Archaic Features in Folklore of Indonesian Papua

Article in Elibrary

Received: 04/17/2023

Accepted: 06/29/2023

Keywords: Papua myths; folklore of Papua; Papuans; Indonesian folklore, Indonesian Papua

Available in the on-line version with: 27.10.2023

To cite this article

Frolova M.V. Archaic Features in Folklore of Indonesian Papua. // Lomonosov Oriental Studies Journal. 2023. Vol. 67. N 2,67 p.154-159 https://doi.org/10.55959/MSU0320-8095-13-67-2-13.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribiution - NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Frolova M.V. (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of folklore texts of the peoples from the Indonesian provinces of Papua (written down in the 1960s–1970s). ‘Folk Tales from Irian Jaya’ may be considered to be a relatively new material in comparison with the field-work by Wirtz and Nevermann done before WWII. The study focuses on the archaic features of these texts such as etiologism, totemism, the cult of ancestors, belief in spirits, etc. The article attempts to identify the key elements of the most ancient layers of folklore, which are undergoing inevitable changes in oral transmission and written fixation. On having analyzed the texts the author has come to the conclusion, that the innovations are made in order to include the Papuan part to the melting pot of the pan-Indonesian culture, but such later interpolations do not ruin the archaic elements. The study of Papuan folk tales is intended to contribute reconstruction of a more complete picture of the primary forms of Indonesian folklore and its evolution.

References

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