The World Oral Literature Project was ''"an urgent global initiative to document and disseminate endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record"''. Directed by Dr

Mark Turin Mark Turin (born 1973) is a British anthropologist, linguist and occasional radio broadcaster who specializes in the Himalayas and the Pacific Northwest. From 2014–2018, he served as Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program ...

and co-located at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, the project was established in January 2009. From March 2013 the organization ceased funding projects, whilst maintaining online resources.

Objective

The World Oral Literature Project provided small grants to fund the collecting of

oral literature Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...

, with a particular focus on the peoples of Asia and the Pacific, and on areas of cultural disturbance. In addition, the Project hosted training workshops for grant recipients and other engaged scholars. The World Oral Literature Project also publishes oral texts and occasional papers, and makes collections of oral traditions accessible through online media platforms such as Cambridge Streaming Media Service and

DSpace DSpace is an open source repository software package typically used for creating open access repositories for scholarly and/or published digital content. While DSpace shares some feature overlap with content management systems and document managem ...

Activities

Research

Fourteen funded oral literature fieldwork and documentation projects were completed between 2009-2013.

Online collections

The World Oral Literature Project collected data gathered by grantees and anthropology fieldworkers as well as historic collections. This data is primarily audio and visual files that are either born digital or are digitised by the Project. This material is archived using

and, where culturally appropriate, disseminated to the public through the World Oral Literature Project websites and streaming media services.World Oral Literature Project: Collections
World Oral Literature Project.

Occasional Paper series

Papers published by the World Oral Literature Project and

Open Book Publishers Open Book Publishers (OBP) is an open access academic book publisher based in the United Kingdom. It is a non-profit social enterprise and community interest company (CIC) that promotes open access for academic monographs, edited collections, cr ...

: * * * * * *

Database

Researchers at the World Oral Literature Project have compiled a database of language endangerment levels, including references to collections and recordings of oral literature that exist in archives around the world. Data on language endangerment are drawn from the ''online Ethnologue'', the ''UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger'', and from a 'red list' compiled by Professor William Sutherland in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge.Database
/ref> However the project states ''The World Oral Literature Project does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the materials that our researchers have compiled from these three sources, and the Project does not have the staffing capacity to keep these resources up to date.''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

World Oral Literature Project
Organisations associated with the University of Cambridge Oral history Educational projects Research projects Projects established in 2009 Projects disestablished in 2013