Paper songs and frozen assets: Text and traditions

Abstract

This article considers song poetry as text in the context of a multiple definition of tradition, focusing on Polynesia. It examines preservation of tradition, whether as embellished or accurate history within song texts, or whether of songs themselves in the face of Christian and other Western influences, the apparent transformation of traditional war chants into the prematch displays of national rugby teams, and the capacity of song both to preserve ancient power structures and to agitate for social and political change. The influence of printing on formerly oral cultures is also examined, while the need to avoid the abstraction of text from other elements of musical,poetic, and dance performance is emphasized.