Describing the emergence of the first shipbuilding texts, particularly those in English provides another chapter in the story of the emergence of English technical writing. Shipwrightery texts did not appear in English until the middle decades of the seventeenth century because shipwrightery was a closed discourse community which shared knowledge…

Indigenous peoples in Taiwan belong to the Austronesian racial group. Confined to their oral language tradition, knowledge about Taiwan aborigines based on written documents reflected the positionality of dominant ethnic groups. This qualitative study employed participatory research approach to explore the process of producing their own knowledge…

This dissertation investigates Wolof Sufi oral narrative structure and its relationship with the context of production of the narratives. The findings of this study indicate that the structure of these narratives is characterized by (1) the salience of the complicating action, (2) the presence a pre-story stage, which announces the general topic,…

One of the best-studied, least-discussed texts of Native American oral literature is a long Mojave "epic" taken down from a man named Inyo-kutavere by Alfred Kroeber in 1902 and published in 1951. The text was published in twenty-nine pages along with forty-eight pages of commentary and twenty-five pages of notes. In 1999, Arthur Hatto, an…

In December 2005, a Canadian federal court justice dismissed a six-hundred-million-dollar claim by the Samson Cree related to alleged mismanagement of its energy royalties. In newspaper interviews, a lawyer for the Samson Cree expressed disbelief that the justice discounted the testimony of our elders and followed essentially the written word of…

In this article, the author describes the development of a storytelling unit she introduced to her school. She got the idea for the storytelling unit from the National Storytelling Festival she had attended several years ago in Jonesboro, Tennessee. When she proposed her idea of a storytelling unit culminating in a festival modeled on the national…

Folktales can be a useful resource in social studies lessons that teach cultural themes by using children's literature. However, with their origins in past oral traditions, folktales may present misleading information about current cultural practices and may perpetuate stereotypes. The author examines this problem by using the example of Danish…

This article explores mother tongue awareness among several Brazilian Amerindian societies in contrast with the perception of the importance of the vernacular according to policy makers and academics. The perception of the vernacular as important is discussed in the light of continuing debate among Brazil's educators concerning appropriate…

An ilkak'mana called Multnomah once lived near the river where New England merchants chopped Portland, Oregon, out of a Douglas-fir forest. With a bow and shield slung behind his back, the chief stood imperiously in Hermon A. MacNeil's 1904 statuette inscribed at its base with his name. Nearby tribes preserved Multnomah in words, but years later…

Recording lectures and making it available as MP3's might seem counterintuitive for a course that denies students the use of paper and pencil. The author speculated that online technology might help students get away from writing and allow them to think and learn in new (or perhaps older) ways. As with any other technological invention, it is…

Traditional stories include myths, legends, and folktales rooted in the oral storytelling traditions of a given people. Through story, people pass their religious beliefs, customs, history, lifestyle, language, values, and the places they hold sacred from one generation to the next. As such, stories and their telling are more than simple…

Introduction: Sharing of information across cultural boundaries does not always live up to expectations. Information behaviour is an underlying factor, which can contribute to poor use or non-use of the information or information services at the disposal of indigenous people in a development context. Method: A literature study of information…

The author explored how the oral tradition is currently "voiced" in tribal college and university classrooms. He asked a number of instructors how they approach literature and writing--particularly if the texts that they assign represent the value that Native people have historically given to traditional stories, teachings, speeches, tribal…

In West Bengal, India, a traditional caste community of artists, called "patuas", paint colorful scrolls to accompany songs which they sing to relate historic, current, religious, and cultural events to their audiences. These itinerant painter/singers are part of a long lineage that has passed the tradition down for generations. In this…

Indigenous oral narratives are an important source for, and component of, Coast Salish knowledge systems. Stories are not only to be recounted and passed down; they are also intended as tools for teaching. Jo-ann Archibald worked closely with Elders and storytellers, who shared both traditional and personal life-experience stories, in order to…