Meakambut ways of speaking: Audio-visual documentation of communication practices in a small semi-nomadic hunter-and-gatherer society in Papua New Guinea
The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide for the documentation of endangered languages and knowledge. Grantees create audiovisual collections with transcription and translations of endangered languages and practices. These collections are preserved and made freely available through the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR).
The Meakambut are semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers, numbering about 45, moving between rock shelters around their mountainous territory in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. As one of very few semi-nomadic groups in Melanesia, they are key for understanding the (socio)linguistic situation which would have prevailed before agriculture. Apart from basic word lists there has been no prior research on the language, and it is not even listed in Ethnologue. Using observational filming to supplement basic linguistic documentation, this project will provide audio-visual documentation and analysis of a variety of their speech practices, embedded in rich ethnographic data.
Primary investigator: Darja Hoenigman
Project Details
Location: Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, Oceania
Organiser(s):
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme
Project partner(s): Australian National University
Funder(s):
Arcadia
Funding received: £144,662.00
Commencement Date: 01/2011
Project Status: Completed
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