Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands
Studies in Form, Meaning, and Sociocultural Context
Edited by: Alan Rumsey, Don NilesPlease read Conditions of use before downloading the formats.
Description
The genres of sung tales that are the subject of this volume are one of the most striking aspects of the cultural scene in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Composed and performed by specialist bards, they are a highly valued art form. From a comparative viewpoint they are remarkable both for their scale and complexity, and for the range of variation that is found among regional genres and individual styles. Though their existence has previously been noted by researchers working in the Highlands, and some recordings made of them, most of these genres have not been studied in detail until quite recently, mainly because of the challenging range of disciplinary expertise that is required—in anthropology, linguistics, and ethnomusicology.
This volume presents a set of interrelated studies by researchers in all of those fields, and by a Papua New Guinea Highlander who has assisted with the research based on his lifelong familiarity with one of the regional genres. The studies presented here (all of them previously unpublished and written especially for this volume) are of groundbreaking significance not only for specialists in Melanesia or the Pacific, but also for readers with a more general interest in comparative poetics, mythology, musicology, or verbal art.
Details
- ISBN (print):
- 9781921862205
- ISBN (online):
- 9781921862212
- Publication date:
- Aug 2011
- Imprint:
- ANU Press
- DOI:
- http://doi.org/10.22459/STPNGH.08.2011
- Disciplines:
- Arts & Humanities: Art & Music, Linguistics; Social Sciences: Anthropology
- Countries:
- Pacific: Papua New Guinea
PDF Chapters
Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands »
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- Preliminary (PDF, 266KB)
- Dedication (PDF, 65KB)
- Contributors (PDF, 224KB)
- Acknowledgements (PDF, 159KB)
- List of online items (PDF, 247KB)
- Introducing Highlands Sung Tales (PDF, 1.2MB) – Don Niles and Alan Rumsey doi
- Yuna Pikono (PDF, 264KB) – Kenny Yuwi Kendoli doi
- Music and Language in Duna Pikono (PDF, 719KB) – Kirsty Gillespie and Lila San Roque doi
- Parallelism in Duna Pikono (PDF, 495KB) – Michael Sollis doi
- Sung Tales in Héla Húli (PDF, 902KB) – Gabe C. J. Lomas doi
- An Ethnomusicological Discussion of Bì Té, the Chanted Tales of the Huli (PDF, 2.8MB) – Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan doi
- Enga Tindi Pii: The Real World and Creative Imagination (PDF, 298KB) – Philip Gibbs doi
- Parallelism and Poetics in Tindi Narratives Sung in the Ipili Language (PDF, 540KB) – Terrance Borchard and Philip Gibbs doi
- The Structure of Chanted Ipili Tindi (PDF, 451KB) – Frances Ingemann doi
- Skywalkers and Cannibals: Chanted Tales among the Angal (PDF, 1.0MB) – Hans Reithofer doi
- Style, Plot, and Character in Tom Yaya Tales from Ku Waru (PDF, 618KB) – Alan Rumsey doi
- Metric Melodies and the Performance of Sung Tales in the Hagen Area (PDF, 943KB) – Don Niles doi
- Bamboo Knives, Bows, and Waterfalls: The Presentation of “Traditional Knowledge” in Melpa Kang Rom, Duna Pikono, and the Works of Hesiod and Virgil (PDF, 326KB) – Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart doi
Reviews
Gabriele Solis, writing for the Fall 2013 issue of Ethnomusicology, describes lan Rumsey and Don Niles’ book Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands as “extensive” (p521) and praises it for “its commitment to viewing relationships between Highland communities” (p521) and hopes the book “may stimulate further research in the area”. (p521)
(Gabriele Solis, review of Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands edited by Alan Rumsey and Don Niles, Ethnomusicology, 57:3, Fall 2013, pp. 518-524.)
Alexis Th. von Poser (of the Ethnological Museum, Berlin) reviewed Alan Rumsey and Don Niles’ book Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands in the December 2012 issue of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute:
“[T]hrough the novel way of presenting different views on such an interesting topic as the sung tales, this edited volume should be considered more than just a specialist publication for a small group of readers. So much of a culture is combined in the tales through their contents, interaction of characters, humour, and metaphors that they allow a deep and initmate view into another people. I can highly recommend to everyone this poetic approach to an interesting region.”
(Alexis Th. von Poser, review of Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands edited by Alan Rumsey and Don Niles, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol 18, issue 4, pp919-920.)
Courtney Handman, of Reed College, reviewed Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands for Volume 54, No. 2 of Anthropological Linguistics (University of Nebraska Press).
Handman praises the book’s “in-depth presentation of the many facets of sung tales in the Highlands. This includes analyses of the ways in which sung tales are changing in contemporary Papua New Guinean usage.” (p197)
Handman also writes: “One particularly useful feature of the online format is the supplementary material. This consists mostly of audio files, allowing the reader to listen to segments of the performances being analyzed. Armed with the rich array of material documented and analyzed here, future researchers will be able to continue to develop analyses of the ways in which sung tales and musical-poetic performances work in Highlands Papua New Guinea.” (p197)
(Courtney Handman, review of Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands, Anthropological Linguistics: Volume 54, Number 2, 2012, pp.196-197.)
