Griots and Griottes

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Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2007-07-30
Publisher(s): Indiana Univ Pr
List Price: $29.40

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Summary

Griots, a uniquely African profession, fulfill a variety of roles as genealogists, historians, spokespersons, diplomats, musicians, teachers, praise singers, and advisors. Telling the story of these remarkable wordsmiths and performers, Thomas A. Hale addresses the nature of their verbal and musical art, the role of female griots, or griottes, how griots and griottes fit into their societies, and what their future might be in Africa and the rest of the world.

Author Biography

Thomas A. Hale is Liberal Arts Professor of African, French, and Comparative Literature at The Pennsylvania State University. He is editor of The Epic of Askia Mohammed (IUP, 1996) and co-editor (with John William Johnson and Stephen Belcher) of Oral Epics from Africa (IUP, 1997).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgmentsp. xiii
A Note on Orthography and Measurement of Distancep. xv
Introduction: Ibn Battuta, Alex Haley, and the Diffusion of Knowledge about Griotsp. 1
A Job Description for Griotsp. 18
The Origin of Griotsp. 59
The Verbal Art of Griotsp. 114
Music across the Griot Worldp. 146
The Making of a Griotp. 172
Would You Want Your Daughter to Marry One?p. 193
Griottes: Unrecognized Female Voicesp. 217
From the Courtyards of the Nobility to a Global Audiencep. 244
The Value of Wordsp. 288
New Millennium Griotsp. 311
Appendices
Griots Working in the United Statesp. 339
Films and Videos Featuring Griotsp. 340
Selected English Translations of Epics by Griotsp. 343
Audio Recordings by Griotsp. 345
African Music Books That Include Sections on Griotsp. 348
Ethno-Specific Terms for Griotsp. 350
Theories for the Origin of the Word Griotp. 357
Selected Bibliographyp. 367
Indexp. 393
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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