The Haida, as a preagricultural people, did not see a reason to add overt musical qualities to their use of language. Whereas verse relies on acoustic devices like alliteration and rhyming, Haida mythic storytelling was a form of noetic prosody, relying on patterns of ideas and images. Bringhurst suggests that even compared to the Indo-European oral tradition going back to Homer or the Vedas, the Haida tales do not rely on the auditory conventions of verse. They are meant to be listened to, not read, and as such the storytelling skill involves weaving in subtle repetitions and numerical patterns, and plays on Haida words and well-known mythological images rather than creating page-turning dramas of psychological or conflictual suspense.
Ghandl’s tales are told within an oral tradition rather than a written or literary tradition. How does the way we tell stories reflect the organization and social structures of the societies we live in? Rather, it is because the stories speak to, and from, a fundamentally different experience of the world: the experience of nomadic hunting and gathering people as compared to the sedentary people of modern capitalist societies. However, as Robert Bringhurst (2011) argues, this is not because the tales are not great literature or have not completely “evolved.” In his estimation, Ghandl should be recognized as one of the most brilliant storytellers who has ever lived in Canada. They lack the standard inner psychological characterization of protagonists and antagonists, the “realism” of natural settings and chronological time sequences, or the plot devices of man against man, man against himself, and man against nature. To the ear of contemporary Canadians, these types of tales often seem confusing. Be on your way” (Ghandl, quoted in Bringhurst, 2011). And Mouse Woman said to him, “You know what to do when you wear it. He went up the wall and onto the roof of the house.
Modern aesthetics elucidate skin#
In the innermost box was the skin of a mouse with small bent claws. She pulled out four more boxes within boxes. I intend to lend you something I wore for stalking prey when I was younger.” The tales tell stories of animal and human transformations, of heroes who marry birds, of birds who take off their skins and become women, of mussels who manifest the spirit form of whales, and of poles climbed to the sky.Īfter she’d offered him something to eat, Mouse Woman said to him, “When I was bringing a bit of cranberry back from my berry patch, you helped me.
Modern aesthetics elucidate series#
In 1900 a young anthropologist, John Swanton, transcribed a series of myths and tales - known as qqaygaang in the Haida language - told by the master Haida storyteller Ghandl.
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