Wounaan Oral Traditions, Loewen Collection, 1948 - 1958

Tradición Oral Wounaan, Colección de Loewen, 1948 - 1958

Object Details

Collection Language	Wounmeu
Language PID	ailla:119523
Title [Indigenous]	Maach jooinhí warrgarwe jöoinau jaaujerr, Wounaanau nem hĩgk’atarr jöoi Loewenau grabaawia p’ë hautarr, 1948 - 1958
Language of Indigenous Title	noa
Title	Wounaan Oral Traditions, Loewen Collection, 1948 - 1958
Country(ies)	Colombia
Collector(s)	Loewen, Jacob
Depositor(s)	Loewen, Gladys
Project/Collector Website
Description [Indigenous]
Language of Indigenous Description
Description	[As per material provided by Dorothy Joyce Pauls and Gladys Loewen] This collection of materials is based on recordings made by Jacob (Jake) Loewen in Colombia during 1947 to 1958. In December 1947 Loewen moved to Colombia with his wife, Anne, and baby daughter, Gladys (born in 1947). They lived in the Wounaan village of Noanamá, on the San Juan River, in the Chocó Department. Loewen’s assignment in Colombia was to reduce the Wounaan language to writing, and later to study the ten dialects of the Choco language family in Panama and Colombia for Bible translation purposes. They stayed in Colombia for five years until they left on furlough in January 1953. During those five years, daughter Dorothy Joyce (DJ) was born in 1950, and Sharon was born in 1951, both in Andagoya, at the hospital for miners in that town some 4 hours by launch on the San Juan River. During his two-year furlough Jacob Loewen completed his Master’s studies in linguistics at the University of Washington, Seattle. His 1954 Master's thesis on Wounaan meu linguistics is titled “Waunana Grammar: A Descriptive Analysis.” Son William (Bill) was born in 1954 in Chilliwack, BC, Canada. Jacob Loewen’s linguistics work in Colombia continued after his furlough from 1955-1957, and expanded to Panama within a few years. In this period the Loewens and family resided in Cali instead of Noanamá. As part of his assignment Loewen went to the Sambu area of Panama to study their dialect in April-May 1956. After returning from Colombia in 1957 Loewen was involved with the Choco Church program in Panama during the summers-- a 25 year project from 1959-1984 attempting a full generation of culture change within a Christian framework. The family did not accompany Loewen to Panama. Jacob Loewen died in 2006. More information about him and his work can be found with his deposited papers at Fresno Pacific University, see http://library.fresno.edu/files/m104.pdf. It is unclear when Jacob Loewen made these recordings during his residence in Colombia, although it is certain they are from that country (rather than Panama). Loewen gave these recordings to Ronald Binder a number of years ago. Binder mentioned them during planning for the Wounaan Oral Traditions Project in 2008, and project PI Julie Velásquez Runk contacted Anne Loewen, executor of her husband’s estate, for her consent to use the recordings for their linguistic analysis and use. She granted consent with a letter. Upon her death, their daughters Gladys Loewen and Dorothy Joyce Pauls, contacted Velásquez Runk, notified her of the death, and again conferred consent to analyze the recordings and archive them. Gladys Loewen is executor of her parents’ estate. Recordings were made with a reel-to-reel recorder. Ron Binder stated that “he was pretty sure the recordings were made with an old classic Wollensak 7” reel-to-reel tape recorder.” The Loewen estate has added four photos of Jacob Loewen making recordings, in which his recorder also was pictured. From 2010 – 2014 these recordings were part of the NSF Documenting Endangered Languages Grant Documenting Wounaan meu to the University of Georgia (BCS 0966520) and the University of Arizona (BCS 0966046) together with the approval of the Congreso Nacional del Pueblo Wounaan (CNPW, National Wounaan Congress) and the Fundación para el Desarrollo del Pueblo Wounaan (FUNDEPW, Foundation for the Development of Wounaan People). In this project, known as the Proyecto Tradición Oral Wounaan (Wounaan Oral Traditions Project), a portion of the recordings of Loewen together with those of Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Ronald Binder, and Julie Velásquez Runk were transcribed and translated by the project’s language experts, Toño Peña Conquista, Chindío Peña Ismare, Doris Cheucarama Membache, Tonny Membora Peña, and Chivio Membora Peña. Wounaan meu (noa); language of the Wounaan people. Wounaan meu is an SOV language that is part of the Chocó language family spoken in Panama and Colombia, differing significantly from the other (Emberá) languages of that language family.
References	Loewen, Jacob A. 1960. A Chocó miraculous escape tale. America Indígena 20: 207-215. Loewen, Jacob A. 1954. Waunana grammar: A descriptive analysis. University of Washington, M.A. thesis.