essay
Genealogy as genre
selected papers on a serbian village : social structure as reflected by history, demography and oral tradition • Amherst, Mass. • Published In 1977 • Pages: 141-163
By: Halpern, Barbara.
Abstract
Heroic epics have long been studied by scholars as primary examples of oral literature in many south Slavic areas of Yugoslavia, and have been extensively analyzed as to linguisitc and structural content. This paper draws on this background of impressive scholarship, adding to it the results of the author's own field work, to present evidence '…for an oral genre not previously isolated or described: recitation of genealogy' (p. 141). Halpern reproduces here an actual genealogy provided by one of her informants, abstracts the underlying metrics, and analyzes its structure. Through this analysis the author attempts to show how complex data can be recollected (not memorized), and suggests that the prosodic characteristics of the recitation, used in conjunction with the socio-cultural values of the society in which it occurs, makes possible the preservation and oral transmission of detailed and complicated genealogy in Serbian peasant society (p. 141).
- HRAF PubDate
- 1997
- Region
- Europe
- Sub Region
- Southeastern Europe
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 1996
- Field Date
- 1953-1968
- Coverage Date
- 1953-1968
- Coverage Place
- Sumadija region, central Serbia and Montenegro
- Notes
- by Barbara Kerewsky Halpern
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-163)
- LCCN
- sf80001606
- LCSH
- Serbs