Five South Indian Oral Epics: Textual analysis, comparison, social relevance

在过去的几十年里，印度和世界各地的学者越来越多地认识到口头史诗在南亚地区语言中的重要性。尽管如此，这些有价值的原始材料大多没有被记录或翻译，更不用说分析和研究了。还需要进一步的工作，特别是关于这些文本在特定社区和社会群体中的传播方式，文本在宗教和社会实践中的嵌入方式，以及文本在个人和群体特征构成中的作用，包括语言社区和更大的社会群体的特征。该项目旨在根据南印度语、德拉维亚语、图卢语和卡纳达语的口头史诗来解决这些问题。拟议的研究包括：采用语言田野调查的方法，重新录制史诗文本或其中的一部分；将其与先前录制的版本进行比较(如果有的话)；与歌手(包括女性和男性)和其他了解传统的人进行访谈；以及记录表演背景，特别是仪式背景。将特别注意最近的事态发展：例如，某些社区或其代表开始以前所未有的方式控制和推崇这一传统的文本和表演方面，并利用这一传统要求更高的社会地位和享有在其地区获得物质和政治资源的特权。最后但同样重要的是，我们将探索性别在多大程度上可以解释这些进程所采取的方向的重大差异。

During the past few decades, scholars in India and throughout the world have increasingly realized the significance of oral epics in South Asian regional languages. Despite this, most of these valuable source materials have not been recorded or translated, let alone analyzed or studied. Further work is needed, especially on the modes of transmission of these texts in particular communities and social groups, on the ways that the texts are embedded in religious and social practices, and on the texts' roles in the constitution of individual and group identities, including those of language communities and larger social groups.The project aims at addressing these questions on the basis of oral epics in the South Indian, Dravidian languages Tulu and Kannada. The proposed study comprises fresh recordings of epic texts or portions of them, applying methods of linguistic fieldwork; their comparison with versions recorded earlier, if available; interviews with singers (both female and male) and with other people who know the traditions; and the documentation of the performance contexts, especially the ritual context. Special attention will be paid to more recent developments: for example, certain communities or their representatives have started in unprecedented ways to control and canonise textual and performative dimensions of the tradition, and to use it to claim higher social status and privileged access to material and political resources in their region. Last but not least, we will explore to what extent gender can account for significant differences in the direction these processes take.