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Singing the morals: The
function of musico-linguistic
shifts in Kisii folktales
Daniel W. Hieber
University of California, Santa Barbara
www.danielhieber.com
AAA 2016, Minneapolis, MN
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. 1144085
Hieber, Daniel W. 2016. Singing the morals: The function of musico-linguistic shifts in Kisii folktales. Panel on Playing the
changes, saying the changes: The social meaning of musico-linguistic style-shifting, organized by Jessica Love-Nichols (UC Santa
Barbara) and Morgan Sleeper (UC Santa Barbara), Nov. 17, 2016, American Anthropological Association (AAA) Conference,
Minneapolis, MN.
Kisii (kegusi; Bantu, Niger-Congo)
Endangered •– few speakers under 30
2.2 •million ethnic Gusii people, ~600,000 speakers
•kegusi Encyclopedia Project (EEP)
2 •mo. eld trip in Summer 2014: 24 folktales; lexical
database with audio (14,000 words)
Generic features of Kisii folktales
Self•-erasure of the narrator
Personication of the story•
Mogano•ngchá nde? ‘May I, Story, come?’
Mogano•nchó. ‘Story, come.’
Avoidance of metacommentary and self•-correction
No third•-party descriptions of mental states
Generic features of Kisii folktales
Characterological types •– anthropomorphized animals
Girae, Lion, Hyena, Hare, etc.•
Provides the listener with the proper moralizing stance•
Songs•
Usually a single stanza, ~•5 lines in length
Voiced by characters in the story (rather than the narrator)•
Integral to the plot•
Varied in style •– from extremely melodic to very chant-like
Why song?
In the absence of metacommentary, songs are a useful •
mechanism by which characters express their attitudes
towards events in the narrative.
This in turn tells the listener what kind of stance they are •
expected to take, on the basis of their prior knowledge of
characterological types.
Who sings?
25 •stories total
12 •have human main characters
These same •12 stories – and only these stories – have songs
Only humans sing (unless animals are aided by supernatural •
means)
mwná momurá n’kerandi
A boy, a girl, and a gourd
Mother wants son to get a •
wife
Son brings home gourd•
Gourd has woman living •
inside it
Woman does house chores•
Mother discovers woman•
Mother makes son marry •
woman
mwná momurá n’kerandi
A boy, a girl, and a gourd
The song is how we know the attitude of the mother•
Reects common social expectations in Kisii society thatː•
men nd wives to marrya)
wives help the women of the husbandb) ’s family with chores
The song does the moralizing work of establishing the stance that the •
listener is expected to have towards the son’s negligence
The ironic fact that the ideal wife is living in the much•-criticized gourd
further highlights this contrast more starkly
bná btno bnyɔ́ɔ́rté chnkɛnɛnɛ
Five girls pick some mulberries
Five girls go picking mulberries•
One girl eats all the mulberries•
The girls each sing an oath •
promising bad luck if they ate
the mulberries
When the culprit attempts to •
sing, she cannot
She falls into the river and •
drowns
Trí nché nrté
kemnkrma.
‘It’s not me who ate them, la di
da.’
motwé poopó kemnkrma.
‘Your head bangs, la di da.’
magoró sngʼsngʼí
kemnkrma.
‘Your legs make noise like
crushed glass, la di da.’
bná btno bnyɔ́ɔ́rté chnkɛnɛnɛ
Five girls pick some mulberries
Song is the key element telling the audience which moral •
stance to take
We as listeners are not meant to feel sorry for the girl, but •
rather to view her ill fate as punishment for her lie
moské monyakni
A beautiful girl
A girl refuses to marry any •suitors
The disgruntled boys •pretend to be river beasts,
and turn the river to blood
Father of the girl sings to •the river beast, oering
various gifts
The river beast (i.e. the •suitors) accepts the girl as a
gift
Girl is given to the river •beast.
Suitors take girl away and •one marries her
Father is none the wiser•
moské monyakni
A beautiful girl
King Lear•-style narrative
World is in chaos until the proper social order is restored (i.e. the •
girl is properly married)
Father never knows why the river beast wanted the girl•
Song informs the •
audience
of what the suitors want, and the
source of wrongness in the world
Conclusion
Songs may seem like nothing more than aesthetic ditties•
But then why use song at all?•
Why at these particular points in the narrative?•
Why by these particular characters?•
Conclusion
Each of stories show moralizing functions for their songs•
Songs provide insights into the attitudes of the characters•
Neatly sidesteps the need for third•-party metacommentary
Help establish the moral stance that the audience is •
expected to take