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H-ASIA December 18, 2010 National Folkore Support Center (India), Digital Archives, recent publications (x-post H-FOLK) ***************************************************************** From: Bhargavi Narayanan <info@indianfolklore.org> Dear All, National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC), Chennai, India, is happy announce that the German convention for UNESCO and Asia- Europe Foundation has recognized our digital community archives initiatives as the best practice for preserving intangible cultural heritage (<http://culture360.org/asef-news/mapping-cultural-diversity-publication-launched>). Our Digital Community Archives have now entered their third phase of work that involves making retrievable the documentation done thus far. As part of this initiative, we have come up with three publications, two of which are dictionaries of the indigenous language, and the third, a photography book on 'Seraikella Chhau', a dance form that has recently been recognized by the UNESCO as an intangible heritage. Following is a brief description of all three books. *Vaagriboli - A Multilingual Dictionary* <http://indianfolklore.org/shop/product_info.php?cPath=23_30&products_id=69> Vaagris are bilinguals speaking Vaagriboli and Tamil, the regional language of Tamil Nadu. Their 'home language' is Vaagriboli that belongs to the western branch of the Indo-Aryan family. This spoken language is one of their valuable inheritances from their nomadic past and is a significant marker of their identity as a community. In spite of its importance in the cultural milieu, there is no extensive documentation of this language. In fact, the most recent attempt was way back in 1976. Much has changed since, the most important being the introduction and enforcement of formal education for the children of the community. Because all children attend Government public schools, their medium of education is Tamil. In higher standards, they are exposed to English. This adversely impacts their familiarity with their 'home language'. This multilingual dictionary is an attempt to enable the children of the Vaagri community to remember and stay in touch with their mother tongue that is increasingly influenced by Tamil and English. It would also facilitate an easier grasp of Tamil and English languages. It consists of around two thousand five hundred entries, that include 'original' Vaagri lexicons and those borrowed from other languages that become 'Vaagri' simply because the people have adopted them in their everyday. These lexicons are also transliterated in Tamil so that anyone of the Indo-Aryan language community, be it Tamil speaking, Gujarati speaking or Vaagri, can use the dictionary. The approximate meanings are however, only in Tamil or English. Depending on the school curriculum, this dictionary can be compiled as pocket dictionaries useful for school children. The Vaagriboli dictionary is collaboratively authored by G. Srinivasa Varma and A.Mubarak Ali. *Jenu Nudi Kannada-English Dictionary * <http://indianfolklore.org/shop/product_info.php?cPath=23_30&products_id=67> The Jenu Nudi Dictionary is a language resource for the Jenukuruba Community that gives English approximations for Jenu-Nudi lexicons written in Kannada script. They will enable children from the community to grasp English much better and encourage them to use their 'home language' officially, without fearing criticism from those outside the community.The dictionary has been published with a vision to make the education system more sensitive to linguistic differences between students from the marginalized communities and others. It is compiled by Kikkeri Narayan, a professor retired from Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore and the founder of bilingual transfer model of education for tribals. He has done pioneering work in introducing post modern and post-structural literary criticism in kannada. *Seraikella Chhau* <http://indianfolklore.org/shop/product_info.php?cPath=23_30&products_id=68> This book seeks to present /Seraikella Chhau/ as an intangible cultural heritage of Seraikella through photography. Archival photographs of earlier era and photographs taken during field documentation in native contexts and photographs of compositions performed specifically for this publication have been interwoven to construct a visual narrative accessible for both the lay and scholarly audience. The narrative is supplemented with interviews taken with prominent gurus and exponents that are compiled in a DVD which comes with the book. This book does not claim to represent all the artistes and gurus of /Seraikella Chhau/ and is not a comprehensive compilation of the entire artistic spectrum covered by /Seraikella Chhau/. We have used NFSC's collaboration with Tapan Kumar Pattanayak and his group of artistes as a prism to understand and present this art form. It is collaboratively authored by M.D.Muthukumaraswamy, Tapan Kumar Pattanayak, D.Shantini Sarah, Bhargavi Narayanan, Puduvai Ilavenil and S.Aruvi. *You can buy all three publications at our online shop <http://www.indianfolklore.org/shop/>. We have publications for free distribution as well! Our 36th Edition of *Indian Folk Life* (IFL) on '*Continuity and Change in Family and Community Performance Practices*', by Douglas Knight, is available at our portal: <http://indianfolklore.org/journals/index.php/IFL/issue/current>. We invite you to read and enjoy! Don't forget to send your feedback and suggestions! With Warm Regards, Team NFSC ****************************************************************** To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: <H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu> For holidays or short absences send post to: <listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
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