| Overview |
This project is a continuation of “Digital Archives of Amis and Yami Oral Legends (II).” Its goal is to digitize the recordings, phonetic transcription and Chinese translation of two projects subsidized by National Science Council (now the Ministry of Science and Technology) and conducted by Liu Pin-Hsiung (d. 2004), research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, “The Oral Literature of Amis and Yami People” (1982-1985) and “Collection and Research of Yami Oral Legends” (1986-1989). The materials of this project also include reports on the fishing rituals of Yami people gathered by Liu from 1977 and the sound recordings and phonetic transcription and translation of Mr Unak Tafong from the Fata’an village of Ami recorded by Liu in 1958.
Through the decade-long journey Liu accumulated an immense amount of sound data, including 371 tape recordings (286 Yami tapes and 85 Amis tapes) and 18,000 pages of phonetic transcription and translation painstakingly completed by aboriginal research assistants. These precious data are now preserved at the Museum of the Institute of Ethnology. The digital archive will present the sound recording of each oral legend in correspondence to its phonetic transcription and Chinese translation, to facilitate and promote the study and preservation of the language, literature, folksong, and social-cultural content of Amis and Yamis.
The first year of this project completed digitizing the Amis oral legends. In the second year, data collected from the Yami tribe of Imorod village (紅頭) and Iratay village (漁人) were archived. The task of “Digital Archives of Amis and Yami Oral Legends (III)” is to digitize the data obtained from the tribes of Yayo village (椰油), Iraralay village (朗島), Iranmeilik village (東清) and Ivalinu village (野銀) of the Yami tribe. All data will be uploaded to the forthcoming website for the benefit of researchers and the native people. |
