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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| Format: | Article |
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Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
1998
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4162/ |
| _version_ | 1848810427017854976 |
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| author | Timo Kaartinen, |
| author_facet | Timo Kaartinen, |
| author_sort | Timo Kaartinen, |
| 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T23:30:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | oai:generic.eprints.org:4162 |
| institution | Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T23:30:20Z |
| publishDate | 1998 |
| publisher | Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | oai:generic.eprints.org: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 |
| spellingShingle | Timo Kaartinen, Voices of the other: authenticity and consciousness of language in an East Indonesian song tradition |
| title | 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_short | 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 |
| url | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4162/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4162/ |