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Հիմնարար հայագիտություն=Fundamental Armenology
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USA ; Western Armenia ; Cilicia ; narrator ; oral-tradition ; epic folklore ; lyric folklore ; saying folklore
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Abstract:
The oral tradition of the Armenian-Americans, forming a consistent part of the centuries-old folklore of the Armenian people, has been developed according to the general folkloric principles, however, along with the generalities and the similarities, it has also involved extremely distinctive features, which are attributed to the historical-political, public and psychological circumstances of their mode of life in the multi-ethnic environment of the USA. Writing down during about 30 years the relics of the oral culture of the Armenian- Americans in the course of our periodical five trips to USA, in 1979, 1990, 2001, 2004, and 2008, an attempt has been made to elucidate the level of traditionalism of that original ethnographical group connected with the chronological and geographical displacements, historical-political conditions, sex-age features and psychological problems. The first time in the history of Armenian folklore the bequest of the oral tradition of the Armenian-Americans with its multifarious variants is represented in scientifically systematized form.