Authors:
- Explores the folktales of the Kapsiki-Higi people in a comparative analysis across generations and among various African cultures
- Provides answers to important questions of memory and cultural studies of African peoples
- Uses historical, anthropological, and literary analysis in a unique approach and examination of transnational African culture
Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities (AHAM)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This study on Kapsiki-Higi tales compares two corpuses of stories collected over two generations. In this oral setting, folktales appear much more dynamic than usually assumed, depending on genre, performance and the memory characteristics of the tales themselves. In northeastern Nigeria the author collected these tales twice with a time gap of two generations, in order to assess the dynamics of this oral transmission. The comparison between the two corpuses shows that folktales are a much more dynamic cultural system than is usually thought. These dynamics affect some types of tales more than others, reflect social change and intergroup contact, but also depend on characteristics of the tales themselves. Cognitive approaches of memory shed light on these varieties of transmission, as do performance aspects in tale telling, in particular ideophones.
Authors and Affiliations
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African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Walter E.A. van Beek
About the author
Walter E.A. van Beek is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology of Religion at Tilburg University and Leiden University, the Netherlands, and has performed extensive fieldwork among the Kapsiki-Higi. His recent publications are The Dancing Dead. Ritual and Religion among the Kapsiki/Higi (2012) and The Forge and the Funeral; the Smith in Kapsiki/Higi Culture (2015).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Transmission of Kapsiki-Higi Folktales over Two Generations
Book Subtitle: Tales That Come, Tales That Go
Authors: Walter E.A. van Beek
Series Title: African Histories and Modernities
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59485-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-349-94927-4Published: 04 November 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-95889-4Published: 12 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-59485-3Published: 03 November 2016
Series ISSN: 2634-5773
Series E-ISSN: 2634-5781
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 170
Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations, 9 illustrations in colour
Topics: African History, Cultural History, African Culture, Cultural Heritage