Overview
This study of an oral tradition in northeast India is the first of its kind in this part of the eastern Himalayas. A comparative analysis reveals parallel stories in an area stretching from central Arunachal Pradesh into upland Southeast Asia and southwest China. The subject of the volume, the Apatanis, are a small population of Tibeto-Burman speakers who live in a narrow valley halfway between Tibet and Assam. Their origin myths, migration legends, oral histories, trickster tales and ritual chants, as well as performance contexts and genre system, reveal key cultural ideas and social practices, shifts in tribal identity and the reinvention of religion.
Full Product Details
Author: Stuart Blackburn
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Volume: 16/2
Dimensions:
Width: 16.00cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 24.00cm
Weight: 0.688kg
ISBN: 9789004171336
ISBN 10: 9004171339
Pages: 298
Publication Date: 16 October 2008
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Awaiting stock
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Reviews
Not only does Blackburn collect tales, myths, oral histories, and ritual chants with great sensitivity to the social context of the performance, he also opens up meaningful new cross-border directions in Asian folklore studies. Blackburn's comparative work is sure to encourage further investigations into the complex patterns of migration, cultural diffusion, and economic exchange within the 'extended eastern Himalayas'...the scholarly understanding of the Apatani oral traditions has been firmly cemented through the publication of Himalayan Tribal Tales. Adheesh Sathaye, University of British Columbia, JAS, 69/2
Not only does Blackburn collect tales, myths, oral histories, and ritual chants with great sensitivity to the social context of the performance, he also opens up meaningful new cross-border directions in Asian folklore studies. Blackburn's comparative work is sure to encourage further investigations into the complex patterns of migration, cultural diffusion, and economic exchange within the 'extended eastern Himalayas'...the scholarly understanding of the Apatani oral traditions has been firmly cemented through the publication of Himalayan Tribal Tales. Adheesh Sathaye, University of British Columbia, JAS, 69/2
Author Information
Stuart Blackburn, Ph.D. (1980) in Folklore and South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He has published several books on oral tradition and culture in India, including (with Michael Aram Tarr) Through the Eye of Time: Photographs of Arunachal Pradesh, 1859-2006 (Brill, 2008).
