Kitawa Literary Fragments: How Storytelling Shapes Spacetime in a Melanesian Matrilineal Culture

Giancarlo M. G. Scoditti

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Kitawa Literary Fragments

How Storytelling Shapes Spacetime in a Melanesian Matrilineal Culture

Giancarlo M. G. Scoditti

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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About this book

The Nowau oral texts collected in this volume were recorded by Scoditti during the several years of fieldwork on Kitawa Island (Papua New Guinea) devoted mainly to understanding the mental mechanisms followed by the image creators, that are the makers of the kula ceremonial canoes, the poets, the magicians, the female and male singers who perform a poetic text orally written by a poet to an oral score composed by a musician. With these early works, Scoditti identifies within Kitawa culture a clear distinction between the author and the performer-interpreter of a given oral text, be it a verbal and a non-verbal one, a distinction that has called into question the hypothesis that in a culture that does not know, or use, any form of phonetic writing, a text is composed at the time of its performance, so that composition and performance would coincide.

A first result of his interpretation is Kitawa. A linguistic and aesthetic analysis of visual art in Melanesia (1990, De Gruyter Mouton), then by Kitawa oral poetry. An example from Melanesia (1996, ANU Press), Notes on the cognitive texture of an oral mind. Kitawa, a Melanesian culture (2012, Sean Kingston Publishing) and, now Kitawa Literary Fragments: How Storytelling Shapes Spacetime in a Melanesian Matrilineal Culture.

Author / Editor information

Giancarlo M. G. Scoditti, Univeristy of Urbino, Italy.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Table of Content Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	XVII
Part A: Introduction
1 Prologue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
2 Nowau Memory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	16
3 The Memorization of an Oral Text on the Foundation Tale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	25
4 Warp and Weft of the Foundation Tale: Forms of Memorization and Conservation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	49
5 The First Being, or Axiom: Schema, Structure, and Ancestral Mothers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	56
6 The Notion-Image of Schema and Model: A Hypothesis in the Composition of an Oral Text from the Foundation Tale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	70
7 The Thinker and Maker of the Schema on the Foundation Tale: One or Several Authors? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	78
8 The Schema of the Oral Text of the Foundation Tale and Its Interpretative Models Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	88
9 Schema as a ‘Toolbox’ for Composing an Oral Text Based on the Foundation Tale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	103
10 Epilogue: The Kula Rite as a ‘Rebellion of Intellect’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	121
The Criteria Followed in Editing the Oral Texts on the Foundation Tale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	137
A Short Note on Nowau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	143
Nowau Phonetic Alphabet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	146
Signorum Explicatio Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	147
Part B: Texts 1–41
1 Togeruwa Matawadia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	153
2 Kadavagisaguyau Mwagula Tosulala Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	163
3 Bomũkuyobu Kaidoga Mwagula Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	246
4 Mwaivada Gumũkautu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	262
5 Geredou Modigalobu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	276
6 Tokuraeïya Modigalobu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	287
7 Uniweni Daburisi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	294
8 Bulema Tobeduïya Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	318
9 Mateïya Matanogi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	344
10 Kaiulala Kadora Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	352
11 Damũramwara Mũlopuwelu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	358
12 Pilimoni Togebova Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	384
13 Mwadagula Kaberisi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	392
14 Daburisi Kurina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	416
15 Sabewa Kasiotagina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	426
16 Dedayoura Kurina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	443
17 Togenuwa Tosemwana Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	460
18 Karumwana Bokalodu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	468
19 Nïyeba Bokalodu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	478
20 Sïyakwakwa Teitei Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	483
Portrait Gallery Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	522
Lexicon Nowau – English Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	527
Concordances. Part 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	589
Concordances. Part 2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	700
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	989
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1001

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

March 31, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9783111291338

Hardcover published on:

March 31, 2025

Hardcover ISBN:

9783111285481

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

20

Main content:

1008

Illustrations:

25

Coloured Illustrations:

26

Tables:

7

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111291338

eBook ISBN: 9783111291338

Hardcover ISBN: 9783111285481

Keywords for this book

Ethnolinguistics; Melanesia; oral tradition; transcription

Audience(s) for this book

Students and scholars of classics, archaeology and linguistics

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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com

Kitawa Literary Fragments

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data