Title: Animal tales from the Caribbean /
Authors: List, George, 1911-2008; McDowell, John Holmes, 1946-; Rojas E., Juan Sebastian
Year: 2017
Subjects: Tales Colombia Atlantic Coast.; Folklore Colombia Atlantic Coast.; Animals Folklore; Black people Colombia Atlantic Coast Social life and customs.; Funeral rites and ceremonies Colombia Atlantic Coast.; Animals; Blacks Social life and customs; Folklore; Funeral rites and ceremonies; Manners and customs; Tales; Atlantic Coast (Colombia) Social life and customs.; Colombia Atlantic Coast
Abstract: These 21 animal tales from the Colombian Caribbean coast represent a sampling of the traditional stories told during all-night funerary wakes, a ritual shared in the semi-sacred space of the patio (backyard) of homes. Such wakes also include other aesthetic and expressive practices such as jokes, song games, board games, and prayer. Situated within their performance contexts, the stories represent a highly ritualized corpus of oral knowledge that, for centuries, has been preserved and cultivated by African-descendant populations in the Americas. Ethnomusicologist George List collected these tales throughout his decades-long fieldwork among the rural costeños in the mid-20th century and, with the help of a research team, transcribed and translated them into English before his death in 2008. In this volume, John Holmes McDowell and Juan Sebastián Rojas E. bring this previously unpublished manuscript to light, providing commentary on the transcriptions and translations, addtional cultural context through a new introduction, and a further typological and cultural analysis by Hasan M. El-Shamy. Supplementing the transcribed and translated texts are links to the original Spanish recordings of the stories, allowing readers to follow along and experience the traditional telling of the tales for themselves. --
Contents: Mártara -- The little goat -- Of Aunt Vixen with Uncle Jaguar -- The excursion of rabbit -- The pig who made much fun of the donkey -- A humorous tale of rabbit -- When jaguar wanted to fight with rabbit -- The man -- Uncle rabbit and Aunt jaguar's seven children -- Uncle rabbit and Uncle alligator -- The rabbit who wanted to be the largest animal in the world -- The cunning of rabbit -- The saddling of jaguar -- When rabbit lost -- Uncle rabbit's field -- Rabbit and Vixen's saloon -- The man who gathered honey -- The quarrel between cock and vixen -- The marriage of Monkey and Frog -- Uncle rabbit's ears -- When the sun baptized the bat's son --Typology and cultural analysis / Hasan M. El-Shamy.