New Caledonia (France) / All works
Narrative
Documents néo-calédoniens
Not translated into English
Maurice Leenhardt · 1932
Synopsis
Texts from the Grande Terre written down by the Kanak themselves, almost all pastors trained at the mission, at the request of the missionary who gathers them. They are legends and accounts from tradition, given in the Houaïlou language; some are translated word for word, others accompanied by a translation into everyday French. The list of those who kept these notebooks appears in the contents of the volume.
Context
The volume, of more than five hundred pages, appeared in 1932 in the Travaux et mémoires de l'Institut d'ethnologie de l'université de Paris, and the journal Nature reviewed it the same year. The notebooks that were published are in the hand of Leenhardt's collaborators, almost all of them Melanesian pastors whom he had trained; others, which remained in manuscript, are by Pastor Boesoou Erijisi, with whom he studied the texts. Raymond Leenhardt, his son, later translated these notebooks, and the ethnologist Jean Guiart used them in 1987 to resume the study of this valley.
Who it is for
Texts in the Houaïlou language with their translations, intended first for ethnologists and linguists; scholarly reading rather than literary.
Prizes and reception
Reviewed by the journal Nature as soon as it appeared, the volume still serves as a basis for ethnologists studying Houaïlou.
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