes an intergenerational literacy English-as-a-Second-Language program. Stories were used to foster language and literacy development in English and participants' native language. Activities were built on the oral tradition. (Author/VWL)

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that oral literature, which is an aspect of the oral tradition, has functioned historically as a vital medium of moral and civic education in non-literate societies the world over. Through the ages, oral literature has performed this function by presenting its various genres as forms of entertainment…

The "pontes" (bridges) approach may be viewed as a teaching guide for action in music education. It may help music teachers to articulate the different aspects that surround the teaching-learning process, especially those related to cultural interfaces, such as: the student's personal characteristics, the elements and essence of the…

Fourth in a series, the annotated bibliographies in this collection were compiled by students in the Traditional Literature and Oral Narration class at the School of Library and Information Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa. These bibliographies are designed to make information about specific topics in traditional literature easily accessible…

The Yolngu people of Australia's Northern Territory trace their lineage through places in the land and water. Movements of currents represent movements of clans over time. Patterns of sound and design are associated with particular groups and with body parts. These essences are conveyed in ritual songs that are crucial ways of knowing oneself and…

The work of experienced and student lower primary teachers in three schools in Southern Malawi was studied, using lesson observations, interviews and pupil tests. The use teachers make of songs is given as an example of how they use oral culture. The function of songs in lessons is mainly to manage the class rather than to teach content, in…

A grandmother teaching fishtrap building by actually building one while telling a story provides a model and criteria for success in teaching Nlakapamux children, the most important criterion being the presence of cultural experts--grandmothers. Role-modeling, storytelling, and hands-on experience combine theory and practice and provide a mnemonic…

Pentecostalism is the result of an interesting amalgamation of different traditions: black and oral cultures, middle-class and proletarian languages, catholic and evangelical spiritualities. These traditions are contextualized in Western, Latin American, Asian and African contexts which produce a bewildering pluralism. This "post-modern…

Draws on Isabelle Knockwood's memoir about Mi'kmaw children's experiences in a Nova Scotia boarding school to examine the contradictory impacts of English literacy on American-Indian peoples and cultures. Discusses literacy as a weapon of colonial assimilation and, conversely, the appropriation of literacy within a Mi'kmaw system of knowledge…