Oral Tradition: Strategies and Rationale for Collecting, Archiving and Recycling a Cultural Heritage.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
Oral Tradition: Strategies and Rationale for Collecting, Archiving and Recycling a Cultural Heritage. |
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Author :
Mohd. Taib Osman |
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Abstract:
Oral tradition in Sarawak is not only rich as every cultural group has its corpus of traditional oral tales, sayings, chants, poetry or songs, but is a source of information on the culture of the people. Past writers on the peoples of Sarawak like Henry Ling Roth, E.H. Gomes, J. Perham, Tom Harrisson or the late Benedict Sandin to the recent scholars like W. R. Geddes, Erik Jensen, Clifford Sather, Vinson H. Sutlive Jr., Carol Rubenstein, Peter Kedit or James J. Masing, all attest to the richness of the oral tradition.1 Although attempts have been made to collect and study these traditions, mostly by individual scholars in the process of turning out specific studies, a concerted effort to archive and recycle these materials for present-day needs have not been started in earnest, although many calls in that direction have been made in the past. Recognising the rich heritage that is in Sarawak, Unesco even held its regional seminar on oral tradition in Kuching from 12 to 16 November, 1973, where the problems of classifying, collecting and archiving oral tradition were discussed by scholars from Southeast Asia.2 For the present Symposium, I shall address myself to the question of collecting, archiving and recycling Sarawak oral tradition rather than dwelling on the oral tradition itself or a study of an aspect of it because I feel that what is needed at the moment is the seriousness of purpose in doing something which should have been done a long time ago. The efforts of people like the late Benedict Sandin, Bishop Galvin or Carol Rubenstein should be continued and kept alive, and nothing is more appropriate than to establish an archive for Sarawak oral tradition for posterityas well as for present day needs.
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Mohd. Taib Osman. (1989). Oral Tradition: Strategies and Rationale for Collecting, Archiving and Recycling a Cultural Heritage. The Sarawak Museum Journal, XL (61): 151-158 |
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References
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