The Flying Silver Message Stick: Update 1985-86 on Long Songs Collected 1971-74.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
The Flying Silver Message Stick: Update 1985-86 on Long Songs Collected 1971-74. |
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Author :
Carol Rubenstein |
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Abstract:
BACKGROUND TO THE UPDATE PROJECT On 31 May 19851 returned to Sarawak after an absence ofnine years with a project sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in Translation (USA). This was related to my earlier work of collecting, translating and documenting songs, chants, song cycles and epics of seven groups of Sarawak Dayaks, sponsored by the Ford Foundation in cooperation with the Sarawak Museum. None ofthe material had previously been written down in any language. The project began in August 1971 and ended three years later in September 1974. Eight months of my proof reading followed, and then the results of the project, containing the songs in the indigenous languages and the English language translation were published by the Sarawak Museum in spring 1975 (Rubenstein 1973, so dated for sequence only). Subsequent visits to Sarawak followed in 1975 and 1976. Collections of only the shorter songs and chants within the Dayak life cycle were also published (Rubenstein 1985, 1990a). During 1985-86 for the eight months of my stay I revisited earlier sites to update my data concerning the state of the songs and in particular to meet again with the singers of the long song cycles and epics which I had earlier collected and translated while working with the Sarawak Museum and its excellent staff, along with other informants and interpreters. I also visited additional sites briefly (some Kajang groups) and stayed for one month near Penan Urun groups, collecting and translating Penan songs (Rubenstein 1990e). Unlike the logistics of my earlier research, during 1985-861 traveled on my own and found my own assistants.
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Carol Rubenstein. (1991). The Flying Silver Message Stick: Update 1985-86 on Long Songs Collected 1971-74. The Sarawak Museum Journal, XLII (63): 61-164 |
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