Oral poetry of the Atoin Meto
The orally composed poems ( tonis ) of Atoin Meto in West Timor are epic literature that passes on themes from regional history. In the life cycle rituals of this ethnic group , the spoken word takes a dominant position over other symbolic modes of expression. In the ritual context , oral poems arise as spontaneous creations of the poet-speakers impromptu , as their creative improvisation and reflection of historical events. In order to convey their content, they use stylistic devices such as rhythm and grammatical parallelism . The Atoin Meto seals are an integral part of securing and stabilizing the social, territorial and ethnic identity of this ethnic group.
The chronicles of Atoin Meto are characterized by a non-everyday grammatical form: They are poetic poems that are sensitive to translations. The Tonis poems of the Atoin Meto do not represent a language of their own independent of natural language, as the misleading term ritual language, which is often used for oral traditions , suggests. Rather, it is a secondary model-building system. Ritual use of language in West Timor differs from the respective dialect of the regional language Uab Meto only through a reserved, often archaic lexicon and the special form of speech, the grammatical-canonical parallelism.
Traditional poems in Amanuban are not created in the milieu of written production, that is, the Atoin Meto do not use a writing system for their traditions. Quite the opposite: for the composition and transmission of their poems, the poet-speakers only use oral techniques ( oral poetry ).
The messages of the Atoin Meto-seals are reputed to be absolute truth, complete certainty and reliability in West Timor. The scientific analysis of this oral poetry must ask itself the following questions: Where do these texts get their authority as the authenticated words of the ancestors? Why can the form of literary texts largely withstand the influence of cultural change or individual skills, knowledge and inclinations?
literature
- Herbert W. Jardner : The Kuan Fatu Chronicle. Form and context of the Atoin Meto oral poetry (Amanuban, West Timor) . Reimer, Berlin et al. 1999, ISBN 3-496-02674-X , ( publications of the seminar for Indonesian and South Sea languages of the University of Hamburg 23).