Searching for fish names with the Vula'a of Papua New Guinea

Deborah Van Heekeren*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This article describes an ethnographic project initiated by a group of people in Irupara village, Papua New Guinea (PNG), who for a period between 2001 and 2010 self-identified as ‘historians’. At the forefront of the group’s concerns was a younger generation unfamiliar with the local language names of fish and fishing techniques. I document the collaborative project developed to address a situation perceived as a loss of language, culture, and identity. As well as providing a valuable lexicon in an Austronesian language, the research brings to light important distinctions between recording ‘history’ and ways of recalling and expressing the past commonly referred to as ‘historicity’.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)605-629
    Number of pages25
    JournalHistory and Anthropology
    Volume28
    Issue number5
    Early online date2 May 2017
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

    Keywords

    • Fish Names
    • Historicity
    • Language
    • Oral History
    • Papua New Guinea

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