Neil R. Coulter, of SIL International, reviewed Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands for Volume 54, No. 2 of Anthropological Forum (Routledge).
Coulter writes:
“Sung tales sets a high standard for edited volumes by skilfully interweaving several key aspects of contemporary ethnographic writing, collaborative research, interdisciplinary methods, prominent featuring of local voices, and a response to globalisation…each chapter references others, creating an engaging conversation among all of the contributors–in fact, one of the best examples I have read of collaborative ethnographic research.” (p91)
Coulter praises the book as a first-rate example of collaborative research, and encourages it to be read by researches from many disciplines:
“Sung tales is a valuable contribution to Papua New Guinea research and deserves to be widely read by Pacific studies scholars. It should serve as a model for future collaborative projects on performance topics in the Pacific. It also earns a place alongside studies of other poetic and narrative genres from other parts of the world. It would be worthwhile reading for tertiary courses in any of the included disciplines.” (p92)
(Coulter, Neil R., review of Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands, Anthropological Forum: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Comparative Sociology: Volume 24, Issue 1, 2014, pp.90-93.)
- PDF file of full interview with Kenny Kendoli by Lila San Roque (PDF, 200.82 kb)
- Audio file of phrase of Duna pikono performance by Kiale Yokona, recorded by Kirsty Gillespie, 2005 (text 1) (audio/mpeg, 273.49 kb)
- Audio file of phrase of Duna pikono performance by Kiale Yokona, describing the full moon’s bright light, recorded by Kirsty Gillespie, 2005 (text 2) (audio/mpeg, 266.15 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Duna pikono performance by Kiale Yokona, recorded by Kirsty Gillespie, 2005 (text 1) (audio/mpeg, 171.45 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Duna pikono performance by Kiale Yokona, showing parallelism of musical elements, recorded by Kirsty Gillespie, 2005 (figure 1) (audio/mpeg, 396.76 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Duna pikono performance by Kiale Yokona, spoken text by Kenny Kendoli and Richard Alo (figure 2) (audio/mpeg, 352.68 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Duna pikono performance by Kiale Yokona, recorded by Kirsty Gillespie, 2005 (figure 2) (audio/mpeg, 74.72 kb)
- Audio file of the Huli bì té, Àe ndē ‘ah yes’ (texts 2 and 3) (audio/mpeg, 4.11 MB)
- Audio file of Huli bì té performed by Wandome, recorded by Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan, 1975 (figure 7) (audio/mpeg, 2.12 MB)
- Audio file of Huli bì té performed by Bebalu, recorded by Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan, 1975 (figure 11) (audio/mpeg, 2.27 MB)
- Audio file of excerpt of Enga tindi pii performance, recorded by Philip Gibbs, 2002 (audio/mpeg, 1.14 MB)
- Audio file of lines 22–32 of Ipili tindi performance by Alua, recorded by Frances Ingemann, 1965 (audio/mpeg, 550.64 kb)
- Audio file of lines 827–28 of Ipili tindi performance by Kaneanda, recorded by Frances Ingemann, 1965 (figures 3–4) (audio/mpeg, 90.23 kb)
- Audio file of line 24 of Ipili tindi performance by Yandapake, recorded by Frances Ingemann, 1964 (figure 5) (audio/mpeg, 38.39 kb)
- Audio file of line 68 of Ipili tindi performance by Kaneanda, recorded by Frances Ingemann, 1965 (figure 6) (audio/mpeg, 59.62 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Karinj enj performance by Josep Haip, recorded by Don Niles, 2006 (audio/mpeg, 2.04 MB)
- Audio file of opening lines from the story of Rosa and Koka in Ku Waru tom yaya kange performance by Paulus Konts, recorded by Alan Rumsey, 1997 (text 1) (audio/mpeg, 460.84 kb)
- Video file of excerpt of Ku Waru tom yaya kange performance by Peter Kerua, recorded by Alan Rumsey, 1997 (video/mp4, 7.14 MB)
- Audio file of opening amb kenan in Melpa kang rom performance by Paul Pepa, recorded by Radio Western Highlands, 1980 (figure 2) (audio/mpeg, 1.12 MB)
- Audio file of opening of Melpa kang rom section in performance by Paul Pepa, recorded by Radio Western Highlands, 1980 (figure 3) (audio/mpeg, 617.58 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Melpa kang rom performance by Paul Pepa at 05:47.1, recorded by Radio Western Highlands, 1980 (audio/mpeg, 215.13 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Melpa kang rom performance by Paul Pepa at 06:37.5, recorded by Radio Western Highlands, 1980 (audio/mpeg, 389.00 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Melpa kang rom performance by Paul Pepa at 13:12.3, recorded by Radio Western Highlands, 1980 (audio/mpeg, 403.29 kb)
- Audio file of excerpt of Ku Waru tom yaya kange performance by Peter Kerua, recorded by Chris Haskett, 2006 (figure 5) (audio/mpeg, 556.35 kb)
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