The Philippine epics and ballads multimedia archive

Palawan is an island in the Philippines with remarkable heritages of both an archaeological and an intangible nature.1 Major prehistoric discoveries occurred on the island in the 1960s, and today intensive excavations are ongoing alongside progressive, interdisciplinary research employing new analytical tools.2 In May 1970 Charles Macdonald (an anthropologist) and I (trained as a linguist and an ethnologist) met the Pala'wan, and since that time, we have both regularly shared in their lives with many faithful returns.3 But during our very first week of fieldwork, we were invited to attend two simultaneous weddings where we heard for the first time Usuy, a beloved singer of tales and shaman, singing Kudaman. This lengthy narrative--which was performed that night in order to entertain the relatives and friends assembled under the roof of the large meeting house on the eve of the jural discussion related to the marriage alliances--is referred to among the Pala'wan as tultul, a genre-defining term I have proposed to translate as "epic" in contrast to the other eight defined oral genres (see Figure 1) present among the culture of the Highlanders on the southern part of this island.Not

Kudaman : an oral epic in the Palawan Highlands

The Palawan people live in the southern half of the island of the same name between the Sulu Sea and the South China Sea. For the past 23 years, we have been working with them, doing anthropological and linguistic research. In spite of the presence of an ancient syllabic script, still in use today in certain valleys, the context is one of oral tradition, for the script has never been used to fix oral literature or knowledge. It is used to convey messages.Issue title; "Epics Along the Silk Roads.

L’art du Pathétique en Asie du Sud-Est Insulaire : Le choix des larmes

L’ouvrage collectif coordonné et édité par Hélène Bouvier prolonge par une publication — et c’est là un grand mérite — une opération de recherche entreprise en 2007 intitulée « Pratiques littéraires et artistiques », qui a réuni sept chercheurs, membres du Centre Asie du Sud-Est (CASE, UMR8170, CNRS/EHESS). Quatre brins pour tresser nos paroles symbolisent avec bonheur quatre cultures insulaires de l’Asie du Sud-Est (deux à Taiwan et deux en Indonésie) sur lesquelles portent une interrogatio..

A Poetic and Musical Approach to Sung Narratives. A Comparison between Ifugao hudhud and Sama Dilaut kata-kata of Tawi-Tawi (Philippines)

The comparative method we would like to present here, through a Sama Dilaut kata-kata and an Ifugao hudhud, focuses on the epos as a score and attempts to analyze the multimodal relationships inherent to tlus "genre" in two epics of the Philippines archpelago, at the poetic, rhythmic, melodic, praxemic, semantic and narrative levels. Here we are in a strict oral tradition. We shall describe and analyze the performance of the singers of tales, the musical, vocal or verbal accompaniement, the mental text and melodies mastered by the performer in h s singing body, and the semi-formulaic style of the chorus, tlus thought in motion during the p~oferatio. After the musical analysis, we shall attempt to clarify the relationshp between music and narrative during the performance. We aim at showing the interrelations between music and narrative in two very distinct cultures and societies of the Phlippines and to bring out their respective feature

CASE – Centre Asie du Sud-Est

Andrée Feillard, chargée de recherche au CNRS L’Asie du Sud-Est : approches pluridisciplinaires Si l’Asie du Sud-Est des réseaux et des échanges a été massivement présente dans les contributions de cette année, un autre thème a été particulièrement prégnant, c’est celui de la religion qui constitue également l’un des axes principaux des travaux du CASE, qu’il s’agisse de l’Islam indonésien, étudié par Michael Feener (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore) et Greg Barton (M..

CASE – Centre Asie du Sud-Est

Pierre-Yves Manguin, directeur d’études à l’EFEOÉric Bourdonneau, maître de conférences à l’EFEO Histoire et archéologie de l’ancienne Asie du Sud-Est Thématique 1 (Pierre-Yves Manguin) : Les premiers « âges du commerce » dans l’ancienne Asie du Sud-Est : échanges, réseaux, marchés Les systèmes politiques côtiers de l’Asie du Sud-Est, à compter des environs du Ve siècle av. notre ère, se sont développés au gré des fluctuations des échanges maritimes, à l’échelle de la région, entre les deux r..

Centre Asie du Sud-Est – CASE

Andrée Feillard, chargée de recherche au CNRS L’Asie du Sud-Est : approches pluridisciplinaires Ce séminaire pluridisciplinaire a réuni les membres du Centre Asie du Sud-Est (CASE) et les étudiants avancés. L’objectif principal est d’examiner les processus à l’œuvre dans la constitution d’une aire culturelle qui, par-delà sa diversité culturelle et religieuse, tente de s’élaborer comme une communauté politique. Dirigé par Andrée Feillard, le séminaire a été animé plusieurs fois en coopération..

CASE – Centre Asie du Sud-Est

Pierre-Yves Manguin, directeur d’études à l’EFEOÉric Bourdonneau, maître de conférences à l’EFEO Histoire et archéologie de l’ancienne Asie du Sud-Est Thématique 1 (Pierre-Yves Manguin) : Les premiers « âges du commerce » dans l’ancienne Asie du Sud-Est : échanges, réseaux, marchés Les systèmes politiques côtiers de l’Asie du Sud-Est, à compter des environs du Ve siècle av. notre ère, se sont développés au gré des fluctuations des échanges maritimes, à l’échelle de la région, entre les deux r..

Plant processing experiments and use-wear analysis of Tabon Cave artefacts question the intentional character of denticulated stone tools in prehistoric Southeast Asia

The presence of notches on European Palaeolithic flaked stone tools termed ‘denticulates’ has been variously ascribed to cultural, functional and taphonomic factors. In Southeast Asia prehistoric stone tool assemblages are dominated by unretouched flakes, so the rare retouched lithics, including denticulates, can be considered unique testimonies of the intention of the tool makers to control the shape and properties of tool edges. Here we report the results of plant processing experiments with modern unretouched flakes made of red jasper. Splitting plants with the help of a specific hand and arm movement (“twist-of-the-wrist”) resulted in a series of use-wear traces that included large crescent-break micro-scars. These are very similar in shape and appearance to the notches of prehistoric denticulated tools. These results suggest that some denticulated pieces in prehistoric Southeast Asia could be less intentional than previously thought, being instead the result of plant processing activities. We also report here the analysis of 41 denticulates from Tabon Cave, Philippines. While some are clearly intentionally retouch, others exhibit use-wear and nocth micro-morphology characteristic of plant splitting. The notches of others result from utilisation and taphonomy or trampling. Altogether, our observations raise the following question: should the term denticulates be restricted to the tools intentionally retouched or encompass all the tools with adjacent notches whatever the origin of the latter is