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Naming, Mnemonics, and the Poetics of Knowing in V ula'a Oral Traditions
Author(s) -
Van Heekeren Deborah
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/ocea.5050
Subject(s) - mnemonic , historicity (philosophy) , poetics , ethnography , ontology , mode (computer interface) , sociology , literature , epistemology , linguistics , history , aesthetics , philosophy , anthropology , art , computer science , poetry , law , politics , political science , operating system
For the V ula'a people of south‐eastern P apua N ew G uinea names are a way of knowing that is intimately linked to a particular mode of being. The ethnography of V ula'a naming practices presented here, and an analysis of their stories – traditionally known as rikwana – suggests that names are essential in the Heideggerian sense that they bring the past, present, and future into proximity and thus may be understood as a form of historicity. In certain contexts names are also powerful because they are implicated in the kinds of transformations commonly described by anthropologists as magical. Magical names link knowing and speaking with a vital aspect of V ula'a cosmo‐ontology known as iavu (heat).