Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition

Onotani are songs performed in the Bandanese language (or bahasa Turwandan), currently spoken by some 5,000 people in the Kei Islands of Moluccas, East Indonesia. In this community, a history of migrations and trade contracts has resulted in a high consciousness of linguistic and cultural deversity,...

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Main Author:	Timo Kaartinen
Format:	Article
Published:	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 1998
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4162/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4162/

id	ukm-4162
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-41622012-05-23T05:02:57Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4162/ Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition Timo Kaartinen, Onotani are songs performed in the Bandanese language (or bahasa Turwandan), currently spoken by some 5,000 people in the Kei Islands of Moluccas, East Indonesia. In this community, a history of migrations and trade contracts has resulted in a high consciousness of linguistic and cultural deversity, evident in the extensive use of foreign linguistic items and folkloric elements in Bandanese oral tradition. The case of an onotani performance discusses in the article indicates that the meaning of such elements depends on their acknowledgement as voices of the Other. Whereas this performance gives maximum emphasis to intercultural dialogue, other performances and discourses are more focused on the aesthetic coherence of the language and poetics of onotani. Bandanese verbal arts thus balance between acknowledging the voice of the Other, on the one hand, and integrating it in the style of poetic expressions used to affirm the cultural self. This conclusion suggests the need to rethink the assumption, prevalent in current folkloristics and ethnography of speaking, that the meaning and authenticity of tradition are situational constructs. In the view suggested in this article, the authenticity or social value of tradition depends both on expressive, performative practices and on broader, cultural perceptions of the historical continuity and source of tradition. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 1998-07 Article PeerReviewed Timo Kaartinen, (1998) Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition. AKADEMIKA, 53 . pp. 87-112. ISSN 0126-5008 http://pkukmweb.ukm.my/penerbit/jdem53-6.htm
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
description	Onotani are songs performed in the Bandanese language (or bahasa Turwandan), currently spoken by some 5,000 people in the Kei Islands of Moluccas, East Indonesia. In this community, a history of migrations and trade contracts has resulted in a high consciousness of linguistic and cultural deversity, evident in the extensive use of foreign linguistic items and folkloric elements in Bandanese oral tradition. The case of an onotani performance discusses in the article indicates that the meaning of such elements depends on their acknowledgement as voices of the Other. Whereas this performance gives maximum emphasis to intercultural dialogue, other performances and discourses are more focused on the aesthetic coherence of the language and poetics of onotani. Bandanese verbal arts thus balance between acknowledging the voice of the Other, on the one hand, and integrating it in the style of poetic expressions used to affirm the cultural self. This conclusion suggests the need to rethink the assumption, prevalent in current folkloristics and ethnography of speaking, that the meaning and authenticity of tradition are situational constructs. In the view suggested in this article, the authenticity or social value of tradition depends both on expressive, performative practices and on broader, cultural perceptions of the historical continuity and source of tradition.
format	Article
author	Timo Kaartinen,
spellingShingle	Timo Kaartinen, Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition
author_facet	Timo Kaartinen,
author_sort	Timo Kaartinen,
title	Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition
title_short	Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition
title_full	Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition
title_fullStr	Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition
title_full_unstemmed	Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition
title_sort	voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an east indonesian song tradition
publisher	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	1998
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4162/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4162/
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:40:47Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:40:47Z
_version_	1777405576123252736

Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition

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