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pp. 335-343 | Article Number: ijese.2019.028
Published Online: August 08, 2019
Abstract
This study was conducted to assess the representation of females in Gurage proverbs. Its main objective was scrutinizing the contexts, in which proverbs represent women and their influences on Gurage women in the community. The proverbs were collected directly from the speakers of Gurage language, bulletins, magazines and books. The collected proverbs were thematically clustered and translated literally into English with a great attempt to keep its original meaning and beauty. Then, they were critically analyzed to observe how the community represents women. The finding showed that there are a large number of proverbs that represents women negatively. They are represented as physically weak, immature, feeble in teamwork, greedy, incapable in trading and in public works. But there are quite a few proverbs that portray the role of women positively such as motivator, supportive, committed and devoted as a mother and wife. Finally, the study recommended that the ways of representing women on the oral traditions in general and proverbs in particular need reconsiderations.
Keywords: proverbs, oral literature, discourse analysis, women, Gurage
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