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4 Field Colloquium Series: "Power and Artistry in Language Documentation: Recording the last generation of fully fluent Koryak speakers"

Alexander King
Friday, January 13, 2017
3:00-5:00 PM
411 West Hall Map
Our 4 Field Colloquium series presents speakers from the four fields of anthropology on new and topical interests in the field.

"This presentation discusses the social and spiritual power connected to narratives recorded during a documentation project I carried out together with Valentina Dedyk to record the last generation of fully fluent speakers of Koryak during an intensive expedition in February and March of 2013 in Kamchatka, Russia. The project combines elements of Russian anthropology, with its heritage of broad surveys covering large areas in a short time with elements of Anglo-American anthropology and its emphasis on long-term participant observation. Many of the speakers recorded were well known to either Dedyk or King or both of us. Many others were completely new acquaintances, but our familiarity with the communities provided us with strategies for quickly connecting to them on empathetic terms. After introducing Dedyk’s and King’s separate experiences that formed the backdrop to this project, I discuss several elders we recorded as illustrative case studies. An ethnopoetic analysis provides insight into the patterns of spiritual power that are implicit in much of Koryak everyday life. The role of spirits in Koryak speaking is less salient when the primary language of discourse shifts to Russian."
Building: West Hall
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: AEM Featured, Anthropology
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Department of Anthropology